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Lead Automation Engineer

United States - Buffalo, New York

Who we are:

Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.

Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.

Visit gomotive.com to learn more.

About the Team and Role

The Sustaining team is the engineering front line for in-field quality and device reliability across Motive hardware. We own Trial Prep updates at DCL, mass firmware/Alpha-Beta updates, and FW expertise to debug HW+FW issues. We are also building automation for RMA screening, automated video recovery, and just time time firmware updates for priority customers, and we need dedicated firmware ownership to scale these functions. 

As the Senior Automation Engineer, you will be the technical leader and architect for our automated testing framework. You will design the system architecture, lead implementation across multiple deployment sites (headquarters, distribution centers, international locations), and establish the technical foundation for scaling to additional product lines. This is a high-impact role where you will build the testing infrastructure that transforms how we understand and improve product quality, working cross-functionally with Firmware, Hardware, Data Analytics, Operations, and external partners.

What You'll Do

System Architecture & Technical Leadership

  • Design and architect an end-to-end automated test framework for multi-product, multi-site deployment, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and flexibility.
  • Define technical roadmap and implementation strategy for transitioning from manual analysis to 100% automated coverage across all hardware categories.
  • Establish modular test library architecture enabling rapid deployment to new product lines and failure modes.

Cross-Functional Technical Leadership

  • Collaborate with Firmware, Hardware Engineering, and QA teams to define test coverage requirements, debug complex hardware-firmware interactions, and refine diagnostic protocols based on field failure analysis.
  • Mentor junior automation engineers, providing technical guidance, code review, and knowledge transfer to build team capability.

Data-Driven Quality Improvements

  • Build comprehensive data visibility for RMA operations through SQL-based dashboards tracking test coverage, failure modes, pass/fail trends, false positive rates, and correlation with field data.
  • Establish metrics and KPIs demonstrating business impact: analysis coverage %, time-to-diagnosis reduction, shipping cost savings, failure pattern detection speed.
  • Drive continuous improvement of test protocols based on technician feedback, emerging failure modes, and production data analysis.

Basic Qualifications

  • BS/MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent; advanced degree preferred.
  • 8+ years of experience in test automation, embedded systems, or related fields with demonstrated technical leadership.
  • Expert-level embedded firmware and hardware knowledge: deep understanding of MCU/RTOS and embedded Linux, peripheral interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, CAN bus), power management, and hardware-firmware integration debugging.
  • Proven architecture experience: demonstrated ability to design and deploy scalable test systems, define technical roadmaps, and make architectural trade-off decisions for production environments.
  • Strong automation expertise: advanced Python or similar language for test frameworks, experience with test automation platforms (ATE systems, test frameworks), and ability to build maintainable, modular test libraries.
  • Cross-functional leadership: proven ability to influence without authority, drive technical decisions across engineering disciplines, and communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Production system ownership: track record of deploying and maintaining test systems in manufacturing or service environments with attention to reliability, throughput, and operational sustainability.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Deep familiarity with automotive/IoT/telematics devices, ELD compliance requirements, and field reliability challenges in fleet environments.
  • Background in RMA/failure analysis operations, understanding of warranty cost drivers and quality improvement methodologies (8D, Six Sigma, design FMEA).
  • Expertise in data correlation and pattern recognition: linking test results with field telemetry, customer complaints, and usage patterns for root cause acceleration.
  • Demonstrated success building test automation teams, mentoring engineers, and establishing best practices for sustainable operations.
  • Comfort operating in ambiguous environments: defining requirements, making pragmatic trade-offs, and delivering results within aggressive timelines.

Impact You'll Have

As the architect and technical leader of Test Automation, you will fundamentally transform how the company identifies, understands, and resolves product quality issues. By delivering 100% RMA analysis coverage, you will support data-driven corrective action initiatives. Your automated correlation of test results with field data and customer complaints will accelerate root cause identification by weeks or months, enabling faster engineering response and measurably improving product reliability. Beyond immediate impact, you will establish the scalable technical foundation for quality excellence across all hardware product lines, positioning the company for data-driven quality leadership as we grow. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role where your technical decisions will directly influence customer satisfaction, profitability, and competitive positioning.

Pay Transparency
Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting Motive Perks & Benefits

The base compensation range for this role is:

$163,000 - $200,000 USD

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive's core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. 

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here .

UK Candidate Privacy Notice here.

The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive's policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology. 

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