QA Leader
Full-Time Position | Portland, Oregon
About Us
Rapta is revolutionizing precision US manufacturing with an agentic native AI Platform trusted by the nation's top defense primes. Backed by top investors and growing 521% year-over-year, we're a Portland-based team building computer vision and robotics technology that keeps America's most critical production lines running flawlessly. If you want to do meaningful work at the intersection of AI and advanced manufacturing, we'd love to meet you.
Position Overview
We're seeking an experienced QA Manager to establish and lead Rapta’s quality engineering function for our distributed, cutting-edge applied AI systems. This is a full-time position working directly with our engineering team to define quality strategy across three essential domains: software, integrated hardware, and real-world industrial applications.
This is not a purely software QA role. You will build the systems, team, and operational discipline that ensure Rapta software works reliably with cameras, sensors, robotics, and production equipment in demanding manufacturing environments.
What You'll Do
- Define and execute an end-to-end quality strategy for software, hardware-integrated systems, and industrial deployments
- Build and lead a high-performing QA function, including hiring, mentoring, and establishing clear quality ownership across engineering and systems teams
- Design and expand automated test coverage across unit, integration, end-to-end, performance, regression, and release validation testing
- Develop practical validation plans for hardware/software interactions, including cameras, sensors, networking, edge compute, and industrial equipment interfaces
- Partner with engineering, product, systems, and customer-facing teams to embed quality early in requirements, architecture, field deployment, and release processes
- Establish quality metrics, release readiness criteria, defect triage practices, and continuous-improvement initiatives for both laboratory and customer production environments
- Lead root-cause analysis for quality issues across code, hardware integrations, configuration, deployment conditions, and manufacturing workflows
What We're Looking For
- 10+ years of professional experience in quality engineering, systems integration, test engineering, or a related discipline, including 5+ years leading or managing QA teams or programs
- Demonstrated ability to own quality across complex software, integrated hardware, and operational production environments
- Deep curiosity for software quality, reliability engineering, AI systems, automation, and industrial technology
- Strong system design instincts and the ability to identify quality risks across services, deployments, data flows, hardware interfaces, and user workflows
- Excellence in technical communication, documentation, and cross-functional leadership
Required Technical Skills
- Expertise in prompt engineering and AI-assisted development as a daily practice — Claude Code, Augment, Copilot, or equivalent is a force multiplier in your workflow, not a novelty
- Strong experience with automated testing frameworks and tooling for API, UI, integration, and end-to-end testing
- Experience developing test strategy for distributed systems, CI/CD pipelines, containerized applications, and production releases
- Practical experience testing software that interacts with physical hardware, sensors, cameras, networks, or edge devices
- Proficiency with version control, test management, defect tracking, quality reporting, and release validation practices
- Experience with performance, reliability, regression, and failure-mode testing
Highly Competitive Candidates Will Also Bring
- Previous experience in **manufacturing, industrial automation, robotics, or quality control systems**
- Experience validating computer vision, machine learning, or AI-enabled systems
- Familiarity with industrial cameras, sensors, PLC-connected systems, robotics, motion control, or hardware/software integration testing
- Knowledge of manufacturing quality standards and methodologies, including ISO, Six Sigma, FMEA, or CAPA
- Experience testing real-time systems and software deployed under edge computing constraints
- Experience supporting deployments in active production facilities and translating customer and operator feedback into durable quality improvements
Why Join Us?
- Work with cutting-edge AI technology in a high-impact industry
- Competitive compensation and benefits package
- Professional development and learning opportunities
- Opportunity to shape manufacturing technology that impacts American industry
Location Requirements
Candidates outside of the Portland metro area will not be considered.
Equal Opportunity
Rapta is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.
How to Apply
No recruiters or agencies — we only accept applications directly from applicants.
