Tools for Humanity is hiring a Tech Lead, Device Automation & QA in Device — San Francisco. The overview below is synthesized from the employer posting on jobs.ashbyhq.com: factual requirements and scope are preserved, but prose is rewritten with editorial context. Verify details and apply via the employer link.
About the Company
Company context from the listing:
Tools for Humanity (TFH) designs and builds technology behind World. World is building a real human network designed to accelerate people in the age of AI.
World is already running at a global scale. More than 17 million people across 160 countries have verified with World ID, and more new Orb verifications take place each week.
Founded in 2019, TFH has more than 400 people across hardware, software, AI, cryptography, mobile engineering, and global operations. Our teams come from OpenAI, Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Google, Stripe, Meta, Coinbase, Palantir and MIT Media Lab.
TFH and World have been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, highlighted in Fast Company’s Next 5 in Fintech, and explored in a Bloomberg deep dive. ⇧JOBLINK:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/technology/w
About the team
Company context from the listing:
The Device Software team develops the magical experiences that enable the missions of TFH. We are passionate about making great products.
About the role
Day-to-day scope for the Tech Lead, Device Automation & QA as described in the posting:
The listing frames the Tech Lead, Device Automation & QA at Tools for Humanity as a hands-on product role. This role is the final quality gate for device software releases and operates alongside but independently from product development teams, with clear accountability for release readiness, test coverage, and test fleet health.
You will design, build, and operate a scalable automated test infrastructure spanning devices, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), backend services, and CI/CD systems. Your work will directly enable faster development cycles, higher release confidence, and fewer issues reaching the field.
You will write and review test code, design test architectures, interact directly with hardware, and set the quality bar for multiple device product lines. Over time, this role will define how quality scales as our device portfolio, team size, and system complexity grow.
In this role, you will:
- Own the automation and QA strategy for Device Software, serving as the independent verification and final release gate for all device releases
- Recruit and hire top talent to the QA team that will be able to be self-sufficient within the realms of software, hardware and fleet management
- Act as the build and release manager including release scheduling, readiness reviews, and release notes
- Design, implement, and evolve a large-scale automated test fleet, including test devices, test stations, and custom HIL systems
- Architect and operate test infrastructure spanning:Devices (Orb and future products)Test stations that interact with devices like a human wouldBackend services, CI/CD pipelines, and fleet management tooling
- Designing and automating regression, smoke, and nightly test workflows
- Define quality benchmarks and test strategies in partnership with project leads for new products and features
- Enable scalable fleet operations, including:Automated test deployment and updatesCI-triggered test executionMonitoring and troubleshooting of test failures
- Investigate and reproduce field issues, acting as first-line triage before handing off to firmware, software, hardware, and backend teams
- Continuously improve test coverage, execution speed, and system reliability, including negative and fault-injection testing
You might thrive in this role if you have:
- Are deeply hands-on with software and hardware, comfortable debugging real devices, test rigs, and electrical signals
- Have designed or owned automation systems at scale, including fleets of test devices
- Write and review high-quality test code and enjoy building reusable, maintainable test frameworks and libraries
- Can read production firmware and software code to understand system behavior and translate that understanding into targeted tests
- Are naturally curious and proactive— you dig for bugs, edge cases, and failure modes others miss. A human fuzz tester
- Are comfortable setting direction with ambiguity and do not require detailed test instructions to get started
- Lead with collaboration and low ego, earning trust by delivering value
- Think in systems—anticipating future bottlenecks in testing, release processes, and infrastructure before they become problems
- Are not afraid to break things in the name of learning, validation, and quality
Pay transparency statement (for CA and NY based roles):
The reasonably estimated salary for this role at TFH in San Francisco ranges from $217,000 - $260,000, plus a competitive long term incentive package, and may include variable compensation. Actual compensation is based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.