Staff Software Engineer in Test
Bostondynamics Open At a glance
Senior Engineering Leadership role at Bostondynamics. Waltham · full-time · $102,000–$120,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and plan tests that push Atlas software to reveal weaknesses in resilience, safety and fault handling
- Automate application scenarios with physical robot hardware included in the test loop
- Write execution findings that show whether milestones are ready and how stable the system is
- Find gaps in test coverage and SQA workflows, then improve execution speed and reliability
What you bring
- You have six to eight years in software QA, test automation or development, including shipped and supported releases
- You have tested complex electromechanical products manually and with automation, using physical hardware in the loop
- You can build automated tests with Python, C# or a comparable programming language
- You have set up reliability testing and monitoring for robotic software, and analyzed the results
- You bring rigorous functional, integration and regression testing, defect tracking, and CI test integration experience
Who this fits
This hands-on senior role suits someone who can quickly learn across software and robotics domains and switch context as needed. You must be eligible to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is unavailable. The stated base salary range is $102,000 to $120,000 per year.
From the employer
Boston Dynamics seeks a highly technical Staff Software Engineer in Test, to test the Atlas Humanoid Robot. In this critical, hands-on role, you will be responsible for ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of Atlas’s software systems, focusing heavily on metrics based system testing for reliability and performance.
A key quality to be successful in this role is the exceptional ability to context-switch and rapidly acquire technical understanding across diverse domains: from web interfaces and network protocols to robot behavior and ML model validation. If you thrive on learning fast, solving cross-functional problems, and seeing your code directly impact a groundbreaking robot, this role is for you.
Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.
What You’ll Do:
- Reliability Test & Automation Design: Design, develop, and plan execution to stress-test application resilience, safety, and fault tolerance.
- Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing: Use physical hardware in the loop to automate testing for various application scenarios.
- Release Contribution & Reporting: Author comprehensive execution reports to validate milestone readiness and clearly communicate system stability.
- Process Improvement: Identify bottlenecks and gaps in the SQA process and testing coverage, driving continuous improvement in execution efficiency and reliability.
Required Experience:
- 6-8 years of experience in Software QA Engineering, Test Automation, or Software Development, with a history of shipping and supporting product releases.
- Proven experience in manual and automated testing of complex electromechanical systems (e.g., robotics, autonomous vehicles) including with physical hardware-in-the-loop (HIL).
- Strong proficiency in test automation with a solid base in Python, C#, or a similar language.
- Demonstrated experience with setting up software reliability testing, monitoring and analysis for robotic systems.
- Expertise in designing comprehensive test plans and executing functional, integration, and regression testing with strong manual rigor.
- Expertise in Defect Lifecycle Management using defect tracking systems (e.g., Jira) for precise defect reporting, verification, and analysis.
- Solid understanding of CI/CD practices and experience integrating and monitoring automated tests within continuous integration tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
Nice to Have Experience:
- Experience testing real-time control systems or low-latency teleoperation hardware/software.
- Familiarity with UI/UX and backend validation for complex workflow sequencing or orchestration applications.
- Operational familiarity with a Linux development environment (e.g., advanced bash/shell scripting).
- Experience with Root Cause Analysis on complex, cross-functional system failures.
We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.
The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $102,000 - $120,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.
Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process.
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