Software Engineer, Test

Skip is on a mission to make life joyful through powered movement.

Movement is a powerful way to build physical, mental and social health. Yet it is elusive for 2 billion people due to age, injury, or disability. We are building productsthat will restore mobility for millions and enable a new frontier of joyful movement experiences. We want to build a future where a grandparent can easily outrun their grandkids and no one is left behind at the trailhead.

Skip is a 22-person early-stage start-up that spun out of Google X in 2023. With deep cross-disciplinary expertise and key partnerships (e.g. with Arc’teryx) we are uniquely positioned to launch the first commercially successful wearable robotic device, the MO/GO, develop a platform to launch future Movewear products and transform millions of lives in the coming years.

The Role

We're looking for an engineer who can own software quality end-to-end, from a user unboxing the device for the first time to data syncing reliably on Google Cloud. You'll operate across web, mobile, backend API, and device/IoT layers in a fast-moving sprint cycle where 1–2 engineers need to punch far above their weight.

This is a hands-on IC role. You'll build the automation infrastructure that makes scaling our test suite possible, design mock environments, and collaborate closely with firmware, app, and cloud engineers to bridge the gap between unit-level coverage and full regression suites.

What You'll Own

• Design and execute end-to-end test plans covering the full user journey — device unboxing, app onboarding, BLE pairing, charging modes, and cloud data sync
• Participate in EVT/DVT hardware-software integration testing and Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) test planning
• Build and maintain automation frameworks spanning web (Selenium), mobile (Appium), and backend API layers
• Develop and manage mock environments, test data pipelines, and sandbox configurations to isolate and reproduce issues reliably
• Write and own unit and integration test suites in collaboration with firmware and SW engineers to close coverage gaps ahead of scale
• Identify and document edge cases systematically: network unavailability, BLE/WiFi failure modes, data sync retry logic, storage-full conditions, server errors, and app crashes
• Verify data correctness across the full stack — on-device, app, and GCP endpoints
• Define and track test metrics; flag release risks early in each sprint cycle
• Wear prototypes several hours a week for on-body testing, data collection, and feedback

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of software testing experience in a product company, ideally with consumer devices or IoT
• Ability to test e2e features across hardware device, mobile app, firmware, backend/cloud systems
• Strong programming and scripting fundamentals — Python and JavaScript/TypeScript required
• Experience with XCUITest(iOS), espresso(Android) and other native mobile test automation frameworks
• Experience designing and executing API test automation (REST/GraphQL)
• Ability to independently define test strategies from scratch — no pre-built QA infrastructure to lean on
• Familiarity with HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) test setups or firmware-level testing at EVT/DVT stages
• Demonstrated skill in creating edge-case scenarios and thinking adversarially about user flows
• Experience building and maintaining mock services, test environments, and synthetic test data
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and integrating automated tests into release workflows
• Comfortable working across mobile (iOS/Android) and cloud-connected system testing
• Ability to work from our Bay Area office 3 days/week

Bonus Points

• Background testing BLE, WiFi, or other wireless protocols in consumer devices
• Experience with motor control, robotics, or powered consumer electronics (drones, e-bikes, powered prosthetics, etc.)
• Experience writing or reviewing infrastructure-as-code for test environments
• Strong opinions about sprint velocity and what actually slows teams down
• Personal motivation to improve human movement or experience with adaptive sports/assistive tech
• Sense of humour, tolerant of Aussie & Canadian spelling