Android Release Automation Engineer (12 month Contract)

Android Release & Automation Engineer Position OverviewWe are seeking a Software Engineer for a fixed 1-year term to manage, optimize, and aggressively automate our Cloud Android Release pipeline. The primary objective of this role is to offload the daily operational release burden from the core engineering team, freeing them up for high-value feature development.  This is not a traditional QA or open-source test framework manager position. It requires a true software engineer who can write code to interface with proprietary infrastructure, comprehend deeply integrated test suites running across custom GitHub workflows, and interpret low-level Android Emulator outputs. Over the course of this 12-month contract, you will transition highly manual release gates into a self-sustaining, automated infrastructure capable of being handed off to autonomous AI agents or existing QA structures.Key ResponsibilitiesPhase 1: Release Operations & Triage (Months 1–3)Infrastructure & Test Comprehension: Navigate and master complex test suites executing across a combination of Google-specific infrastructure and bespoke GitHub workflows.  Android Emulator Triage: Monitor, interpret, and debug software outputs from the team-managed Android Emulator to quickly isolate issues.  Release Management: Own weekly release creation and deployment to staging environments across various hosts (including ARM64, SEO, and acloud hosts). Source Control Management: Actively manage and unblock internal Copybara integration pipelines.  Issue Resolution: Triage release-impacting errors, resolving routine infrastructure/build failures and routing deeply complex core platform bugs to specialized engineering partners. Phase 2: Deep Pipeline Automation (Months 4–10)Software-Driven Automation: Write scalable code and scripts to completely eliminate manual gates within the release creation and staging processes.  Advanced Error Handling: Implement robust automated error-handling scripts to auto-resolve GitHub, Copybara, and proprietary TAP (Test Automation Platform) failures.  AI Agent Integration: Develop and integrate platform "skills" utilizing internal AI frameworks (e.g., Jetski) to enable agent-assisted root cause analysis and automated error resolution workflows. Phase 3: Autonomous Handoff & Exit (Months 11–12)Playbook Documentation: Document automated release playbooks, continuous integration workflows, and complex branching models.  System Handover: Seamlessly transition the fully automated release infrastructure to existing QA/testing resources or to an autonomous AI agent, ensuring a clean exit strategy.Technical Qualifications & ExperienceSoftware Development Background: Concrete professional experience as a Software Development Engineer. High-level familiarity with open-source test frameworks is inapplicable to this environment.  Embedded or Android Development: A proven history of writing software for embedded devices or Android systems, providing the technical depth needed to understand low-level Android Emulator logs and behaviors. Proprietary CI/CD & Infrastructure: Strong experience managing complex integration pipelines utilizing Google-specific infrastructure or equivalent internal tools (e.g., Copybara, TAP, Kokoro, Buildozer).  Complex Triage & Reverts: Advanced contextual judgment when debugging build failures, managing targeted code reverts, and troubleshooting proprietary test automation platforms.Cross-Functional Coordination: Exceptional communication and collaboration skills to actively coordinate bug resolutions, ARM host image releases, and Omnilab bugs with multiple cross-functional engineering partners. Preferred QualificationsAI & Next-Gen Frameworks: Experience working with or integrating AI frameworks/agents for automated developer operations (DevOps/SysOps).Job LogisticsDuration: 12 Months (Fixed-Term contract).Location: United Kingdom（Remote）