Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Engineer

About this role: Pickle Robot is seeking a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Engineer to ensure the reliability, safety, and performance of our robotics software systems. You’ll work hand-in-hand with developers, hardware teams, and deployment engineers to design, execute, and automate test strategies for real-world robotic platforms operating in logistics warehouses across the U.S. You’ll own the end-to-end testing lifecycle—from validating features in development to verifying robot behavior in staging environments to supporting test procedures in the field. Your work will directly improve the stability and scalability of Pickle’s growing fleet of robotic truck unloaders. This is a great role for someone who is highly collaborative, enjoys hands-on testing, and thrives in fast-paced, hardware/software-integrated environments.

What You’ll Accomplish:

• Work closely with software, firmware, and systems engineers during design and development phases to build meaningful test coverage early.
• Pair with developers to write test cases and validate new functionality before deployment.
• Develop and execute manual test plans for end-to-end robotic workflows, including perception, planning, and controls layers.
• Perform regression, exploratory, and integration testing in simulated and physical environments.
• Identify and automate high-value test cases using appropriate frameworks and scripting tools.
• Expand CI pipelines to include automated regression tests across hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), simulation, and virtualized environments.
• Track and report bugs with detailed reproduction steps, logs, and telemetry data.
• Work with engineers to root-cause issues and verify fixes.
• Support validation of system behavior in test labs and customer deployments.
• Build tooling to track quality metrics, system performance, and test coverage over time.
• Contribute to test documentation, QA processes, and best practices as the team scales.

Who You Are:

• 2–5 years of experience in software QA, test engineering, or robotics QA roles.
• Experience testing complex systems involving hardware, embedded software, or real-time systems preferred.
• Proficient in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash) for test automation and data validation.
• Familiarity with tools such as Git, Docker, Jenkins/GitHub Actions, and hardware-in-the-loop testing setups.
• Comfortable reading and debugging logs, understanding control software behavior, and using CLI tools.
• Detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Able to work cross-functionally with developers, product, and deployment teams.
• Proactive communicator who documents findings clearly and thoroughly.
• Excited to work in a fast-paced startup where QA processes are still evolving.
• Robotics system testing experience preferred: familiarity with ROS/ROS2, sensor validation, or motion testing.
• Experience designing and running tests on embedded Linux systems or real-time applications preferred.