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Test Automation Engineer - NI VeriStand to Python Migration
Location: Kalamazoo, MI 100% onsite.
Overview
Client is a global medical device manufacturer. Their Acute Care R&D group develops connected electromechanical patient-support platforms (hospital beds and stretchers) with embedded firmware, sensing, actuation, and network connectivity. Verification runs on custom Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) benches built on National Instruments PXI hardware.
The client is consolidating verification tooling onto a single Python-based test framework. This role migrates the existing NI VeriStand test asset library into that framework preserving functional equivalence, test coverage, and verification traceability.
Responsibilities
Analysis & reverse engineering
Analyze the existing VeriStand library: system definition files, Real-Time Sequences, stimulus profiles, workspace configurations, custom devices and document functional intent, signal mapping, and coverage of each test
Reconstruct test intent where documentation is thin or original authors are unavailable
Produce a migration inventory and sequencing plan covering dependencies, complexity, and priority
Migration & development
Port VeriStand test logic into the Python framework, maintaining functional equivalence with the legacy implementation
Build and extend Python hardware-abstraction layers over the NI stack - nidaqmx (DAQ, analog/digital I/O), nixnet (CAN/CAN FD), pyvisa (instrument and serial control) and over PXI chassis and real-time targets
Implement reusable fixtures, drivers, and utilities so the migrated suite is maintainable, not a one-for-one transliteration
Integrate migrated tests into version control and automated execution
Verification of the migration
Design and execute an equivalence strategy: run legacy VeriStand and migrated Python tests against the same device under test and reconcile results
Investigate discrepancies, distinguishing genuine defects from timing, resolution, or signal-conditioning differences between environments
Document equivalence evidence to a standard suitable for design-control review
Bench & hardware work
Bring up and maintain HIL benches: PXI chassis, NI modules, signal conditioning, wiring harnesses, load banks, simulated sensors and actuators
Debug at signal level with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, protocol analyzers
Support fault-insertion and boundary-condition testing on electromechanical subsystems
Documentation & quality
Maintain traceability from migrated tests to source requirements and test protocols
Support test-tool validation and produce documentation consistent with design-control and DHF expectations
Participate in peer code review, protocol review, and defect triage
Required
5 years embedded systems, firmware, or system-level test engineering on physical hardware
NI VeriStand hands-on: system definition (.nivssdf), Real-Time Sequences (.nivsseq), stimulus profiles, workspace/screen configuration, custom devices; deploying to NI real-time targets
NI hardware: PXI/PXIe chassis, real-time controllers, DAQ modules, signal conditioning; configuration in NI MAX
Python: production-quality - OOP design, pytest or comparable, fixtures, hardware abstraction, structured logging and reporting
NI Python APIs: nidaqmx, nixnet, pyvisa, or demonstrable equivalent instrument-control work in Python
Electronics: reads schematics fluently, confident probing live PCBAs, proficient with scope, DMM, logic analyzer, bench supplies, electronic loads
Protocols: CAN and CAN FD, I²C, SPI, UART/RS-232/RS-485 - at debugging level, not just familiarity
HIL concepts: closed-loop simulation, plant models, signal conditioning, fault insertion, real-time determinism
Tooling: Git; Jira, Azure DevOps, Polarion, or Jama
Able to work onsite in Kalamazoo for the full engagement
Preferred(5-8 years of Testing exp)
Medical device experience under design controls - ISO 13485, IEC 62304, ISO 14971, FDA QMSR / 21 CFR Part 820
Test method validation (TMV) and software tool validation in a regulated environment
LabVIEW and NI TestStand - especially for interpreting legacy custom devices and sequence orchestration
Simulink or model-based plant simulation feeding VeriStand
Electromechanical test: motor control, actuators, load cells, position/force sensing, battery systems
IEC 60601-1 and 60601-1-2 familiarity
CI/CD for hardware test (Jenkins, GitLab CI) and automated test reporting