Head of QA, Release Engineer
About Armaments Research Company
Armaments Research Company (ARC) is a technology company dedicated to bringing real-time situational awareness and battlefield logistics capabilities to the warfighter. You will be an integral part of the ARC team managing program execution in support of our innovative and powerful IoT devices to enhance national security.
Our core offering is the ARC AI-Enabled Weapons Sensor (AEWS), which collects and transmits real-time tactical data to the cloud. This information enables battlefield/tactical awareness and aggregated insights into big data sets that do not exist today. ARC technologies were initially developed in partnership with DARPA and the National Science Foundation and leverage internet-of-things (IoT) technology and machine learning to derive actionable insights and transform operational responses. This novel technology will be deployed at scale to enhance safety, decision-making, and sustainment for the warfighter at the tactical edge.
What You'll Do
You will own the quality function end-to-end across SaaS, mobile apps, and IoT devices/gateways. You’ll design the QA strategy, processes, and tooling, lead execution (hands-on + vendor/contract coordination), and run release governance—from feature verification through systems integration, regression, and production readiness. You’ll partner with product and vertical engineering teams to deliver predictable, low-risk releases.
Top Outcomes (Your first 12 months)
- A documented QA strategy with entry/exit criteria per environment.
- Release governance (change calendar, go/no-go) adopted org-wide.
- Automation coverage baselined and >X% growth (UI/API/device firmware).
- Defect escape rate ↓, MTTR ↓, change fail rate ↓, on-time releases ↑ (DORA-style).
Role Responsibilities - How You Will Make an Impact
Process & Governance
- Establish/own defect lifecycle, test plans, test reporting, and release readiness criteria (RfR/Release Queue). Publish release notes and list of known issues.
- Define system integration testing (SIT) and end-to-end regression across cloud, mobile (Android), and device firmware.
- Run go/no-go calls; maintain the Forward Schedule of Change; ensure roll-back and telemetry are in place.
Test Strategy & Execution
- Create risk-based test plans; balance automation vs. exploratory testing.
- Stand up automation frameworks (API, web, mobile, hardware-in-the-loop) and CI hooks for gates.
- Own device test rigs (benchtop, HIL, OTA, environmental/smoke) and mobile device farms.
Tooling & Data
- Select and manage test management, result analytics, defect tracking, and release dashboards.
- Define quality KPIs; publish release health and trend reports.
Collaboration & Leadership
- Partner with Eng/Product/Sec to define release trains and feature-flag strategies.
- Mentor developers on testability; coordinate external QA vendors when needed.
Relevant Skills and Experience
- 6–10+ years in QA; 3+ years building QA processes across multiple surfaces (web, mobile, devices).
- Demonstrated ownership of SIT + regression programs and formal release gates.
- Hands-on with at least two: Playwright/Cypress, Appium/XCUITest/Espresso, pytest/Robot, hardware-in-the-loop frameworks.
- Experience with CI (GitHub Actions/GitLab/Jenkins), artifact versioning, and feature flags.
- Comfortable testing BLE/Wi-Fi/LTE device flows, OTA updates, and cloud APIs.
- Strong defect taxonomy, risk analysis, and root-cause habits.
- Safely operate firearms platforms under supervision from trained and licensed range officers and qualified ARC personnel. Prior experience with firearms is not required.
- This position may require travel up to 10% of the time in support of in-person events including system testing.
Bonus Points
- IoT security testing basics (certificates, mutual TLS, FIPS modules).
- Mobile MDM/UEM exposure; app store vetting.
- Observability: logs/metrics/traces; synthetic monitoring.
- Regulated/DoD or ISO 27001/SOC 2 environments; RMF familiarity.
This position will require access to restricted information and facilities protected under U.S. laws and regulations, including the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM). Please note that any offer for employment will be conditioned on any required authorization to receive access to such restricted information and facilities necessary to perform the responsibilities of the position.
What We Offer:
Equity Options
401k plan
Employer paid employee medical, dental and vision
12 paid holidays plus Flexible PTO Policy
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