---
title: 'Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Hayden AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quality-assurance-engineer-hayden-ai-san-francisco-qqzpanrn8mvk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Hayden AI

- **Company:** Hayden AI
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $141k–$184k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/haydenai/0f04c739-5e3b-45af-8ec2-b0bf5988d913

## Job description

## About Us

At Hayden AI, we are on a mission to harness the power of computer vision to transform the way transit systems and other government agencies address real-world challenges. From bus lane and bus stop enforcement to transportation optimization technologies and beyond, our innovative mobile perception system empowers our clients to accelerate transit, enhance street safety, and drive toward a sustainable future. Job Summary:

As a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Hayden AI, you will drive quality through well-defined testing processes and disciplined release management for embedded software deployed in real-world transportation environments. You will be responsible for establishing and executing manual and automated test strategies, defining quality gates, managing regression cycles, and ensuring release readiness across embedded software versions.

You will own the end-to-end quality process for embedded software releases, including test planning, risk assessment, defect triage, release sign-off, and post-release validation. Working closely with Software Engineers, Product Managers, and Operations teams, you will embed quality into the development lifecycle, improve testing workflows, and support reliable field deployments through structured validation and continuous process improvement.

Responsibilities:

- Take ownership of end-to-end quality for vital embedded software, overseeing the planning, execution, and final approval of releases through a mix of rigorous manual testing and automation-first methodologies
- Orchestrate the embedded software release lifecycle, including defining test strategies, ensuring schedule alignment, assessing risks, and leading go/no-go evaluations in partnership with engineering and product teams
- Establish, execute, and iterate on comprehensive validation strategies for embedded systems, edge hardware, and complex system integrations
- Architect and maintain robust Python-based automation frameworks to streamline regression, smoke testing, and release validation efforts
- Direct release test cycles by managing regression execution, facilitating defect triage, and providing detailed reports on release readiness
- Implement automated and manual suites within CI/CD pipelines to maintain stringent quality gates across all embedded software versions
- Validate intricate system behaviors involving embedded devices, hardware interfaces, sensor data, and event-driven logic
- Investigate complex defects through root cause analysis, championing preventative measures and driving sustainable quality enhancements
- Collaborate with Embedded Software Engineers during the design phase to advocate for testability, reliability, and expanded automation coverage
- Develop and monitor quality metrics and dashboards to provide stakeholders with transparency regarding release health and long-term trends
- Ensure successful field deployments by validating device stability, environmental performance, and reliability throughout the release cycle
- Guide junior engineers and offer strategic leadership to scale quality workflows, documentation standards, and technical best practices across the engineering org

Required Qualifications:

- Experience: Minimum of 7 years in Quality Assurance, Test Engineering, or SDET roles, with a focus on structured testing and software validation
- Core Skills:
- Experience testing devices, embedded systems, or IoT platforms
- Strong proficiency in Python for building and maintaining automated test frameworks
- Experience with system-level, integration, and end-to-end automation
- Solid understanding of SDLC, CI/CD pipelines, and automation-first QA methodologies
- Familiarity with video pipelines, streaming systems, or sensor-driven workflows
- Experience with test management, defect tracking, and release processes
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
- Personal Attributes: [Communication, collaboration, adaptability, problem-solving attributes]
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience testing AI/ML-driven systems, including model validation, data quality checks, and performance monitoring in production environments
- Familiarity with backend services and distributed systems to support system-level and integration testing
- Hands-on experience with observability and reporting tools such as Grafana, Datadog, or similar platforms for quality metrics, monitoring, and release health reporting

## About Hayden AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Hayden AI provides an AI-powered, vehicle-mounted mobile perception platform that helps cities automate traffic enforcement to make streets safer and public transit more efficient.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Zac Levin (noted as Product Lead on the company site)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Smart City Technology, Transportation, Government Technology (GovTech), Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Analytics
- **Target customers**: B2G (Business to Government) - specifically municipal transit authorities, city transportation departments, and local governments.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To develop artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics that will revolutionize how governments and businesses solve real world problems." [hayden.ai](https://hayden.ai/company)

## Products & Services
- **Automated Bus Lane & Bus Stop Enforcement**: The flagship product. A mobile perception system mounted on public transit buses that automatically detects and records vehicles illegally parked in bus lanes or bus stops. This helps cities clear unauthorized parking, improving bus speeds, reliability, and ridership.
- **Automated Bike Lane Enforcement**: A similar system for detecting vehicles illegally parked or driving in bike lanes, enhancing cyclist safety. Currently being deployed in cities like Santa Monica. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)
- **Digital Twin Modeling & Spatial Analytics**: The platform can also be used to create digital twins of city environments and provide spatial analytics to help governments and businesses solve real-world problems.
- **Civil Traffic Enforcement System**: An integrated hardware and software system (including forward-facing cameras, ALPR, and detection software) that has received UK Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) approval for use in England to detect parking, bus lane, cycle lane, and moving contraventions. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: **$173.42M Total Funding** across multiple rounds, with the most recent being a **$90M Series C** raised approximately two years ago. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai) Annual Revenue is not publicly available.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Includes Autotech Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck, Drawdown Fund, and The Rise Fund. The company also has a strong partnership network with major US transit authorities. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)
- **Growth Signals**:
    - **GovTech 100 Winner**: A six-time consecutive winner (2021-2026) of the GovTech 100 award. [hayden.ai](https://hayden.ai/company)
    - **TIME Magazine Top GreenTech Company 2024**: Recognized as a leader in green technology.
    - **Global Top 100 Geospatial Company**: Listed among the top geospatial companies globally.
    - **International Expansion**: Received UK VCA approval in June 2026, enabling expansion into the United Kingdom and signaling a major new market. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)
    - **Proven US Deployment**: Already deployed in major US cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
    - **Patents**: The company has filed 27 patents, primarily in machine learning, road traffic management, and artificial neural networks. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-Built AI Hardware & Software**: Unlike generic computer vision systems, Hayden AI develops its own purpose-built cameras and hardware optimized for vehicle mounting and real-time analysis.
- **Privacy-First Design**: The platform is explicitly designed to identify objects (vehicles, license plates) and not people, using edge processing and encryption to comply with privacy regulations. This forward-thinking approach is a key selling point for privacy-conscious governments. [hayden.ai](https://hayden.ai/company)
- **Real-World, Proven Impact**: The company's technology has a strong track record of measurable results in major cities, such as increasing bus speeds and reducing traffic violations.
- **Regulatory Endorsement**: The recent VCA certification in the UK provides a strong, independently verified stamp of approval that eases adoption in new markets.

## Strategic Focus
- **International Expansion**: The VCA approval for the UK market is a major strategic focus, opening a new continent for business development.
- **Product Diversification**: Expanding from bus lane enforcement into bike lane enforcement and general civil traffic enforcement (restricted routes, parking), broadening their addressable market.
- **Continued Innovation**: The company's patent filings and focus on "digital twin modeling" suggest a long-term strategy to become a core data and analytics platform for urban management, not just an enforcement tool.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact Mission**: Employees have a clear, tangible impact on making city streets safer and public transit more efficient. The work directly improves quality of life in urban areas.
- **Market Leadership & Reputation**: Joining a six-time GovTech 100 winner and globally recognized leader provides strong career validation and exposure to cutting-edge technology.
- **Strong Growth Trajectory**: The company is well-funded (over $173M raised), actively expanding internationally, and has a clear product roadmap, suggesting strong job security and opportunities for advancement.
- **Technical Challenges**: The work involves solving complex problems in computer vision, embedded systems (firmware), state estimation, and large-scale data processing, making it a compelling environment for engineers.
- **Work Policy**: **Hybrid** model. Employees typically work on-site **3 days a week** at one of their three offices (San Francisco, CA; Kenilworth, NJ; New York, NY). [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/hayden-ai)
- **Culture**: Described as "curious, ambitious, and always optimistic," the company values innovation and is looking for motivated people to join their mission. They emphasize an inclusive, equal-opportunity workplace. [hayden.ai](https://hayden.ai/careers)

## Sources
1. [hayden.ai - Company Page](https://hayden.ai/company)
2. [hayden.ai - Careers Page](https://hayden.ai/careers)
3. [cbinsights.com - Hayden AI Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/hayden-ai)
4. [builtin.com - Hayden AI Careers](https://builtin.com/company/hayden-ai)
5. [linkedin.com - Hayden AI](https://www.linkedin.com/company/haydenaitech)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com - Hayden AI Jobs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/haydenai)

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