Senior Automation Engineer- Agentic AI

Position Overview

SST is seeking an experienced Senior Agentic AI – Validation & Automation Engineer to join our engineering team in Markham, Ontario.

This position combines agentic AI software development, intelligent automation, and component quality engineering. The successful candidate will design, develop, and deploy production-quality AI agents and automated workflows to improve engineering validation, software testing, defect analysis, and operational efficiency.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on software engineer with strong Python development skills, practical experience building AI agents, and a solid understanding of validation strategies, test automation, and CI/CD infrastructure.

This role requires the ability to translate complex engineering processes into scalable, maintainable, and measurable AI-driven solutions while ensuring security, reliability, traceability, and appropriate human oversight.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain AI agents and multi-agent workflows for component validation, quality analysis, automated testing, defect triage, reporting, and engineering follow-up.
• Transform manual and scripted validation processes into intelligent, end-to-end workflows with clearly defined triggers, inputs, outputs, decision points, exception handling, and human approval mechanisms.
• Build reusable AI agent capabilities for requirements analysis, test planning, test generation, execution orchestration, result interpretation, defect tracking, root-cause analysis, KPI reporting, and engineering status updates.
• Integrate AI agents with existing engineering infrastructure, including test automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, source code repositories, defect tracking systems, engineering dashboards, logs, and laboratory environments.
• Develop reliable, maintainable Python applications, APIs, and automation services supporting agent orchestration, tool integration, workflow state management, error recovery, and production deployment.
• Establish validation strategies and measurable acceptance criteria for AI agent performance, including accuracy, consistency, traceability, response time, reliability, and failure handling.
• Implement secure and responsible AI development practices, including access controls, protected data handling, auditability, controlled execution, and human-in-the-loop approval processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering, software development, validation, and quality teams to understand technical requirements and develop effective automation solutions.
• Investigate complex issues involving AI agents, automation frameworks, software platforms, test environments, and component validation systems.
• Support pre-silicon and post-silicon validation activities through AI-driven automation to improve test coverage, execution efficiency, performance analysis, and engineering productivity.
• Define, track, and communicate automation effectiveness using metrics such as test coverage, execution throughput, cycle time, defect detection, agent accuracy, workflow recovery, and adoption.
• Contribute to technical architecture discussions, code reviews, engineering documentation, and the development of reusable automation standards.
• Provide technical guidance and promote best practices in agentic AI development, software quality, automation architecture, and engineering workflow optimization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong proficiency in Python programming, including developing maintainable applications, APIs, and automation solutions.
• Hands-on experience in software development, engineering automation, or validation systems.
• Solid understanding of software testing methodologies, defect lifecycle management, debugging, and root-cause analysis.
• Experience working with CI/CD pipelines, source control systems, and automated testing frameworks.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex engineering requirements into structured, scalable software solutions.
• Understanding of software architecture, system integration, and production-quality development practices.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and technical problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Practical experience developing agentic AI applications, AI agents, or multi-agent workflows for engineering or business process automation.
• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool/function calling, structured outputs, and AI orchestration frameworks.
• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop AI systems, agent evaluation, observability, and workflow recovery mechanisms.
• Experience integrating AI agents with engineering tools, test frameworks, APIs, databases, and CI/CD infrastructure.
• Background in component-level or system-level validation involving hardware, firmware, drivers, operating systems, AI/ML, GPUs, NPUs, cameras, or related technologies.
• Experience with pre-silicon and post-silicon software development, testing, or validation.
• Knowledge of engineering quality metrics, test coverage analysis, defect management, and validation reporting.
• Familiarity with secure AI development practices, access management, audit logging, and protection of engineering data.
• Experience designing reusable automation architectures and supporting deployment across distributed engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives, establish development standards, and improve engineering productivity through automation.

Why Join SST?

• Work on advanced AI-driven automation and engineering validation technologies.
• Develop practical agentic AI solutions that address complex engineering challenges.
• Gain exposure to semiconductor technologies, hardware-software integration, and next-generation computing platforms.
• Collaborate with experienced engineering professionals and global technology teams.
• Contribute to SST's growing North American engineering organization.
• Participate in innovative projects that combine AI, software engineering, and intelligent automation.

Work Location

Markham, Ontario, Canada

This position is based in Markham and requires onsite collaboration with engineering and technical teams.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Sapphire Stream Technology is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. We welcome applications from qualified candidates and make employment decisions in accordance with applicable employment and human rights legislation.