--- title: 'Hardware Test Automation Engineer at Sesame' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-test-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-fvyd7w3bj32c' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Hardware Test Automation Engineer at Sesame - **Company:** Sesame - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $150k–$260k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-07-14 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame/fe29b210-c799-4542-b83a-69939def908f ## Job description ## About Sesame Sesame believes in a future where computers are lifelike - with the ability to see, hear, and collaborate with us in ways that feel natural and human. With this vision, we're designing a new kind of computer, focused on making voice agents part of our daily lives. Our team brings together founders from Oculus and Ubiquity6, alongside proven leaders from Meta, Google, and Apple, with deep expertise spanning hardware and software. Join us in shaping a future where computers truly come alive. ## About the Role Sesame is building a wearable AI hardware device that brings our voice companion into the physical world. We're standing up our hardware quality function from the ground up, and we're looking for our first dedicated Hardware Test Automation Engineer to build the automation backbone for the program. You'll design and own an automated test rig, a rack of devices wired into our CI/CD pipeline that, on every firmware change, builds, flashes, runs the test suite, and generates reports automatically. You'll establish nightly stability runs, weekly stress runs, and long-duration audio sessions, and you'll build the live performance and stress dashboard that becomes the team's shared source of truth for quality. Your metrics will gate releases and back the performance story we tell investors and customers. This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role at the firmware/wireless/hardware boundary, on a small team that moves fast. You'll partner closely with the firmware team and our hands-on platform tester, and you'll have visibility and authority across both the firmware and the testbed so the two are built to cooperate. Initial focus (first ~60 days): - Stand up an automated test framework driven from a programmable Bluetooth central (Android, iOS, or a Pi-based rig, whatever fits), firmware-first then integration-first; even if early runs are short, get the foundation in place before it scales. - Establish nightly (sanity/stability) and weekly (stress) automated runs, with extended weekend runs for long-duration audio sessions (e.g., 5-hour and 18-hour using synthetic data). - Begin a live performance/stress dashboard: A2DP/throughput, BT link duration, BT latency, battery life, firmware crash counts, and regression flags. Responsibilities: - Design, build, and own an automated hardware test rig integrated with CI/CD (build → flash → run → report) for the device. - Implement throughput/bandwidth, connectivity stress tests (e.g., iPerf, A2DP/AVRCP), including sustained-throughput, connection-stability/range testing, and simulated degraded-connectivity scenarios. - Build API-level tests (easier to automate than full end-to-end iOS flows) covering throughput, sustained load, and crash detection. - Run long-duration audio session testing (multi-hour, synthetic data) and battery/thermal performance characterization (including full discharge cycling). - Build and maintain a live performance & stress dashboard with defined safety thresholds and target ("high-achieving") benchmarks; automatically flag regressions. - Develop diagnostic tooling and support automated bug triage for hardware/firmware issues. - Provide daily automation summaries and updates; support ad hoc/cherry-picked test runs when the team needs targeted coverage. - Partner with firmware (and the QA coordinator) to define what is automated vs. manual, API vs. integrated, and which platform drives the rig. Required Qualifications: - Hands-on experience building hardware/embedded test automation and integrating it into CI/CD (automated flashing, execution, and reporting). - Solid wireless/networking fundamentals: Bluetooth audio (A2DP/AVRCP), BLE, and throughput testing (e.g., iPerf). You understand what to test, not just how to automate. - Strong scripting/programming (e.g., Python) and the ability to build harnesses and dashboards from scratch. - Experience defining test plans, metrics, and pass/fail thresholds from real data. - Comfortable operating in an early-stage, prototype-hardware environment with limited units and evolving specs. Preferred Qualifications: - Experience owning an automation testbed for a shipping consumer hardware product (wearables, audio devices, smart cameras, IoT). - Performance instrumentation experience: latency, sustained throughput, IPC/cycle count, and thread- and core-level tracing on embedded/multi-core platforms. - Familiarity with Qualcomm chipsets and tooling (e.g., DSP framework, PyDebug) and the realities of vendor bug turnaround. - Experience automating from a programmable Bluetooth central: Android, iOS, a Pi-based rig, or similar; bonus for breadth across more than one. - Battery and thermal test methodology. - Experience with sensor/IMU testing and creative physical test setups for connectivity/range. Sesame is committed to a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered. We welcome all qualified applicants, embracing diversity in race, gender, identity, orientation, ability, and more. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. Contact careers@sesame.com for assistance. Full-time Employee Benefits: - 401 (k) max employer match: 3.5% of compensation - 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental benefits for you and your dependents - Unlimited PTO and sick time - Flexible spending account with employer matching up to $1,650/year (medical FSA) - Guardian Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - Opportunity to share in the company's success with competitive stock options Benefits do not apply to contingent/contract workers. ## About Sesame ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Sesame is building lifelike, conversational AI agents integrated into lightweight eyewear, aiming to bring ambient intelligence to daily life. - **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage, backed by prominent venture firms) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Brendan Iribe, Ankit Kumar, Ryan Brown, Angela Gayles, Nate Mitchell ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Artificial intelligence / Voice assistants / Consumer electronics - **Target customers**: Consumer (B2C) – individuals seeking hands-free, intelligent personal agents integrated into everyday eyewear - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Bringing the computer to life” – creating a personal companion that understands you, with natural conversation and lightweight, all-day wearable hardware. ## Products & Services - **Sesame Personal Agents**: Software-based conversational AI agents capable of natural dialogue, personality modeling, and multimodal interaction (voice, gesture). Currently in development; initial hardware (eyewear) targeted for 2027. - **Sesame Eyewear**: Lightweight, all-day comfortable glasses with high-quality audio and hands-free agent access. Coming 2027. - **Research Platform**: In-house deep learning research covering speech generation, personality modeling, multimodality, and scaled training infrastructure. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available. Unconfirmed reports suggest a potential fundraising round of ~$200 M (source: Techmeme via LinkedIn snippet). The company has not officially disclosed its valuation. - **Key Metric**: Total employees ~70 (as of mid-2026), with +5.8 % monthly headcount growth. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by a16z, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, plus a collection of founders and investors. - **Growth Signals**: 55 total employees on BuiltIn (likely older data); 63 active job postings (+14.5 % monthly trend); monthly LinkedIn follower growth of +3.8 % (20,969 followers). Talent sources include Meta, Apple, Google, DeepMind, and Microsoft. ## Competitive Advantages - **Interdisciplinary approach**: Tightly integrated hardware, software, and ML teams (hardware engineers, ML researchers, product designers) working on a unified product vision. - **Founding team pedigree**: Led by Oculus VR veterans (Brendan Iribe, Nate Mitchell) and experienced AI/ML innovators, giving deep expertise in both consumer hardware and conversational AI. - **Research depth**: Active push in speech generation, personality modeling, and multimodality, with scaled GPU infrastructure for training. ## Strategic Focus - **Near-term**: Ship the first generation of personal agent software and finalize the eyewear device for a 2027 launch. Continue advancing foundational ML research. - **Long-term**: Build a new category of ambient, always-available AI companions that replace traditional screen-based interaction. - **Growth areas**: Expanding engineering team rapidly (63 open roles), especially in ML, embedded systems, iOS/Android, supply chain, and hardware. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Small, focused, interdisciplinary team with a clear vision. Emphasis on tight collaboration between research, product, and hardware. Described as “artists, makers, and engineers.” - **Work environment**: In-office for most roles (San Francisco, Bellevue, New York). Roles are listed as “In-Office” (not remote/hybrid). Offices in SF, Bellevue, NY. - **Perks & engineering culture**: Not explicitly detailed, but the company invests heavily in infrastructure (GPU clusters) and research. Strong engineering focus with roles spanning embedded ML, OS architecture, and developer infrastructure. - **Notable**: Opportunities to work on cutting-edge voice AI and physical product design from the ground up. ## Sources 1. [sesame.com](https://www.sesame.com/) – Company overview and product vision 2. [sesame.com/team](https://www.sesame.com/team) – Leadership, investors, team description 3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/sesame-sesamecom) – Founded year, HQ, employee count, office policy 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sesameai) – Employee count, growth, talent sources, funding rumor 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame) – Open positions and location details ## Other roles at Sesame - [Product Engineering Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineering-lead-sesame-san-francisco-frrrpwp06s6z) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer - Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-sesame-san-francisco-m8vjteeqpd43) — San Francisco, CA - [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-sesame-new-york-e0mdmkv43s9f) — New York, NY - [iOS/Android Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ios-android-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-yg3qrrfeze2g) — San Francisco, CA - [Creative Director](https://feeny.ai/job/creative-director-sesame-san-francisco-ergm4698gggm) — San Francisco, CA - [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-sesame-san-francisco-dn2g1qez13fh) — San Francisco, CA - [Head of Sales](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-sesame-san-francisco-8d0r15ne63nw) — San Francisco, CA - [NPI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/npi-engineer-sesame-taipei-ezvdh72dn9yg) — Taipei, Taiwan - [Manufacturing Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-mechanical-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-w823rcvz6t4s) — San Francisco, CA - [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-sesame-san-francisco-h3w69r7cbk2s) — San Francisco, CA