Software Test Engineer, HIL

Location: San Jose

Department: Embedded Software

About Hark

Hark 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.

We'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.

To 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.

About the Role

Hark’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.

Our automated test suite shall comprehensively cover nearly all aspects of device functionality and performance, ensuring seamless integration across audio, ML, connectivity, and backend services.

This 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.

Responsibilities

• Build physical test systems and HIL benches for software verification, starting from zero
• Develop the test infrastructure and libraries, mostly in Python, that let any engineer run develop and run automated tests on hardware devices
• Design test strategies from product requirements and build the test cases that produce the quality signals necessary for rapid deployment
• Automate 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
• Interpret test results, root-cause and document failures, and fix issues in the product when it makes sense
• Integrate test runners with CI/CD so builds are tested automatically on real devices
• Partner with device software, backend, audio, radio, and ML teams so their work can be tested on shared benches

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience testing software on hardware devices
• Hands-on experience building HIL test benches for automated software testing on devices
• Proficiency in Python for building test cases and test infrastructure with CI/CD
• Experience designing test strategies and test cases from product requirements
• Testing experience with several of the following: Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, Bluetooth, GPS/GNSS
• Experience testing devices with multimedia inputs and outputs, such as audio and cameras
• Ability to root-cause failures across hardware, firmware, and software, and communicate findings clearly

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with robotics, motion control and signal simulation for test automation
• Experience integrating test infrastructure into CI/CD pipelines
• Prior experience with speech and audio testing, such as wake word, microphone array and replay testing
• Experience with agentic test engineering and agent-native test architecture
• Working knowledge of C, C++, or Java
• A background in electrical engineering
• Experience testing consumer electronics such as smart speakers, phones, wearables, or earbuds, or automotive, EV, or robotics products

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $350,000 annually.

The 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.