Staff Software Engineer in Test
Boston Dynamics
Listing collected from Boston Dynamics's career site. NextChapter is independent of Boston Dynamics.
Waltham, MA · Posted September 25, 2026
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Where Waltham, MA ranks
Where Waltham, MA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for life sciences and biotech pay after cost of living$221k · of 10
- #2Best cities for software and engineering jobs in New England184 openings · of 24
- #2Best all-round cities for new graduates in New England59 / 100 · of 11
- #2Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in New England67 / 100 · of 11
- #2Best all-round cities for remote workers in New England80 / 100 · of 11
- #2Best all-round cities for AI careers in New England80 / 100 · of 11
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software quality assurance analysts and testers, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for software quality assurance analysts and testers: 52% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
Boston Dynamics seeks a highly technical Staff Software Engineer in Test , to test the Atlas Humanoid Robot. In this critical, hands-on role, you will be responsible for ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of Atlas’s software systems, focusing heavily on metrics based system testing for reliability and performance.
A key quality to be successful in this role is the exceptional ability to context-switch and rapidly acquire technical understanding across diverse domains: from web interfaces and network protocols to robot behavior and ML model validation. If you thrive on learning fast, solving cross-functional problems, and seeing your code directly impact a groundbreaking robot, this role is for you.
Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.
What You’ll Do:
Reliability Test & Automation Design: Design, develop, and plan execution to stress-test application resilience, safety, and fault tolerance.
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing: Use physical hardware in the loop to automate testing for various application scenarios.
Release Contribution & Reporting: Author comprehensive execution reports to validate milestone readiness and clearly communicate system stability.
Process Improvement: Identify bottlenecks and gaps in the SQA process and testing coverage, driving continuous improvement in execution efficiency and reliability.
Required Experience:
6-8 years of experience in Software QA Engineering, Test Automation, or Software Development, with a history of shipping and supporting product releases.
Proven experience in manual and automated testing of complex electromechanical systems (e.g., robotics, autonomous vehicles) including with physical hardware-in-the-loop (HIL).
Strong proficiency in test automation with a solid base in Python, C#, or a similar language.
Demonstrated experience with setting up software reliability testing, monitoring and analysis for robotic systems.
Expertise in designing comprehensive test plans and executing functional, integration, and regression testing with strong manual rigor.
Expertise in Defect Lifecycle Management using defect tracking systems (e.g., Jira) for precise defect reporting, verification, and analysis.
Solid understanding of CI/CD practices and experience integrating and monitoring automated tests within continuous integration tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
Nice to Have Experience:
Experience testing real-time control systems or low-latency teleoperation hardware/software.
Familiarity with UI/UX and backend validation for complex workflow sequencing or orchestration applications.
Operational familiarity with a Linux development environment (e.g., advanced bash/shell scripting).
Experience with Root Cause Analysis on complex, cross-functional system failures.
We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.
The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $102,000 - $120,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.
Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process.
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