Software & System Test Engineer; Lead, Automation & AI-Driven QA

Software & System Test Engineer (Lead, Automation & AI-Driven QA)

Hawthorne, California, United States

CHAOS Inc. is a global technology company delivering next-generation capabilities to the defense and critical industrial sectors. Founded in 2022 by a seasoned leadership team, CHAOS has quickly become the place where world‑class multi‑disciplinary engineers come to build mission‑critical technologies. CHAOS has a mission‑focused culture, dedicated to solving the toughest technical challenges. Its unique agile engineering approach enables rapid prototyping, while deep partnerships with defense and industry ensure real‑world solutions.

CHAOS is seeking a Lead Software Test Engineer to build and lead our automated system testing capability. This is a foundational role - an opportunity to define strategy and hands‑on implement system & software testing across CHAOS’s cutting‑edge sensing systems.

You will collaborate closely with systems engineering and software engineering teams to create a robust automated test & validation pipeline that’s integrated into our CI/CD and release process. You’ll build tools, implement automated system tests, and develop rich reporting & analytics to ensure CHAOS's products meet the critical needs and requirements of our customers.

The ideal candidate is a problem solver and innovator, fluent in both software quality and AI‑assisted test & development, who will shape how CHAOS validates the next generation of defense technologies.

• Establish and lead the automated software testing group within CHAOS, working with a distributed set of teams across multiple products.
• Fully integrate Hardware‑in‑the‑loop automated testing for production HW across multiple products and variants.
• Collaborate with systems and software engineers to validate system‑level and mission‑level functionality.
• Design, develop, and maintain end‑to‑end test frameworks for SW & FW Development (e.g. Python, CUDA, Typescript, and FPGA code).
• Fully integrate into CI/CD pipelines (Bitbucket, Jenkins, Azure) for continuous test execution and analysis.
• Support development and V&V for system test automation.
• Build automated reporting and coverage dashboards, including AI‑driven summarization of test incidents and anomalies.
• Leverage AI to build and apply a suite of radar domain‑specific automated test and validation capabilities.
• Develop AI‑native workflows using code copilots, LLMs, and reasoning models for intelligent automated system test.
• Mentor junior engineers as the test organization scales.
• Work on‑site at our office in Hawthorne, CA.
• 5+ years of experience in software QA, automated testing, or related software engineering roles.
• Strong experience with Python and modern automated testing frameworks (pytest, robot framework, Playwright, or similar).
• Experience integrating tests into CI/CD environments and measuring code coverage.
• Familiarity with Dockerized or cloud‑deployed software (Azure experience preferred).
• Experience with AI‑native development tools applied to automated test (Git Hub Copilot, OpenAI APIs, Claude Code, or similar).
• Experience building automated test frameworks for data pipelines, Hardware‑in‑the‑loop system testing, and/or real‑time systems.
• Demonstrated ability to work cross‑functionally with systems and software teams.

• Familiarity with defense‑related sensing domains such as radar, RF/IQ data processing, and/or sensor fusion.
• Understanding of performance testing, fault injection, and simulation‑based testing (HIL/SIL).
• Proficiency with Git and agile development practices.
• Experience designing workflows for large‑scale regression, fuzz, or stress testing.

• Health Benefits: Your medical, dental and vision benefits will be 100% paid for by the company.
• Additional benefits: life, FSA, HSA, 401k (with company match), and more.
• Our Perks: free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code.
• Compensation Components: competitive base salaries, generous pre‑IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance (+ coming soon! annual bonuses).
• Company Size: 150 employees and counting!
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