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Salary: USD 150,000 - 165,000 / annual
Somewear Labs builds satellite-powered hardware and software platforms that enable commercial and government teams to maintain situational awareness in high-pressure operations. The company serves helicopter paramedics, backcountry explorers, firefighters, and US Department of Defense operators. You will be the first dedicated QA engineer on the hardware side, owning quality for the firmware that runs on Somewear's satellite hardware.
Currently, the firmware and hardware teams lack dedicated QA support, forcing embedded engineers to spend weeks on manual regression cycles instead of building new features. You will change this by standing up hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test rigs, automating regression suites, and becoming the person the firmware team relies on to determine whether a build is ready to ship.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role with unusually broad ownership. You will define how firmware quality works at Somewear rather than inherit an existing process.
Key responsibilities:
- Own firmware QA end to end, covering both manual regression and automation
- Design, build, and maintain hardware-in-the-loop test rigs that exercise real devices against real firmware
- Replace manual regression cycles with automated test suites, freeing embedded engineers for development
- Write scripts, primarily in Python, that drive test execution and capture logs from multiple sources
- Correlate logs across debug probes and device interfaces (SEGGER J-Link, ADB) to isolate root causes spanning firmware, radio, and app layers
- Partner directly with firmware and electrical engineering teams on testability, instrumentation, and release criteria
- Define and own the release validation gate for firmware builds
- Expand coverage over time into the Unmanned (Horizon) product line
- Build tooling and process that allow firmware QA to scale beyond one person
The role is based in the San Francisco office where test rigs are located and you will sit alongside firmware engineers. Chicago is a secondary option for an exceptional candidate.
Growth opportunities include leading the QA organization, moving deeper into test infrastructure and tooling, or working directly with customers on technically demanding deployments.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 5+ years in QA or test engineering with substantial time testing embedded firmware on physical hardware
- Direct hardware-in-the-loop experience (described as the single most important qualification)
- Proficiency scripting test automation and log analysis, ideally in Python
- Fluency on the command line and with embedded debug tooling (JTAG, SWD probes, ADB)
- Track record of building automated test coverage from scratch, not only executing existing test plans
- Demonstrated ownership of a test strategy end to end, defined by you rather than handed to you
- Ability to reason independently about risk, coverage, and when a build is good enough to ship, and to hold that position under shipping pressure
- Clear written communication with engineers, product, and leadership
- Comfort working with AI coding assistants as part of daily workflow
NICE TO HAVE:
- HIL experience on unmanned systems (iron birds, flight simulation, vehicle-in-the-loop)
- Background at a drone, robotics, or autonomous vehicle company
- Experience with satellite communications, LoRa, mesh networking, or low-power IoT devices
- Experience with mission-critical or regulated software and hardware development
- Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and hardware test stage integration
- Background in defense or emergency response
- Experience working with government customers
- Knowledge of ATAK or similar tactical systems
