About the role

Head of Quality Engineering
Auckland | Permanent | Circa $170K base salary

Short summary:
Own and build the quality engineering capability for sophisticated embedded products spanning hardware, firmware, Android/Linux and cloud.
Key selling points

• Build the quality engineering function, automation and test infrastructure
• Hands-on embedded, hardware & software quality leadership
• Shape AI-driven quality engineering as the business scales globally

The opportunity:
This is a genuine build-and-lead opportunity for a senior Quality Engineering leader who still loves being close to the technology.
Our client designs and manufactures sophisticated embedded products combining touchscreen interfaces, compute hardware, firmware and complete software stacks for large global OEM customers.
As they transition from project-led delivery toward a scalable product platform model and expand further into the US market, they are looking for a Head of Quality Engineering to own and mature the quality capability across the business.
You’ll own quality across firmware, embedded operating systems, application software, touchscreen interfaces and the physical hardware they run on.
And importantly, this isn't a role where you'll simply oversee a QA team.
You’ll still be expected to write automation, build test rigs, work directly with target hardware and troubleshoot at the bench, while also setting strategy and representing quality at senior management level.

What you'll be doing:
You’ll take ownership of the quality engineering strategy while building the capability required to support a growing portfolio of concurrent customer programmes.

That will include:

• Building and scaling the QA engineering function, practices and technical capability
• Designing automated testing across firmware, platform, application and UI layers
• Building hardware-in-the-loop rigs, device farms, protocol simulators and test infrastructure
• Integrating automated testing into Jenkins CI/CD
• Establishing robust release readiness, defect management and requirements traceability
• Developing test strategies for reusable product platforms rather than individual projects
• Supporting hardware, firmware, Android/Linux, cloud and device-to-cloud testing
• Working with OEM customers and overseas manufacturing partners on quality and test evidence
• Leading, mentoring and growing a technical QA Engineering team
• Representing quality, technical risk and investment decisions within the senior leadership team.

AI is an important part of this role We're particularly interested in someone who is already experimenting with and applying AI within Quality Engineering.
You might be using tools such as Claude, GitHub Copilot, Qodo or similar to improve areas such as automation authoring, test design, regression selection, defect triage, requirements analysis or coverage.
This needs to be something you're actually doing, rather than something you've simply been following from the sidelines. The role specifically requires current, demonstrable AI practice.
What we're looking for You'll ideally come from a product engineering environment involving a combination of embedded software, firmware and physical hardware.

We're looking for:

• Significant hands-on Quality Engineering experience across embedded, connected or hardware/software products
• Strong test automation capability, including frameworks or suites you've personally designed and built
• Experience building or significantly improving a QA capability from a relatively low base
• Leadership and mentoring experience
• Strong technical credibility—you can still get hands-on when required
• Current practical use of AI within testing or Quality Engineering
• The communication and commercial awareness to influence senior technical and business leaders.

Experience with Android/AOSP, embedded Linux, STM32/RTOS environments, regulated or safety-critical products, manufacturing test or product certification would be particularly valuable.
Why this role? You won't be inheriting a mature QA machine and simply keeping it running.

You'll have the opportunity to build the function, define the engineering standards and create the automation and infrastructure that supports the company's next stage of growth.
For someone who sees Quality Engineering as an engineering discipline rather than a final testing gate, this is a rare opportunity to have genuine influence over how an entire product organisation ships.