Senior Test Engineer, Cameras

About the Role

As a Senior Test Engineer, you will be responsible for validating the functional reliability and performance of our connected camera fleet across the entire hardware-to-cloud ecosystem.

As a part of the Camera Quality & Test Engineering Team, you will execute a hybrid validation strategy that combines rigorous system-level exploratory testing with the development of automated test scripts. You will spend your time interacting directly with physical camera hardware in the lab, reproducing complex field edge-cases, capturing system logs, and writing code to automate regression suites within our Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) infrastructure.

What You'll Do

System-Level & Exploratory Testing

• Execute structured system validation test plans for release candidates to ensure core firmware functionality, network resilience, and seamless cloud connectivity.
• Perform augmented and exploratory testing on new camera features, focusing on hardware-software integration (e.g., offline storage retention, streaming latency, image quality adjustments under varying lighting).
• Run repeated stress and longevity tests to identify memory leaks, thermal bottlenecks, and overall system degradation over time.

Automated Test Development

• Write, maintain, and execute automated test scripts (primarily in Python) to run against physical hardware in our test lab.
• Automate critical regression test cases to increase coverage and reduce manual testing cycles for weekly/monthly firmware OTA releases.
• Help maintain the physical test infrastructure, ensuring network switches, relay boards, and devices under test (DUTs) are properly configured.

Issue Reproduction & Hardware Debugging

• Triage escalated field bugs from customer support. Physically recreate environmental or network edge cases (e.g., PoE power drops, high packet loss) in the lab to reproduce the issue.
• Extract and analyze low-level device logs (via SSH, serial console, or cloud telemetry) to provide firmware developers with clear, actionable root-cause data.
• Track and verify bug fixes through the issue management system, ensuring regressions are caught before deployment.

Performance & Telemetry Monitoring

• Monitor device telemetry during release candidate testing to track CPU usage, memory consumption, and boot times.
• Compare system performance metrics against baseline data to catch degradations before they reach our enterprise customers.

What You Bring

• Experience: 2–4+ years of System Test, Validation, or Automation experience focused specifically on embedded systems, IoT devices, or consumer hardware products.
• Coding Proficiency: Solid scripting skills in Python. You should be able to write scripts to interact with internal APIs, parse serial log files, and control lab equipment.
• Embedded/Linux Skills: Comfortable navigating Embedded Linux environments via CLI. Familiar with basic shell scripting and standard Linux debugging tools.
• Networking Knowledge: Practical understanding of network protocols (TCP/IP, DHCP, DNS, PoE) and how to test device behavior under poor network conditions.
• Hardware Troubleshooting: Hands-on experience working with physical devices. Comfortable using serial debug cables, multimeters, and configuring managed network switches.
• Communication: Ability to write highly detailed, step-by-step reproduction reports and communicate technical issues effectively to firmware developers.
• Must be willing and able to work onsite five days per week.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Experience testing video streaming products or familiarity with video protocols (RTSP, WebRTC, H.264/H.265).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and how automated HIL tests integrate into the build process.
• Basic understanding of camera hardware concepts (image sensors, ISP pipelines, auto-focus, auto-exposure).

US Employee Benefits

Verkada is committed to fostering a workplace environment that prioritizes the holistic health and wellbeing of our employees and their families by offering comprehensive wellness perks, benefits, and resources. Our benefits and perks programs include, but are not limited to:

• Healthcare programs that can be tailored to meet the personal health and financial well-being needs - Premiums are 100% covered for the employee under at least one plan and 80% for family premiums under all plans
• Nationwide medical, vision and dental coverage
• Health Saving Account (HSA) with annual employer contributions and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) with tax saving options
• Expanded mental health support
• Paid parental leave policy & fertility benefits
• Time off to relax and recharge through our paid holidays, firmwide extended holidays, flexible PTO and personal sick time
• Professional development stipend
• Wellness/fitness benefits
• Healthy lunches provided daily
• Commuter benefits

Additional Information 

• We do sponsor and take over sponsorship of employment visas for this role. If we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa.