Software Developer Engineer in Test/QA Automation Engineer (Boulder, CO)

PickNik Inc.•Boulder, CO

2d•$90,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

PickNik Robotics is redefining the robotics industry with MoveIt Pro, a first-of-its-kind platform that combines AI and motion planning to make robots work in the real world. Physical AI is reshaping the field: as foundation models and vision-language-action (VLA) policies move from the lab into production, MoveIt Pro combines these learned approaches with robust, safety-aware planning and control so robots can reliably perform real tasks. Built on over a decade of experience with companies like GM, Philips, Samsung, BMW, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and leading startups, MoveIt Pro brings proven capabilities into production. Join us in helping companies deploy AI to robots quickly and effectively, unlocking new possibilities. This is a challenging, high-impact role with the opportunity to do some of the most rewarding work of your career. As a Software Developer Engineer in Test (SDET) at PickNik Robotics, you will help raise the quality bar for MoveIt Pro across the full stack — from C++/ROS 2 Behavior Tree nodes, through the Python REST API, to the React frontend. You'll write automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, build the test infrastructure and CI quality gates that make it low-friction for every engineer to test their work, and run the exploratory, smoke, and on-hardware testing that keeps production-ready software shipping reliably. This role is designed to grow with you, and we're hiring across a range of experience levels. Earlier-career engineers will start by expanding test coverage, reducing flaky tests, and supporting structured QA and dogfooding while learning our stack and robotics hardware. With more experience, you will own the end-to-end QA process — test infrastructure, performance tooling, CI/CD test stages, and on-hardware deployment and testing — and drive quality strategy across the engineering team. You'll also work as a software engineer on the team, contributing bug fixes and features alongside your testing work. You’ll partner closely with other engineers to improve testability and turn manual findings into automated regression tests. This role combines solid software engineering skills, a tester's adversarial curiosity, and a commitment to shipping reliable software.

Requirements

Bachelor's in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field
Experience with Docker and understanding of CI/CD concepts
Familiarity with at least one testing framework
Foundational software and robotics skills
Basic C++ experience and familiarity with Python
Top-notch communication skills and time management
Ability to think critically, ask good questions, and move confidently when troubleshooting
Able to travel approximately every other month to customer sites & conferences (<20%)
Live in the Boulder/Denver area with the ability to be in-office, especially for hands-on, on-hardware testing

Nice To Haves

Owning or significantly improving unit, integration, and end-to-end test infrastructure
Extensive CI/CD experience, including owning test stages and quality gates
Building mock services and test fixtures (e.g., simulated ROS 2 nodes, API stubs)
ROS / ROS 2 testing experience
Building performance testing tooling (API and execution latency, frontend load) and establishing baselines
Leading or coordinating QA efforts across a team
On-hardware testing and deployment of a combined software and hardware product
Familiarity with Test-Driven Development
React or other frontend testing experience
Experience improving documentation and internal processes

Responsibilities

Write automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
Build test infrastructure and CI quality gates.
Run exploratory, smoke, and on-hardware testing.
Contribute bug fixes and features.
Partner closely with other engineers to improve testability and turn manual findings into automated regression tests.