Robotics Release Engineer, System Validation

FieldAI•Irvine, CA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

FieldAI is hiring a Robotics Release Engineer for its Irvine team, which builds and validates field-ready embodied AI systems using real robots and sensors. The role plans and executes release validation across robot platforms, compute, firmware, and configurations. It includes running autonomous missions in a test facility, verifying release candidates, documenting defects and validation results, and preparing handovers for customer-site deployments. The engineer also maintains a versioned release test-case library, collaborates with automation and infrastructure engineers to turn manual scenarios into automated tests, and improves release processes through checklists, templates, and retrospectives. The position is based in Irvine, California, and involves hands-on work with physical robots, including extended periods walking and working on one’s feet. The role requires safety awareness around moving machinery and strong ownership of release schedules and go/no-go evidence. Compensation is $135,000–$170,000 per year, with final base pay depending on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine market.

Requirements

At least 3 years of experience in QA, system test, integration test, or release validation for robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, industrial automation, or another hardware-software product.
Experience planning and running structured test campaigns, including writing test plans, executing against acceptance criteria, tracking coverage, and reporting status to stakeholders.
Hands-on comfort with physical systems and willingness to walk a robot through a building for hours and work on one’s feet.
Safety-consciousness around moving machinery.
Strong written communication, including writing actionable bug reports and status updates.
Fluency with Jira or a similar tracker and a disciplined bug lifecycle covering triage, severity, reproduction, verification, and closure.
Comfort using Linux, a terminal, and SSH to install builds, retrieve logs, check processes, and run command-line tools.
Working familiarity with Git, including checking out a branch or tag, reading a pull request, and finding changes between builds.
Judgment to distinguish blockers from minor issues and confidence to state when a build is not ready.
Reliability and ownership in supporting releases that run on a fixed calendar.

Nice To Haves

Experience as a release manager, release coordinator, or QA lead responsible for a go/no-go call.
Robotics or autonomy domain knowledge, such as ROS, SLAM and localization, navigation, mission planning, LiDAR, or cameras.
Experience validating software across a fleet with multiple robot platforms, firmware versions, configurations, or deployment paths.
Scripting or test-automation experience, such as using Python or Bash to automate test steps, parse logs, or collect data.
Experience with simulation-based testing or hardware-in-the-loop setups.
Experience with test management tools such as Xray, TestRail, or Zephyr.
Experience working alongside field or deployment engineers and customers.
Background in a safety-critical or regulated domain.

Responsibilities

Plan and execute release validation for each release, including new-feature validation, end-to-end operational scenarios, and regression across robot platforms, compute, firmware, and configurations.
Run end-to-end autonomous missions on mobile robots in the test facility, including setup, navigation, data capture, and recovery.
Verify each release candidate by installing the build, running the regression set, confirming hotfixes, and reporting status to the release team.
Write reproducible Jira bug reports with relevant datasets, logs, robot, build, and steps attached.
Own pass/fail evidence for go/no-go decisions, including pass and fail counts, deferred bugs, and known-issue lists.
Prepare release handovers for engineers deploying at customer sites, documenting what was validated, what was not, and what to watch.
Confirm late fixes on the next release candidate before they ship.
Build and maintain a curated, versioned release test-case library.
Partner with test automation and infrastructure engineers to convert manual scenarios into automated simulation and robot tests.
Improve the release process through checklists, templates, and retrospectives.