Automation Engineer

Fellow•San Francisco, CA

31d•$165,000 - $185,000•Onsite

About The Position

Fellow is seeking a systems-minded automation engineer to create the firmware and hardware automation infrastructure that enables the company to scale product quality across a growing device portfolio. This role involves developing robust automated test suites, CI/CD workflows, and validation tooling to support new product bring-up, regression testing, and release readiness from prototype through production. The engineer will partner closely with firmware, electrical, and product engineering teams to establish reliable, maintainable automation systems that improve development velocity, reduce manual testing effort, and ensure high-quality customer experiences across Fellow’s connected products.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in automation engineering, test engineering, or systems validation (consumer electronics or IoT preferred)
Strong proficiency in Python or other scripting languages for firmware test automation and tooling
Hands-on experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, or equivalent)
Experience building end-to-end automated firmware test suites for new products
Experience with connected hardware products: Bluetooth, WiFi, or other IoT technologies
Experience validating embedded systems and firmware
Strong understanding of debugging hardware + firmware interactions
Ability to operate independently, manage multiple product streams simultaneously, and deliver to roadmap milestones

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
Experience with HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) and SIL (software-in-the-loop) test frameworks
Familiarity with RobotFramework, pytest, or similar test frameworks
Experience with Docker, Ansible, or environment automation for firmware test infrastructure
Experience with AWS IoT, REST APIs, or firmware-to-cloud integration patterns (coordination with System Test Engineer)
Experience transitioning products from EVT/DVT/PVT to mass production
Background in mentored or high-code-review environments with strong documentation practices

Responsibilities

Build firmware and hardware automation suites from the ground up for Fellow’s new products.
Design test cases and firmware validation plans for each product, following the framework and standards.
Develop scripts and tools (Python or similar) to automate firmware validation, data collection, regression testing, and product qualification for new products.
Build test infrastructure to support new product firmware builds and production readiness, translating prototype-stage automation into production-ready suites.
Implement CI/CD pipelines for firmware and hardware systems.
Build and maintain GitHub Actions or equivalent pipelines that enforce automated firmware test gates on every pull request and release build.
Automate provisioning and deployment of test devices and environments to support reliable, repeatable pipeline execution.
Monitor and maintain pipeline health: resolve test flakiness, improve reliability, and reduce manual intervention in firmware validation workflows.
Contribute reusable test utilities, helpers, and libraries to the shared automation framework under Senior AE direction.
Follow and uphold team coding standards and documentation practices, ensuring all automation is maintainable by the full team.
Participate in code review, both receiving feedback and reviewing peer contributions.
Document test coverage, known gaps, and implementation decisions to maintain institutional knowledge and support integration touchpoints.
Collaborate with firmware and electrical engineers to validate embedded systems and connected hardware features for new products.
Build automation tooling to support firmware bring-up, calibration, and regression testing for new devices entering the pipeline.
Design experiments and data collection workflows to capture performance and reliability data from new hardware.
Support hardware technicians with test unit modifications and automation infrastructure for production testing environments.
Coordinate on integration layer contracts: defining the firmware events and data structures that flow into the mobile app and cloud backend.
Partner closely on architectural decisions, code review, and framework alignment.
Coordinate end-to-end integration test coverage: ensure new product firmware events and behaviors are testable from the app and backend layers.
Work with Product, Firmware, and Electrical teams to validate new product features and ensure automation is aligned to product requirements.
Participate in tradeoff discussions between feature complexity, reliability, cost, and testability, with a focus on new product firmware quality.
Produce clear test reports and defect documentation, contributing to the team’s stakeholder visibility and release readiness process.