Sr. Quality Assurance Test Engineer

DroneUp is seeking a Quality Assurance Lead for one of its (drone) flight management platforms. As part of the platform’s leadership team, the Quality Assurance Lead works collaboratively within a matrixed product development team structure, who are overall responsible for the planning and execution of strategic objectives.

The platform in question is a collection of software components executing in diverse, layered runtimes (docker containers, cloud backends or ARM64 embedded on the very drone) with its UI/frontend aspect being a mere tip of the iceberg. These components will be vulnerable to a deluge of risks, changing service levels and plain failures spanning between unreliable networks, memory and CPU pressures or poor sensor accuracy. Plain functional bugs will - again - be just a tip of the iceberg. These components will be subject to safety-critical certification and tested to the legally required standards. We will be solving all of these problems together, but we need a QA Lead to be comfortable and sufficiently experienced to appreciate the complex scope of QA in this diverse landscape. We need the QA Lead to help us realize our ambition for a fast paced Continuous Deployment release pipeline that produces a quantifiably correct product.

The Quality Assurance Lead will work closely with the development and product team to plan, execute, and report on all testing activities. They will also be responsible for identifying and implementing process improvements to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the testing process with a focus on delivering high-quality software products and a commitment to continuous improvement.

The Quality Assurance Lead will work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and must be able to adapt to changing priorities and requirements. They will also be required to be able to manage and lead a small team of testers, and be able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Write and maintain QA Strategy and Plan documents
• Assign responsibilities, quantify risks, and design the lifecycle of a change moving from the design boards all the way to production
• Subject our product to all fathomable stress conditions in order to measure its functional correctness and performance in the entire spectrum of its operational domain
• Shape the Software Development Process in the interest of improving the product’s quality
• Continuously measure and publish the quality of the product
• Specify, validate, and adapt Modeling and Simulation for testing use
• Assess operational and system performance requirements for testability and criticality to frame and prioritize testing and quality assurance objectives and enable evaluation planning
• Lead a team of testers and implement the processes, activities, and framework stemming from the Test Strategy and Test Plan documents
• Collaborate with the development team to understand platform requirements and ensure that they are being met
• Understand and adhere to industry standards and best practices for software testing

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or related field
• Experience in developing and maintaining a safety-critical software system
• Diverse test engineering experience with a variety of electronic or mechanical systems
• Professional experience with git, docker, and kubernetes
• Experience in a trunk-based development environment
• Experience using feature flags to drive decoupling of deployment and releases and integration into automated QA
• Expert knowledge of test methodologies, tools and taxonomies
• Flight Performance and Handling Qualities (FPHQ) experience is a plus
• Experience with embedded or (better still) aircraft systems, including ASE, IFF, radios, systems engineering a plus
• Experience with robotics and autonomy a plus
• Familiarity with FAA regulations and/or FAA Part 107 Certification a plus
• Proven people management experience
• Experience with requirements traceability software, such as Jama
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to create test plans and cases from specifications or verbal communications
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to serve as a liaison with developers, project managers, and pilots
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

Benefits

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Basic & Voluntary Life Insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Employee Assistance Pr