WI

Lead SDET

Wispr H-1BOPT Information Technology Full-timeSan Francisco, California USD 130000-170000 /Year
Posted Sep 16, 2026 · Expires Oct 16, 2026

Quick facts

Pay
USD 130000-170000 /Year
Type
Full-time
Location
San Francisco, California
Industry
Information Technology — 671 open jobs
Visa in listing
H-1B, OPT
Apply
Free to apply — never pay anyone for a job offer or visa sponsorship

Job description

About Wispr

Wispr is an AI research and product company building the voice interface for computing. AI can now reason, code, and act. Yet, humans still do the work of the interface. We think that’s backwards.
Our first products are Flow, which lets you speak naturally in any application, and Notetaker, which builds context across conversations. We’re building toward an interface that can perceive, understand, and take action with earned trust. That means solving hard problems across models, systems, and product - and caring about the final human experience as deeply as the technology underneath it.

We’re a talent-dense team that holds strong opinions, tests them quickly, and builds technology that sparks joy. Our goal is to build the first voice interface used every day by a billion people.

What you will do

We’re looking for a Lead Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to build the quality practice behind Flow. You’ll own test strategy, write automation, and personally investigate the product while helping our QA team grow.

  • Build reliable automation. Develop and maintain automated tests for critical journeys across desktop, mobile, backend services, and integrations. Choose the right mix of unit, integration, and end-to-end coverage.

  • Make regression testing continuous. Partner with engineering to run automated checks against internal builds, integrate them into CI/CD, and establish dependable release gates.

  • Test beyond the happy path. Personally explore real-world voice workflows, permissions, device and network changes, cross-app behavior, and updates. Catch usability and consistency issues as well as functional bugs.

  • Own release confidence. Prioritize testing by risk, investigate failures, and use test results, telemetry, and customer impact to make clear release recommendations.

  • Bring quality into development. Work with engineering, product, design, and support from planning through launch. Turn requirements, incidents, and escaped defects into better coverage.

  • Lead through doing. Set standards, coach our QA team and testing partners, and coordinate coverage while remaining hands-on and driving testing yourself.

Who you are

  • An experienced quality engineer. You’ve owned testing for complex software and built or maintained automated suites that teams rely on.

  • A capable programmer. You can write readable test code, build fixtures and test harnesses, debug failures, and keep automation reliable in CI.

  • A systems thinker. You reason across clients, APIs, operating systems, and integrations. You know where mocks help and where real devices and end-to-end checks are essential.

  • An incisive investigator. You turn vague reports into reproducible bugs, use logs and other evidence to isolate causes, and distinguish product failures from test or environment failures.

  • Product-minded and detail-oriented. You care about usability, responsiveness, accessibility, and trust, and know which risks matter most to users.

  • A hands-on leader. You communicate clearly, coach others, and build useful processes in a fast-moving team. Experience with native apps, audio, speech recognition, or AI output evaluation is a plus.

Logistics

We sponsor H1B, O1, EB1, L1, STEM OPT, and more. We can't guarantee sponsorship for every role, but if we make you an offer we'll make every reasonable effort, with help from our immigration law firm.
We strongly encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every qualification. The strongest candidates we meet rarely do, so don't exclude yourself prematurely. We're rethinking how humans interact with AI, and doing that well demands diversity of perspective and experience.
We're committed to a fair and accessible interview process. If you need any accommodations or adjustments, please let us know.

Visa sponsorship record

No public sponsorship records found

We didn't find H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 or green card (PERM) filings under the name Wispr in the Department of Labor and USCIS data. That doesn't mean the job can't be sponsored — the company may file under a different legal name, be new to sponsorship, or sponsor a visa that isn't in these datasets (for example H-2B or J-1).

Tip: ask the recruiter early, in writing, which visa they sponsor and whether they cover the legal and filing fees.

Which visas can work for this job

Occupation: Software Quality Assurance Analysts And Testers (SOC 15-1253).

  • Mentioned in the listing

    H-1B, OPT

  • H-1B cap-exempt employer

    Regular cap-subject employer — a new H-1B needs to win the lottery in March (unless you already hold cap-counted H-1B status).

  • TN (citizens of Canada and Mexico)

    This kind of role may fit the USMCA profession “Computer Systems Analyst (or Engineer, for engineering-degree holders)” — it depends on the actual duties. No lottery, no cap; you need the matching degree or license.

  • E-3 (Australia) and H-1B1 (Chile, Singapore)

    Same degree requirement as H-1B, but no lottery and a separate quota that is rarely filled.

  • O-1 (extraordinary ability)

    For candidates with awards, publications, press, a high salary or critical roles at distinguished organizations. No cap, no lottery; the employer files a petition.

  • STEM OPT extension (F-1 students)

    Requires an E-Verify employer. We didn't find this company in the E-Verify list — ask HR.

Salary vs prevailing wage

Software Quality Assurance Analysts And Testers · San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA. Annual prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor (OFLC).

L1L2L3L4
LevelPrevailing wageH-1B lottery odds*
Level I$80,579~15%
Level II$108,472~31%
Level III$136,344~46%
Level IV$164,237~61%

The listing has no salary, so we can't place it on a wage level. Ask the employer which wage level they'd file at: Level III–IV registrations get 3–4 entries in the H-1B lottery.

* Odds are DHS projections for the FY2027 wage-weighted lottery (actual results vary by year and employer). Since the FY2027 cap season the H-1B lottery is weighted by wage level: Level I = 1 entry, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4. The level is set by the offered wage against the prevailing wage for the occupation and worksite. Separately, a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the US was announced in 2025; as of September 2026 a federal court ruling keeps it unenforceable while appeals continue — check the current status.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC disclosure data (H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCA, PERM), OFLC prevailing wage data, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, E-Verify participating employers. Data loaded: LCA FY2024–FY2026, PERM, USCIS Data Hub, OFLC wages; updated 2026-10-03. Employers are matched by name, so records of companies with similar names can occasionally be mixed up. This is general information, not legal advice — talk to an immigration attorney about your case.