QA Engineer

At Skywalker Sound, we are redefining the frontier of audio post-production through advanced technology. Our enterprise platform spans from core networking infrastructure to intuitive operator GUIs, delivering secure, high-performance tools to elite media organizations worldwide. We're seeking a Software Quality QA Engineer who brings deep technical fluency, hands-on automation skills, and a passion for system reliability across the full stack.

As the QA Engineer you’ll take ownership of designing and maintaining automated testing pipelines that support CI/CD across a large-scale distributed software platform. This includes writing test suites and unit tests, validating complex technical outputs like audio, metadata, and containerized payloads, and ensuring system-wide integrity through continuous integration with GitLab.

This role is considered Hybrid, which means the employee will work 2-3 days onsite at our Nicasio office and occasionally from home.

What you’ll do

• Design, implement, and maintain automated test pipelines integrated into GitLab CI/CD.

• Author and maintain unit, integration, and system-level test suites across microservices and client-facing applications.

• Analyze and validate complex media outputs (e.g., audio renders, session metadata, container integrity) to meet professional audio standards.

• Collaborate closely with DevOps, software engineering, and infrastructure teams to ensure test coverage across backend, frontend, and infrastructure components.

• Build custom tooling and test harnesses to validate performance, concurrency, and edge cases in media and networking workflows.

• Monitor and report on test results, coverage gaps, and regressions through dashboards and automated reporting.

• Participate in code reviews and contribute to quality and testability improvements across the codebase.

• Maintain knowledge of the latest testing strategies, automation frameworks, and media validation tools.

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

• 3+ years in QA engineering, SDET, or DevOps test automation roles.

• Proficiency with GitLab CI/CD, Docker, and Git workflows.

• Strong scripting and test development skills (Python, Bash, or similar).

• Experience designing and executing automated tests using tools such as PyTest, Golang Test, GTest, or custom scripts.

• Familiarity with containerized and distributed systems, especially in media production environments.

• Ability to validate technical media asset outputs (e.g., WAV/MXF/MOV integrity, metadata conformity, latency thresholds, multichannel routing).

• Deep understanding of the software development lifecycle and Agile methodologies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with media and post-production workflows, especially Avid Pro Tools, FFMPEG, and audio/video transcoding systems.

• Exposure to test automation in cloud-based or hybrid infrastructures (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes).

• Familiarity with networking protocols, file transport validation, or REST/gRPC testing.

• Prior experience building test infrastructure for enterprise SaaS products.

• Knowledge of industry media standards (MXF, ADM BWAV, TTML, Dolby Atmos, etc.).

The hiring range for this position in Nicasio, CA is $106,800 to $143,200 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.