Senior Staff Engineer, Audio QA

Job Summary:

We are seeking an experienced Audio QA Engineer to join our product team developing cutting-edge VoIP-enabled wearable technology. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring optimal audio performance and quality for voice communication features, performing detailed testing, analysis, and validation of audio pathways in various environments and network conditions.

You will collaborate closely with hardware, firmware, and software teams to develop test plans, automate audio test cases, and validate audio performance across the product lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities:

• Designed and executed comprehensive audio quality test plans for VoIP features on wearable devices.
• Validate microphone and speaker audio paths, codecs, echo cancellation, noise suppression, and voice clarity.
• Conduct MOS (Mean Opinion Score) testing and other subjective and objective audio quality assessments.
• Test audio performance in various real-world and lab conditions (e.g., network types, ambient noise environments, device orientations).
• Use test tools and frameworks to capture, analyze, and log audio signals (e.g., latency, jitter, packet loss, dropouts).
• Conduct wakeword testing for voice assistant features and assess responsiveness and false trigger rates.
• Perform product benchmarking and ensure compliance with audio standards (e.g., TIA-920B).
• Collaborate with software, firmware, hardware, and UX teams to troubleshoot and isolate audio defects.
• Document test cases, test results, defects, and contribute to product release sign-off.
• Contribute to the automation of audio tests wherever applicable.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communications, DSP, Electrical, Computer Engineering, Acoustics, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in audio QA testing, preferably for VoIP, telephony, or wearable products.
• Prior experience with audio performance measurement tools such as:
  • Audio Precision (APx)
  • Listen SoundCheck
  • ACQUA
  • HATS (Head and Torso Simulator)
• Hands-on experience with tools like:
  • Wireshark (for packet capture and VoIP call analysis)
  • Adobe Audition, sox,Audacity, or similar for waveform analysis
• Experience with MOS testing (POLQA, PESQ), subjective audio quality testing, and scripting.
• Experience with product compliance testing for standards like TIA-920 B.
• Familiarity with mobile and embedded platforms (Android, iOS, RTOS) is a plus.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills, attention to detail, and communication skills.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with noise-canceling algorithms (ANC, ENC, beamforming) testing.
• Experience testing Bluetooth and wireless audio (BLE, Classic BT, Wi-Fi).
• Experience with wake word testing and voice UI systems (e.g., Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri).
• Prior work with wearable audio devices such as smart headsets, earbuds, or AR/VR headsets.
• Solid understanding of VoIP protocols (SIP, RTP, RTCP), audio codecs (e.g., Opus, G.711, G.722), and related networking concepts.
• Exposure to Agile development and CI/CD pipelines for automated testing.