Test Automation Engineer - NI VeriStand to Python Migration

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 Test Stand - 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.