Robotics Software Test Engineer

Chef Robotics

Job Location:

San Francisco, CA - USA

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed

Posted on: 19 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Chef Robotics is on a mission to accelerate the advent of intelligent machines in the physical world starting with food. We build AI-powered robots that assemble fresh meals at scale for some of the largest food producers in North America companies making ready-to-eat meals for airlines retailers meal kits and the frozen food aisle.

Our robots operate in high-mix high-variability production environments where ingredients change shape color and consistency from one tray to the next. Solving this requires tightly coupled perception manipulation and learning and a team that ships hardware-software systems into customer facilities and keeps them running.

Headquartered in San Francisco we are a venture-backed team of robotics ML and operations engineers building the foundation for general-purpose food robotics.

About the Role

Chef Robotics is building autonomous robots that work alongside humans in commercial food preparation environments and a software regression in production isnt just a bug its a missed meal a stopped line or a customer incident. As a Robotics Software Test Engineer you own the quality bar for our entire robot software stack: perception autonomy platform and the integrations between them.

This is a builder role not a manual QA role. Youll design and implement the test infrastructure CI/CD gates and hardware-in-the-loop validation systems that let a small team ship fast without breaking things in the field. Youll work directly with perception and robotics engineers embedded in the team not downstream of it and your test frameworks will be first-class engineering artifacts.

We are a small high-ownership team. We work onsite five days a week and move with startup urgency.

In this role you will:

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

What You Bring:

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-have:

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

$140000 - $180000 a year

Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role level and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range individual pay is determined by additional factors including job-related skills experience and relevant education or training.

In addition to salary and early-stage equity we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical dental and vision insurance commuter benefits flexible paid time off (PTO) catered lunch and 401(k) matching.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.

Required Experience: