{"id":1500053,"url":"https://alion.io/job/hark-software-test-engineer-hil","title":"Software Test Engineer, HIL","company":{"id":764,"name":"Hark","domain":"hark.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/hark","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":38,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":113,"computed_at":"2026-09-30T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"QA","role_family":"QA","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":350000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":350000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Wi-Fi","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-29T21:49:24Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-29","last_verified_at":"2026-09-30T21:32:42Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":1},"description":"About Hark\nHark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence. One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.\nWe're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines. While today's AI largely operates through chat boxes and decade-old devices, Hark is focused on what comes next: agentic systems that interact naturally with people and the real world.\nTo get there, we're developing multimodal models and next-generation AI hardware together - designed from the ground up as a single, unified interface for a new era of intelligent systems.\nAbout the Role\nHark’s Device Software team is building the test infrastructure that proves our software works on real hardware, and we are looking for a Software Test Engineer to build it with us from the ground up. You will design and build hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test benches and the software infrastructure to control them, create test cases that run on them, and turn test results into clear, actionable findings.\nOur automated test suite shall comprehensively cover nearly all aspects of device functionality and performance, ensuring seamless integration across audio, ML, connectivity, and backend services.\nThis is not a hardware validation role: the hardware team proves the hardware, and your job is to prove the software running on it. It is also not app-only or storage test automation. The work happens on physical devices with radios, audio, cameras, sensors, and actuators.\nResponsibilities\nBuild physical test systems and HIL benches for software verification, starting from zero\nDevelop the test infrastructure and libraries, mostly in Python, that let any engineer run develop and run automated tests on hardware devices\nDesign test strategies from product requirements and build the test cases that produce the quality signals necessary for rapid deployment\nAutomate end-to-end tests that verify radios and sensors such as Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, Bluetooth, GPS/GNSS, audio, camera and video input and output\nInterpret test results, root-cause and document failures, and fix issues in the product when it makes sense\nIntegrate test runners with CI/CD so builds are tested automatically on real devices\nPartner with device software, backend, audio, radio, and ML teams so their work can be tested on shared benches\nRequirements\n5+ years of experience testing software on hardware devices\nHands-on experience building HIL test benches for automated software testing on devices\nProficiency in Python for building test cases and test infrastructure with CI/CD\nExperience designing test strategies and test cases from product requirements\nTesting experience with several of the following: Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, Bluetooth, GPS/GNSS\nExperience testing devices with multimedia inputs and outputs, such as audio and cameras\nAbility to root-cause failures across hardware, firmware, and software, and communicate findings clearly\nBonus Qualifications\nExperience with robotics, motion control and signal simulation for test automation\nExperience integrating test infrastructure into CI/CD pipelines\nPrior experience with speech and audio testing, such as wake word, microphone array and replay testing\nExperience with agentic test engineering and agent-native test architecture\nWorking knowledge of C, C++, or Java\nA background in electrical engineering\nExperience testing consumer electronics such as smart speakers, phones, wearables, or earbuds, or automotive, EV, or robotics products\nCompensation\nThe US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $350,000 annually.\nThe pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4036,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-30T03:40:46Z"}],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":113,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-09-30T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":350000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/hark-software-test-engineer-hil","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/hark-software-test-engineer-hil.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-01T04:18:20Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3617,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1383,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z"}}}