Founding Software Developer in Test (SDET)

Company: First Resonance
Location: Los Angeles
Posted on: February 18, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Job Description As the founding Software Developer in Test (SDET) at First Resonance, you will take full ownership of our automated testing ecosystem. We are looking for a high-autonomy engineer who can bridge the gap between development and quality assurance without a pre-existing blueprint. You will be the internal Subject Matter Expert for all things automation. You won’t just be following a testing plan; you will be architecting the framework, selecting the patterns, and establishing the "Quality Culture" for our engineering team. Key Responsibilities Strategic Ownership & Autonomy Roadmap Definition: Independently define and execute the automation strategy, prioritizing coverage areas (API vs. UI) based on risk and business value. Self-Directed Management: Act as a "team of one" initially—managing your own backlog, setting technical standards, and providing regular status updates to engineering leadership. Process Evangelism: Educate the broader engineering team on BDD practices, helping developers write better feature files and understand the value of the Playwright/Cucumber stack. Framework Architecture & Engineering Architect & Maintain: Own the end-to-end lifecycle of our Playwright and TypeScript framework, utilizing the Page Object Model (POM) and custom Cucumber World contexts. Performance & Scalability: Independently design and execute load testing strategies using K6 to ensure our infrastructure scales with our user base. Tooling & Analytics: Manage our Testomatio integration, ensuring that test reporting provides actionable insights for stakeholders who may not be QA experts. Frontend Collaboration React/Next.js Integration: Use your knowledge of React to dive into the codebase, understand component structure, and ensure our frontend is built with testability in mind (e.g., advising on data-attributes and accessibility roles). CI/CD Leadership: Take full responsibility for the stability of tests in the CI pipeline, managing parallelization, retries, and @quarantine tags to ensure the build stays green. Technical Qualifications The Essentials Experience: 5 years of professional experience in software testing or development, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead automation role where you had significant input on framework design. Autonomy: Proven track record of working as the sole SDET or leading a testing function in a startup environment where you had to manage yourself. Modern Stack Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript (async/await, OOD) and Playwright . BDD/Gherkin: Deep experience implementing Cucumber from scratch, including defining step definition patterns that are scalable. The "Big Plus" (Frontend Engineering) React/Next.js Mastery: A strong interest or background in Frontend Engineering . You should be comfortable reading React code, understanding hooks/state, and using Browser DevTools to diagnose UI bugs. Skills & Mindset Communication: Ability to translate complex technical testing concepts into clear "business risk" language for engineering leaders. Problem Solving: You don't wait for a ticket to fix a flaky test or a slow CI build; you identify the bottleneck and solve it independently. Benefits & Perks Health Insurance; medical, vision, dental, & life insurance. Paid Parental Leave. Employee Stock Option Plan. Team outings, group lunches, open office, happy hours. Paid holidays, sick days. Flexible Friday and PTO. 401K. First Resonance is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. First Resonance participates in E-Verify. As part of our onboarding process, a new hire's Form I-9 information will be shared with the federal government to confirm they are authorized to work in the U.S. Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. First Resonance accelerates the speed and reliability of hardware development for companies manufacturing the next generation of hardware products. This includes space exploration, electric airplanes, autonomous vehicles, nuclear reactors, robotics, and more. We are a group of software, hardware, and manufacturing engineers that are bringing the best of modern UX and data science to an industry that has been overly rigid in its innovation. We are removing the barriers preventing radical advancement by providing tools to manufacturing engineers and operators to move information more freely, collaborate with their teams more easily, and use the power of data to predict problems and provide insights that result in better hardware quality and delivery. Compensation Range: $155K - $175K

Keywords: First Resonance, Covina , Founding Software Developer in Test (SDET), Engineering , Los Angeles, California