Environmental Test Engineer

Cosmic Frontier Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Reproductive healthcare

HSA/FSA

Life insurance

Disability insurance

One Medical

401(k)

Education benefits

Cell phone reimbursement

Wi-Fi reimbursement

Work-from-home stipend

Commuter benefits

Wellness programs

Job summary

Cosmic Frontier Labs in San Francisco is seeking a test engineer to validate hardware and software across telescope systems and to build the test infrastructure that accelerates iteration.

You will design and run campaigns, build fixtures, and develop data pipelines; success includes stand-up of automated workflow and end-to-end tests. This role offers the chance to help push spaceflight hardware to orbit within two years.

Qualifications

• Strong education background in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Hands on experience designing and executing test campaigns, including environmental testing such as vibration and thermal vacuum.
• Experience building test fixtures, selecting instrumentation, and creating reliable data acquisition workflows.
• Proven ability to analyze failures, identify root cause, and drive design changes based on test results.

Responsibilities

• Design and run test campaigns across subsystems and integrated builds, from bench tests to vibe and TVAC
• Build fixtures, write automation, and create the instrumentation and data pipelines that make results trustworthy
• Hunt edge cases early and turn failures into design changes, not paperwork

Skills

Test campaign design

Environmental testing

Data acquisition

Root cause analysis

Python

Education

Mechanical/Electrical/Aerospace Engineering degree

Tools

LabVIEW

MATLAB

Job description

Cosmic Frontier’s mission is to dramatically expand access to high performance space telescopes, democratize the scientific process, and build tools for exploring the Universe.

Cosmic Frontier team members own the full lifecycle of spaceflight hardware and software, from early architecture through flight. We build and fly real hardware. The systems you build will go to orbit within the next two years.

Role Description:

We’re looking for a test engineer to validate hardware and software across our telescope systems and to build the test infrastructure that turns iteration into a competitive advantage.

If you love breaking things before they break themselves, we want to talk.

What you’ll do:

• Design and run test campaigns across subsystems and integrated builds, from bench tests to vibe and TVAC
• Build fixtures, write automation, and create the instrumentation and data pipelines that make results trustworthy
• Hunt edge cases early and turn failures into design changes, not paperwork

What Success looks like in the first 90 days:

• Stand up a v1 automated test and data capture workflow that the team can reuse
• Run one end to end subsystem test campaign and produce a clear report with actions
• Improve one piece of test infrastructure that directly increases iteration speed or confidence

Required qualifications:

• Strong education background in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, or related field, with significant experience testing complex hardware systems
• Hands on experience designing and executing test campaigns, including environmental testing such as vibration and thermal vacuum
• Experience building test fixtures, selecting instrumentation, and creating reliable data acquisition workflows
• Proven ability to analyze failures, identify root cause, and drive design changes based on test results

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience testing integrated electro mechanical or spaceflight hardware systems
• Background in test automation using Python, LabVIEW, MATLAB, or similar tools
• Experience developing hardware in the loop setups or automated regression style testing
• Comfortable operating in a fast paced startup environment where you are expected to define the test approach, not just execute it
• Medical, dental, vision, reproductive healthcare, HSA/FSA, life and disability insurance, One Medical.
• 401(k), education benefits, cell phone and Wi-Fi reimbursement, one-time work-from-home stipend, commuter benefits, wellness programs.

Export control:

Due to the nature of the products and information handled in this role, employment is restricted to U.S. Persons as defined by U.S. export control laws.

Salary Band:

• L4: $120,000 – $160,000
• L5: $170,000 – $250,000

Diversity and Inclusion:

We encourage anyone who is excited about this role to apply, even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications. We value builders with strong judgment, high ownership, and a track record of making complex systems work in the real world.

Recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and retaining a diverse workforce is critical to our success. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Cosmic Frontier Labs is a Program and Operating Division of the Renaissance Philanthropy Fund. Renaissance Philanthropy is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

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