Quality Assurance Lead - Autonomy & Robotics

DroneUp, LLC was born out of a vision to make autonomous flight great for communities, great for business, and great for the world. Yet more than visionaries; we have the tools, instruments, focus, and expertise to execute while utilizing a “People Matter Most” mentality.

Our founder envisioned a massive, untapped opportunity to leverage autonomous flight that would revolutionize how the world may "pitch" and "roll" in the future. To start, we have harnessed the power of airspace technology, analytics platforms, and drone services to transform business operations. Our long-term mission is to be “Safe and Be Exceptional” while building and deploying the world's most accessible drone ecosystem.

Ranked in the top 25 of LinkedIn Top Startups 2022, DroneUp is Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia and provides drone delivery service in 34 locations across six states in partnership with the #1 retailer in the world, Walmart, Inc.

In 2022 DroneUp was on the list of "Next Big Things in Tech" but we are more than just invested in the drone ecosystem; we are equally invested in our people and landed successfully as a certified "Great Place to Work" in 2023. Knowing that our mission critical success comes directly from the people we bring onboard, we strive to provide opportunities for our employees to learn, grow, and go beyond the normal Field of View! Come fly with us as our team goes through our checklists that will “Inspire Fast Action” and take an entire industry to new heights. “Be a Person Others Want to Follow!”

Position Summary

DroneUp is seeking a Quality Assurance Lead who can hit the ground running, shape and manage the Quality Assurance practice in our flight management platform. As part of the platform’s leadership team, the Quality Assurance Lead works collaboratively within a matrixed product development team structure, who are overall responsible for the planning and execution of strategic objectives. We are not looking for a classical (UI) tester, we have little interest in Selenium, but if you ever injected packet loss into a network, put a 1000x load on a system or implemented a benchmark and coverage reporting system, we want to hear from you.

The platform in question is a collection of software components executing in diverse, layered runtimes (docker containers, cloud backends or ARM64 embedded on the very drone) with its UI/frontend aspect being a mere tip of the iceberg. These components will be vulnerable to a deluge of risks, changing service levels and plain failures spanning between unreliable networks, memory and CPU pressures or poor sensor accuracy. Plain functional bugs will - again - be just a tip of the iceberg. These components will be subject to safety-critical certification and tested to the legally required standards. We will be solving all of these problems together, but we need a QA Lead to be comfortable and sufficiently experienced to appreciate the complex scope of QA in this diverse landscape. We need the QA Lead to help us realize our ambition for a fast paced Continuous Deployment release pipeline that produces a quantifiably correct product.

Responsibilities

• Write and maintain QA Strategy and Plan documents
• Assign responsibilities, quantify risks, and design the lifecycle of a change moving from the design boards all the way to production
• Subject our product to all fathomable stress conditions in order to measure its functional correctness and performance in the entire spectrum of its operational domain
• Shape the Software Development Process in the interest of improving the product’s quality
• Continuously measure and publish the quality of the product
• Specify, validate, and adapt Modeling and Simulation for testing use
• Assess operational and system performance requirements for testability and criticality to frame and prioritize testing and quality assurance objectives and enable evaluation planning
• Lead a team of testers and implement the processes, activities, and framework stemming from the Test Strategy and Test Plan documents
• Collaborate with the development team to understand platform requirements and ensure that they are being met
• Understand and adhere to industry standards and best practices for software testing

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or related field
• Strong leadership and people management experience.
• Professional experience with Git, Docker, and Kubernetes
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
• Expert knowledge of test methodologies, BDD, test automation as well as test tools and taxonomies.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to create test plans and cases from specifications or verbal communications
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to serve as a liaison with developers, project managers, and pilots
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

Preferred

• Experience in developing and maintaining a safety-critical software system
• Experience working in a trunk-based development environment and feature flags.
• Diverse test engineering experience with a variety of electronic or mechanical systems
• Experience with requirements traceability software, such as Jama

• Experience with robotics and autonomy a plus
• Familiarity with FAA regulations and/or FAA Part 107 Certification a plus

• Flight Performance and Handling Qualities (FPHQ) experience is a plus

• Experience with embedded or (better still) aircraft systems, including ASE, IFF, radios, systems engineering a plus

Benefits

• Medical Insurance

• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Basic & Voluntary Life Insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Legal Services
• Identity Protection
• Accident Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance
• Hospital Indemnity Insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick, Holiday)

Salary

Just like drones themselves, your earning potential can soar to new heights, but it largely depends on your qualifications and expertise. If you are recognized as an industry expert, your earning potential can take true flight. The target salary range for this position is $130,000 to $160,000. Your unique qualifications and contributions to the field will play a significant role in determining your precise compensation. The total rewards for this position may also include; potential for annual bonuses, benefits package, paid time off, and more.

$130,000 - $160,000

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

DroneUp is committed to hiring and developing the most qualified individuals, regardless of sex, age, race, national origin, disability or other protected characteristics. DroneUp subscribes to the equal employment opportunity requirements of applicable law. It is the policy of DroneUp to ensure equal opportunity to all employees and applicants in all employment matters, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, placement, compensation, training, promotion, and separation. In these and all activities, DroneUp does not discriminate against any qualified individual because of sex, age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, familial status, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender identity disability, handicap, liability for service in the United States Armed Forces, veteran status, and/or any other legally protected characteristic.

Any individual who feels that he or she may have been discriminated against in violation of this policy is strongly encouraged to immediately contact his or her supervisor or any member of DroneUp management. Any member of DroneUp management who is notified of alleged discrimination is required to immediately report the incident to the HR Department.

DroneUp will thoroughly investigate all such claims with due regard for the privacy of the individuals involved. Any employee who knowingly retaliates against an employee who has reported workplace discrimination will be subject to immediate corrective action, up to and potentially including termination of employment.

Security Responsibility Statement: Employees are expected to provide a high level of security to any personal or private information accessed as part of their work, whether at a DroneUp facility or remotely. This includes participating in security training, remaining sensitive to individual rights to personal privacy, and complying with company policies. Employees who have access to sensitive data that is protected by regulation, such as HIPAA, or by contract, such as credit card data, must comply with any additional requirements dictated by the governing regulations or associated contracts.