Principal Software Engineer in Test (SDET)

Job Title

Principal Software Engineer in Test (SDET)

Role Summary

Senior individual contributor on the Software Qualification team responsible for test strategy, automation, and validation of the d-Matrix AI compute software stack. You will set technical direction for testing, build scalable test infrastructure, and mentor junior QA engineers.

The role spans low-level firmware and hardware interfaces through runtime and ML workload execution, working closely with software, systems, and product teams to ship reliable systems.

Experience Level

Senior — principal/staff-level role. Minimum guidance in posting: 10+ years industry experience; expect leadership of technical test strategy and mentoring responsibilities.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include defining test strategy, building automation and infrastructure, and validating full-stack system behavior.

• Lead and mentor junior QA engineers in test planning, automation best practices, and debugging workflows.
• Define test coverage strategies for features and deployment scenarios in collaboration with product, software, and systems teams.
• Design, implement, and maintain scalable Python-based test suites (Pytest) and integrate them into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab).
• Own end-to-end and regression test infrastructure, ensuring reliable validation of ML workloads across hardware/software configurations.
• Design and execute tests for lower-layer components: FPGAs, bootloaders, host runtime drivers, firmware, and IO (PCIe).
• Triaging and root-cause analysis of multi-layer failures; drive resolution with engineering counterparts.
• Represent QA in cross-functional design and planning reviews; communicate quality status and risks to stakeholders.

Requirements

Expect demonstrated experience across software development, low-level systems, and test automation. Below are the core must-have skills and preferred additions.

Must-have:

• 10+ years industry experience with significant QA/test leadership responsibility (as noted in posting).
• 8+ years software development experience with strong command of data structures and algorithms.
• 8+ years developing and testing lower-layer software stacks (FPGAs, bootloaders, host runtime drivers).
• 5+ years firmware design, implementation, and troubleshooting experience.
• 3+ years working with embedded architectures and IO technologies (PCIe, GPUs, CPUs).
• Fluent in Python; production-quality test code and use of advanced data structures/algorithms in tests.
• Experience building scalable test suites with Pytest and integrating tests into CI/CD (Jenkins, GitLab).
• Proven ability to debug complex hardware/software interactions and drive closure on defects.
• Strong verbal and written communication; ability to represent quality concerns across teams and leadership.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with machine learning frameworks, ML accelerators, and running ML workloads on custom silicon.
• Familiarity with Large Language Models and the inference stack in hardware-software co-design contexts.
• Prior principal/staff-level QA or test engineering experience with team leadership and mentorship.

Education Requirements

Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field (listed as the minimum qualification in the posting).

About the Company

Company: d-Matrix

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States

d-Matrix is a Santa Clara–based startup developing highly programmable in-memory computing architectures and accompanying software to accelerate generative AI and other AI workloads, focusing on hardware-software co-design for cloud and edge applications.