Senior Software Engineer, Test

About Tin Can

Tin Can is building a safer, simpler way for kids to connect — without smartphones. We’re creating screen-free, delightful devices and services that let families call the people who matter most, free from the noise of today’s digital world.

We’re building a bold, authentic, nostalgic, and kinda quirky brand that resonates with folks who want something simpler & better for their kids than the tech-infused lives we’re currently living (and who have a sense of humor about it). As we gear up to scale to thousands of families, we’re ready to bring on an engineer to help make it happen.

The Role

When a kid picks up a Tin Can, the call has to work the first time, every time — whether that’s a call to Grandma or a call to 911. That promise is only as good as our ability to prove it holds before a release goes out. We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Test to own that proof: the automated testing that verifies every call path works, on every change, before it reaches a kid’s phone.

You’ll own our end-to-end and call-path test suites and the checks that gate a release. The surfaces are real: a staging environment where a change can place an actual SIP call before it merges; a Flutter app on iOS and Android; firmware on ESP32 devices; and a call-decision engine whose scenario suite you’ll grow into our strongest safety net. You’ll work alongside our voice, app, infrastructure and firmware engineers, and you’ll be the person who defines what “tested” means here.

What You’ll Do

• Own our end-to-end and call-path test suites — the automated checks that tell engineers a change is safe to ship

• Build automated SIP test calls that run in staging before every merge — real calls verified for connection, audio, voicemail, and the call record afterward

• Guarantee emergency calling with continuous, safe verification, so we can show that every Tin Can reaches 911

• Grow regression coverage across the paths families depend on most — voicemail, contact approval, missed calls — so every release protects them

• Automate the manual parts of our release process across mobile, backend, and firmware, so releases get faster and safer as the fleet grows

• Shape our CI/CD: what runs on every pull request, what gates a deploy, and what a failing check blocks

• Partner with firmware on repeatable release testing, and push on testability — device emulation, test hooks — so device behavior is verified automatically on every build

• Measure the suites themselves — coverage of the paths families use, signal engineers can trust, and defects caught before they ship

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years in software engineering, with deep experience in test automation for production systems where a failure is something a customer feels immediately

• You’ve built end-to-end suites engineers actually trust — fast, deterministic, wired into CI, and rare enough to be believed when they go red

• Comfortable in the guts of a distributed system; you can follow a request across services, read the telemetry, and write a test that proves behavior rather than restating the code

• Fluency using AI as a multiplier across diagnosis, analysis, and testing; this is how we work, not a nice-to-have

• A clear communicator who writes things down, because a test suite nobody understands is a test suite nobody maintains

• Hands-on and scrappy; you’ll build the harness, the fixtures, and the CI plumbing yourself, and you’d rather automate a test than run it twice

• A collaborative, low-ego approach — everyone here sweeps the floor

• Bonus: VoIP or telephony testing (SIP/RTP, sipp, synthetic call monitoring); mobile release testing across iOS and Android; or hardware-in-the-loop testing for embedded devices

Why Join Tin Can

• We’re building tech that protects childhood: We’re on a quest to give kids a more analog childhood — one with real conversations, real connection, and way less screen time. No doomscrolling, data mining, or dopamine traps — just a simpler, better way for kids to stay in touch. This is a rare opportunity to build something that truly matters.

• You’ll guarantee the call that matters most: Every Tin Can can dial 911, and you’ll build the verification that proves it — then hold the same bar for every other call a family counts on, across the device, the app, and the call path.

• Small, high-trust team: Every company says “team,” but at Tin Can it means something different. We’re a small, mission-driven group that genuinely has each other’s backs — professionally and personally. You’ll be joining a tight-knit crew where your ideas and instincts matter from day one.

• Room to explore, not just execute: You’ll have the space to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, and build systems that reflect our values of trust, simplicity, and care.

If you’re excited by the idea of making every Tin Can release something families never have to think about — and building the tests and tooling that get us there — we’d love to meet you.