Jobs and Careers

Senior Software QA Engineer, Avionics Platform

San Diego, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 12 Aug 2026

💰 $185,000/yr($140,000/yr – $185,000/yr)

About the role

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we’re on a mission to revolutionize how defense solutions are designed and delivered. Our goal is to empower U.S. ally nations to effectively deter aggressors—regardless of their defense budget—through innovative, cost-efficient technologies. We call this vision “democratized deterrence.” As a VC-backed company at the intersection of defense and Silicon Valley, we’re pioneering the development of mission-adaptable aerial vehicles that put power back into the hands of operators. By prioritizing operator effectiveness, we’re pioneering a new era of aerial vehicle design. We aim to upend the traditional defense procurement model by delivering world-class capabilities at a fraction of the usual cost. Join us at Firestorm as we redefine defense procurement, making cutting-edge technology accessible to all at a fraction of the cost.

About the Role

Firestorm’s Avionics Platform team builds the software platform that flies our vehicles: flight computers and peripheral controllers running embedded Linux and RTOS stacks; middleware and Linux services; low-level drivers and HALs; and the critical interfaces that connect autonomy, payloads, and comms.

We’re hiring a Senior Software QA Engineer to be the first deep-testing line for this avionics stack—validating embedded firmware, board support packages, device drivers, and safety-critical data paths long before Flight Test. You’ll blend expert exploratory/system testing with targeted automation across HIL/SIL rigs, exercising real buses (CAN/CAN-FD, UART, SPI, I²C, Ethernet) and stressing links (MAVLink, Tactical Data Links, etc.) under real-world fault conditions. You’ll partner closely with avionics, autonomy, radio, and payload engineers to harden reliability where it matters most: on the aircraft.

This is a full-time, onsite role at our San Diego HQ. Expect meaningful hands-on time with benches, flight computers, power systems, radios, and sensors to validate end-to-end flight workflows.

What You’ll Do

Own system test for avionics (embedded Linux + RTOS targets), providing fast, actionable feedback on functional defects, timing issues, and regressions that impact flight safety and operator trust.
Plan and execute risk-based strategies: feature/bring-up test plans, exploratory charters, protocol-level regression suites, acceptance criteria, and release sign-off gates ahead of Flight Test.
Build and maintain automation for HIL/SIL:
SIL: host-based unit/integration tests for drivers and middleware (e.g., gtest/pytest), simulation of sensors/buses, fault-injection hooks.
HIL: Python-driven benches to exercise serial/CAN/Ethernet I/O, sensor emulators, and power-cycle/bootloader/OTA flows; automate log capture and golden-trace diffs.
Stand up reproducible rigs: power supplies/electronic loads, CAN analyzers, logic analyzers, GNSS/sensor simulators, programmable RF links; script scenario playback and telemetry injection.
Validate robustness under degraded conditions: jitter, clock drift, packet loss/duplication, bus contention, brownouts, hot-plug, and watchdog resets; verify safe behavior and recovery paths.
Instrument and diagnose: collect structured logs/metrics; create packet and log scrapers; use Wireshark, logic-analyzer traces, and serial/TCP/UDP sniffers to isolate timing and state issues quickly.
Own defect triage: minimize and reproduce; file high-signal reports with traces, steps, suspected root cause; track to closure with responsible engineers.
Shift-left quality with the team: review code/IDLs from a testability lens, encourage dependency hygiene, feature flags, determinism controls, and golden datasets.
Integrate into CI/CD (GitLab/Jenkins): hardware runners for on-bench smoke, protocol/regression gates, and per-target artifact validation (e.g., .bin/.hex, DFU, OTA).
Contribute to safety, security, and reliability hardening aligned to MIL-STD/DO guidance (negative testing, fuzzing on parsers, permission audits, fail-safe defaults, persistent-state hygiene).
Produce crisp test docs (plans, procedures, bench/bring-up checklists) and mentor engineers on embedded QA techniques and automation patterns.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
5+ years professional QA/SDET experience, including automation for embedded/real-time or safety-critical systems.
Hands-on testing for embedded Linux and/or RTOS (e.g., NuttX, FreeRTOS, PX4) and d