STAFF SOFTWARE QA ENGINEER in Durham, North Carolina at Smart Wires, Inc.

STAFF SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE ENGINEER

Smart Wires provides advanced power flow control solutions and analytics that enable controllable power systems. This gives grid operators more control over where power flows and helps them use their existing networks more efficiently. Our solutions support system reliability, reduce congestion, and make it easier to integrate new load and generation while minimizing costs and community disruption. We collaborate with customers to achieve their strategic objectives and help them face an uncertain energy future with flexible, high-impact solutions.

Position Summary

Smart Wires is currently looking for a Staff SQA (Software Quality Assurance) Engineer based in Durham, NC, to lead our SQA team. The Staff SQA engineer will be the highest technical expert regarding SQA and will lead a team of engineers that are responsible for testing all Smart Wires software and firmware. The Staff SQA Engineer will report to the Head of Controls & Communication engineering, work cross-functionally with peers in the controls & communication group, product management, test engineering, and others to build Smart Wire’s next generation of products and maintain our existing products.

Primary Responsibilities

• Define, own & implement the SQA strategy for embedded firmware, RTOS- based systems, hardware/software integration, and desktop application software. This includes cybersecurity & SCADA integration.
• Develop and maintain firmware & software quality plans, test strategies (integration, regression, functional, boundary, fault injection and stress test) and entry/exit criteria aligned.
• Lead release readiness reviews to determine whether packages are ready for release.
• Lead the development and continuous improvement of the software test life cycle processes.
• Establish and maintain traceability between system requirements, software requirements, test cases, and defects, including the provenance of AI-generated artifacts (the model and prompt version that produced them) and a defined approach to the reproducibility of non-deterministic outputs.
• Define, track and share software quality KPIs, including metrics specific to AI-generated code such as defect escape rate, rework rate, and the share of changes auto-verified versus manually reviewed.
• Manage the offshore SQA team.
• Coordinate with the Software Manager and Product Manager to plan the firmware/software releases for various projects.
• Manage the SQA lab at Smart Wires HQ.
• Establish and maintain Smart Wires HQ as the production center for software and firmware.
• Automate firmware deployment and testing in SmartValve hardware prior to test execution.
• Work with the Test team with regards to the common development elements of the factory test setups.
• Collaborate closely with firmware & software development engineers to review designs, identify testability gaps, and drive design for test improvements early in the development cycle.
• Author and maintain unit and automation test suites to accelerate test case generation, scenario coverage analysis, and defect pattern identification.
• Champion enterprise AI adoption within the SQA team and own the verification strategy for AI-generated firmware and software: define the independent test cycles, acceptance thresholds, and human-in-the-loop review gates that determine which machine-generated artifacts can be trusted for release.
• Establish verification methods targeting the failure modes specific to AI-generated code — plausible-but-incorrect logic, hallucinated interfaces or dependencies, and silently dropped edge cases — that conventional regression suites do not reliably catch. Ensure test cycles are defined independently of the code under test so that AI-authored tests cannot merely confirm AI-authored behavior.
• Extend the cybersecurity test scope to the AI development pipeline itself, including prompt injection, insecure-by-default generated code, and dependency-confusion risk from hallucinated packages.
• Conduct RCA and CAPA processes for escaped software defects and systemic process failures.
• Maintain quality records and artifacts in support of internal audits and external customer or regulatory assessments.
• Mentor mid-level and junior SQA engineers; establish and communicate best practices and quality engineering standards.
• Partner with the requirements team on requirement decomposition and verification planning from concept through validation.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer, Software, or Systems Engineering or related field
• 10 years of experience with SQA testing of complex embedded system products.
• 5+ years of experience with test automation platforms (LabVIEW preferred)
• 3+ years of experience with software/firmware development using C, C++, C#, test scripts using Python & lab view graphical language etc.
• 3+ years of people management, which include coaching & mentoring.
• 3+ years of experience collaborating with offshore teams.
• 2+ years of experience managing software process improvement for a 30+ software SQA group.
• 3+ years of related experience with the electric-power, medical or other mission-critical industry
• 2 years of experience with cybersecurity testing.
• Well versed with CI/CD tools, version control systems, bug tracking system (Jira is preferred), and able to design continuous verification and test infrastructure that scales to the code volume of an AI-assisted pipeline rather than a nightly batch build.
• Working knowledge of LLM-based development tooling and hands-on experience building or running evaluation harnesses to validate AI-generated code and tests

Desired Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in electrical, Computer, Software, or Systems Engineering or technically related field
• Demonstrated proficiency is a systems-based approach to problem solving.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work with various internal and external technical stakeholders.
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent attention to details
• Experience with the electric-power industry
• Experience with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and plant automation.
• Strong organization and documentation abilities
• Self-motivated and willing to take initiative.
• Thrives working in a fast-paced environment among a multi-disciplinary team.

Location

• This role is located at the Smart Wires HQ in Durham, NC. Candidates are expected to work from the office for at least 24 core hours per week unless agreed up with the Manager. Core hours are defined as 9a to 3p ET.

Travel Requirements

• This position is expected to travel up to 10% of the year, both domestically and internationally. Must be willing and able to travel to India and Pakistan

Benefits

At Smart Wires, we strive to foster an inclusive and supportive environment that focuses on our employees’ total wellbeing, and our benefit offerings reflect that commitment to our people.

We offer:

• Flexible PTO
• Paid parental leave to support you and your family.
• Competitive total compensation packages that includes salary, bonus and equity.
• A comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability coverage, and a 401(k) retirement plan with company match.

The Culture

We are passionate about creating a culture that empowers our team to create positive change for everyone and achieve their full potential, based on our core values:

Making an impact - We are passionate and ambitious about a better future for everyone. We are laser-focused on creating a meaningful, positive impact with real change for our customers, our industry, electricity consumers, and the planet.

Collaboration to drive success - We collaborate with each other, and our stakeholders, because we know even better outcomes come from great teamwork. We have humility because we know even better outcomes come from great teamwork. We have humility which allows us to listen, learn and improve. We value diverse perspectives and seek high impact results.

Accountability - We take responsibility for our actions and behaviors, and for the outcomes we deliver. Acting with integrity and authenticity – and maintaining clear, open communication – ensures we are always improving, and delivering safe, high-quality solutions. We do what we say we will do.

Tenacious courage - We are clear on our path. We have always pioneered new ideas that challenge the status quo, even when it’s not popular. We have tenacity, grit and determination. We push the boundaries of what’s thought to be possible – so we can leave the world a better place than we found it.

**Smart Wires is committed to diversity in our organization and building an equitable and inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and experiences. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. Smart Wires complies with applicable federal, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination and we especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of any skin color, LGBTQ people, veterans, and people with disabilities.**