Lead Test Platform Engineer

Loftorbital; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 320,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

Orbitworks seeks a Lead Test Platform Engineer to own end-to-end Test Platform environments for spacecraft integration, verification, validation, and manufacturing.

The role blends hardware, software, Linux, networking, and test automation to create reusable, scalable platforms supporting growing production in Abu Dhabi. Senior, hands-on leadership is essential for multidisciplinary teams.

Qualifications

• Significant engineering experience owning complex Test Stations or SIL/HIL platforms.
• Experience taking test platforms from requirements to deployment and support.
• Hands-on hardware/software/system integration expertise.

Responsibilities

• Architect, develop, deploy, operate and continuously improve test platforms.
• Lead architecture/design reviews and root-cause investigations.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams across hardware, software, and infra.
• Drive reuse, configurability, and scalability of test environments.

Skills

Test platform ownership

Hardware/software integration

Linux expertise

Python scripting

Git/GitLab

CI/CD automation

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

GitLab

Containerization

Automation tooling

Job description

Role Overview

The Lead Test Platform Engineer will be the technical owner of the end-to-end Test Platform environment used for spacecraft integration, verification, validation, and manufacturing.

This is a senior, hands-on technical leadership role responsible for the architecture, development, integration, deployment, operation, and continuous improvement of spacecraft Test Stations, Test Benches, SIL/HIL environments, and associated EGSE/SCOE.

The role requires someone who can operate across hardware, software, Linux infrastructure, networking, instrumentation, spacecraft interfaces, Electrical/RF GSE, and test automation, while providing technical direction to multidisciplinary engineering teams.

A key focus will be moving from program-specific test setups toward reusable, configurable, reliable, maintainable, and scalable Test Platforms that can support increasing spacecraft production.

The Lead Test Platform Engineer will work closely with Systems Engineering, AIT, Software, Avionics, Electrical, RF/Payload, Design Engineering, D2M, Industrial Operations, Infrastructure, and Program teams.

• Significant engineering experience owning complex Test Stations, SIL/HIL platforms, integration environments, or similar multidisciplinary test systems.


• Demonstrated experience taking Test Platforms from requirements and architecture through build, integration, commissioning, deployment, and operational support.


• Strong hands-on hardware/software/system integration experience.


• Strong practical experience with Linux environments, networking, compute infrastructure, and system troubleshooting.


• Strong Python and scripting capability.


• Practical experience with Git/GitLab, CI/CD, containers, configuration management, and automated deployment.


• Experience integrating hardware, software, instrumentation, embedded devices, and communication interfaces within test environments.


• Ability to troubleshoot complex failures spanning hardware, software, networking, instrumentation, and system interfaces.


• Experience leading architecture/design reviews and root-cause investigations.


• Demonstrated technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams.


• Strong systems-level thinking with the ability to remain technically hands-on.


• Strong cross-functional communication and engineering judgement.


• Ability to establish technical ownership, engineering standards, and scalable approaches rather than relying on one-off solutions.

• Experience within spacecraft, satellite, aerospace, or similarly complex hardware development environments.


• Experience supporting AIT, spacecraft integration, verification, or manufacturing campaigns.


• Hands-on exposure to Electrical EGSE/SCOE and/or RF EGSE/SCOE.


• Experience designing or operating spacecraft electrical, RF, communication, power, or signal interfaces.


• Experience with instrumentation and data-acquisition systems.


• Experience working with embedded hardware or embedded devices within test environments.


• Experience developing or improving automated test execution, monitoring, diagnostics, and validation systems.


• Experience standardizing Test Platforms across multiple programs or products.


• Experience improving platform reliability, observability, backup/recovery, maintenance, calibration, or lifecycle management.


• Experience developing reusable platform architectures while balancing program-specific requirements with longer-term scalability.


• Previous experience mentoring engineers and building technical capability within a growing engineering team.

The ideal candidate is a systems-level engineer and technical leader who is still comfortable getting hands-on. They can move between spacecraft interfaces, hardware, software, infrastructure, networking, and operations, bring structure to ambiguous technical problems, and create Test Platforms that become increasingly predictable, reproducible, maintainable, and scalable as the organization grows.

Orbitworks' mission is to make space simple for organizations that want to deploy physical and virtual missions to space. Building on Loft Orbital's heritage, Orbitworks will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass-manufacture satellites. Orbitworks aims to manufacture tens of satellites annually and operates out of a 50,000-square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi.