Spacecraft Test Engineer

The role

The Spacecraft Test Engineer will own mechanical and environmental testing across the spacecraft development lifecycle. This includes R&D, design de-risking, and first-article spacecraft qualification through vibration and thermal vacuum testing.

What you will do

• Identify high-risk mechanical, structural, thermal, material, and process risks.
• Design and execute coupon, component, and subassembly-level tests.
• Develop test-derived allowables and engineering data for mechanical interfaces.
• Build and expand internal capabilities for advanced mechanical and materials testing.
• Design and build test fixtures, instrumentation, and data acquisition systems.
• Own the planning and execution of first-article spacecraft vibration testing.
• Support spacecraft-level thermal vacuum (TVAC) test campaigns.
• Develop spacecraft-level verification strategies.
• Support PDR/CDR and other design reviews.
• Serve as a technical point of contact between spacecraft test and the broader engineering organization.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• 3+ years of relevant engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of hardware testing and verification.
• Experience developing and executing mechanical or environmental tests on complex hardware.
• Direct experience with one or more spacecraft environmental tests such as vibration, thermal vacuum, thermal cycling, shock, or structural testing.
• Strong understanding of mechanical engineering fundamentals, including structural mechanics, materials, thermal effects, fasteners, joints, and interfaces.
• Experience developing test fixtures, instrumentation, and data acquisition systems.
• Ability to interpret test data, identify anomalies, and perform root-cause analysis.
• Strong technical writing skills and experience producing engineering test plans, procedures, and reports.
• Ability to work hands-on with flight hardware and test equipment.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of ambiguous problems and drive them to completion.

Nice to have

• Direct experience leading spacecraft-level vibration or TVAC campaigns.
• Experience with first-article or qualification testing of spacecraft or other aerospace hardware.
• Experience with materials characterization, allowables testing, or other mechanical/materials test methods.
• Experience correlating thermal or structural models with physical test data.
• Experience designing test fixtures and GSE using CAD.
• Familiarity with spacecraft environmental test standards and practices.
• Experience with accelerometers, thermocouples/RTDs, strain gauges, load cells, or other test instrumentation.
• Experience with data acquisition systems and test automation.
• Familiarity with Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or similar tools for test automation and data analysis.
• Experience working with external test facilities and vendors.

About the company

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth. With Pulsar, Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.