Robotics Software Test Engineer

Chef Robotics•San Francisco, CA

16h•$140,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

Chef Robotics is building autonomous robots that work alongside humans in commercial food preparation environments. As a Robotics Software Test Engineer, you will own the quality bar for the entire robot software stack, including perception, autonomy, platform, and their integrations. This is a builder role where you will design and implement test infrastructure, CI/CD gates, and hardware-in-the-loop validation systems. You will work directly with perception and robotics engineers, embedding yourself in the team to ensure your test frameworks are first-class engineering artifacts. The team is small, high-ownership, works onsite five days a week, and moves with startup urgency.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in software test engineering, reliability engineering, or a closely related role
Strong Python skills
Hands-on experience designing and building test infrastructure — not just writing tests, but building the systems that run them
Experience with CI/CD systems and integrating automated testing into release pipelines
Strong debugging instincts — able to trace failures across software layers, hardware interfaces, and timing boundaries
Solid understanding of testing methodologies across unit, integration, system, and hardware-in-the-loop layers
Comfort working in Linux-based development and production environments
Self-starter who can prioritize independently in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment

Nice To Haves

Experience testing robotics software stacks (ROS, perception pipelines, control systems)
Familiarity with simulation environments (Gazebo, Isaac Sim) for test scenario generation
Experience with Docker or containerized test environments
Background in data logging, observability pipelines, or fleet monitoring systems
Knowledge of networking protocols relevant to robotics (TCP/UDP, PTP, gRPC)
Experience with hardware bring-up, sensor calibration, or embedded systems testing
Prior work in fast-paced robotics or hardware startups

Responsibilities

Design and implement automated test plans, test cases, and fixtures across the full robot software stack — from unit tests to system-level integration tests
Build and own hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test infrastructure that validates perception, robotics, and platform software against real or simulated hardware
Strengthen and extend CI/CD pipelines to catch regressions early and gate releases with high confidence
Define quality metrics and release readiness criteria; track test coverage, failure trends, and fleet health to give the team clear signal
Investigate and root-cause production failures across software, hardware, and system boundaries; build regression tests to prevent recurrence
Develop simulation-based test environments to validate perception and robotics changes before deploying to physical robots
Participate in design and code reviews with a lens on testability, observability, and failure modes
Instrument the robot software stack for better debuggability and post-hoc failure analysis