Software Test Engineer - Spatial AI Start-up
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 13, 2026. First seen by Alion on Jul 31, 2026.
Oxford (Hybrid - 3 days in the office, 2 days WFH)
£40,000-£50,000 + Share Options
Are you ready to revolutionize how the world measures, monitors, and understands physical spaces?
NavLive, a rapidly growing University of Oxford spin-out, is searching for a talented Technical Support and Test Engineer to join our innovative team! Powered by award-winning spatial AI and algorithms, we are pioneering real-time solutions for the construction and geospatial industries. In this vital role, you will be the crucial bridge between our development team and our users, ensuring seamless, robust software releases and providing top-tier technical support for systems that leverage multi-sensor fusion and high-precision positioning to instantly build 3D models of environments. If you thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment and want to ensure our cutting-edge technology flawlessly delivers actionable, real-time insights to site decision-makers, we would love to have you build the future with us!
As our Technical Support & Test Engineer, you will be the primary technical contact for troubleshooting our device platform and own the full release cycle-testing, validating, and deploying our system stack, from cloud portals to edge-based ROS and Docker environments on NVIDIA Jetson hardware. We are looking for someone passionate about diagnosing complex hardware-software interactions and maintaining seamless software delivery.
Tasks
Your role as a Software Test Engineer will involve:
- QA, Testing & Validation: Design, develop, and execute comprehensive test plans across multiple domains; perform robust regression and E2E integration testing; and validate cloud portal features and secure API communication.
- Release Management & Deployment: Own the release pipeline; manage version control and release notes; liaise with the technical team for timely delivery; and ensure smooth OTA updates to field devices.
- Technical Support: Act as the primary technical support contact for customers deploying our systems; Triage, diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve complex issues; write and maintain clear documentation; and translate customer feedback into actionable tickets.
Requirements
Key requirements for this role:
Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent degree, practical experience (2+ years).
Operating Systems: Deep comfort working in Linux/Ubuntu environments via the command line.
Scripting: Proficiency in Bash and Python to automate release builds, testing, and log analysis.
Robotics Frameworks: Familiarity with ROS / ROS 2 (debugging nodes, analyzing rosbag files, topics, and services).
Containerization: Strong proficiency with Docker (building images, managing multi-container deployments, docker-compose).
Package Management: Familiarity with building, hosting, and maintaining Debian/apt repositories.
CI/CD & Version Control: Hands-on experience with GitHub and CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.).
Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical users.
Customer Interaction: At ease with liaising with customers and eliciting the information you need to support them in a friendly and professional manner.
The following are desirable skills and traits:
Familiarity with SLAM algorithms, including hands-on experience testing and benchmarking them.
Experience with cloud platforms (specifically AWS) and web portals (React/Node.js stacks).
Hands-on experience with edge hardware like NVIDIA Jetson Developer Kits (Nano, Xavier, Orin) and a solid understanding of flashing and resource monitoring.
Experience implementing or working with OTA deployment tools tailored for Jetson/edge devices.
Flexible and at ease in a start-up environment with emerging processes and a fast-paced, agile and responsive approach
Benefits
For the successful candidate, we can offer:
- Competitive salary offering
- 25 days of paid annual leave plus bank holidays
- Salary pension exchange scheme
- A dynamic fast-moving work environment based in central Oxford
- On-the-job training in cutting-edge robotics and AI
- Annual performance and salary review
- Employee share options
Flexibility
This role involves on-site and in-person time, but we structure our working week to enable hybrid work arrangements (working from home 1-2 days per week). We more highly value excellent work than always on-site working.
Our working week is centred around a set of core working hours but we offer extra flexibility for candidates with specific personal constraints.
Diversity and Inclusion
Our company thrives on diverse inputs from people of different backgrounds, skillsets and points of view. We embrace individuality and aim to offer the flexibility demanded by the modern digital workforce.