Robotics careers · Career guide

Test engineerwhat the job involves, pay and who’s hiring

There are 510 open test engineer roles on Robotics Connected today, at 104 employers. Where roles give pay, the middle figure is $175K a year. Below is what the work involves, the skills employers ask for, how people get in, and the roles open now.

By Olivier Ayache · Figures from the jobs board, updated
510
open test engineer roles
104
employers hiring
$175K
middle pay a year, from 56 roles
2%
can be done remotely

What does a test engineer do?

Test engineers find out whether a robot really works before customers do. They plan and run tests on hardware and software, build the rigs and automation to do it, and track problems until they are fixed.

In robotics this covers everything from testing individual motors and boards on the production line to field trials of complete robots, and quality engineers make sure each one leaves the factory in a good state.

Also advertised as: Validation engineer, Verification engineer, Quality engineer, Robotics test engineer.

A typical week

  • Writing test plans and procedures
  • Building test rigs and automated test software
  • Running tests, analysing results and reporting faults
  • Working with design teams to fix the causes

Skills employers ask for

  • Python for test automation
  • Lab and test equipment
  • Data analysis
  • Quality methods: root-cause analysis, FMEA, statistical process control
  • Careful, methodical record-keeping

How much do test engineers earn?

  • $150K to $200K a year for the middle half, $175K in the middle, from 56 roles paid in USD

These figures come from the 62 of 510 open roles that give pay, taking the middle of each role’s range. Most are in US states where job adverts have to show pay, so they lean towards American salaries; roles in the UK and Europe rarely publish a figure.

Who is hiring test engineers?

The employers with the most open test engineer roles today:

Where are the jobs?

The cities with the most open test engineer roles, each with its own page of robotics jobs:

And by country:

What levels are open?

246 of the 510 roles say their level in the title. They split like this:

Entry-level roles are scarce across robotics, not only in this one. I looked at why, and what I’d suggest if you’re starting out, in this article on the entry-level gap.

How to become a test engineer

Test roles welcome engineers from many backgrounds and are a good way into a robotics company, since you see every part of the product. I'd suggest showing any test automation you have written, since it is the skill employers ask about most.

If you’re early on, the robotics internships and entry-level and graduate roles are the places to start.

Open test engineer jobs

The newest, one an employer:

Search the jobs board for “test”All Test, Safety & Quality roles

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