Flight Hardware & Avionics Test Engineer

Castelion; Rio Rancho (NM); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Castelion in Rio Rancho, NM is seeking a Development Test Engineer to own the planning, execution, and analysis of tests that validate flight-ready hardware across avionics, mechanisms, propulsion, and structures.

This hands-on role sits at the heart of engineering, manufacturing, and operations, requiring strong debugging, fixture design, and collaboration with design teams to feed test results back into rapid refinement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, or related engineering field.
• 3+ years of hands-on development and test experience.
• Experience planning and executing hardware tests from concept through report-out.
• Proficiency with test instrumentation and lab equipment (DAQs, oscilloscopes, power supplies, sensors).
• Ability to design and fabricate simple test fixtures and GSE (CAD + shop familiarity).
• Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and root‑cause analysis skills.
• Willingness to support extended hours, weekends, travel, and on‑site operations during critical test campaigns.
• Operates with high ownership, bias to action, attention to detail, and a test‑driven engineering mindset.
• Comfortable working in fast‑moving environments where hardware is the source of truth.

Responsibilities

• Own development and qualification testing for avionics, mechanisms, propulsion, structures, and integrated vehicle subsystems.
• Design and build test fixtures, ground support equipment (GSE), and instrumentation for benchtop, environmental, and system‑level tests.
• Author test plans, procedures, and reports aligned with program requirements and qualification intent.
• Execute vibration, thermal, shock, EMI/EMC, functional, and performance testing.
• Instrument hardware and vehicles with sensors (strain, temp, pressure, accel, current/voltage) and DAQ systems.
• Lead anomaly detection, root‑cause analysis, and corrective action closure.
• Partner closely with design engineering to feed test results back into rapid design iteration.
• Support integration operations, range testing, and flight test campaigns as needed.
• Maintain rigorous configuration control, data management, and test documentation.
• Improve test infrastructure, automation, and data quality to increase test cadence and learning velocity.

Skills

Fixture design

Debugging

Root-cause analysis

Ownership

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Test-driven mindset

Willingness to extend hours travel on‑

High attention to detail

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, or related engineering field

Tools

DAQs

Oscilloscopes

Power supplies

Sensors

CAD

GSE

Job description

Castelion in Rio Rancho, NM is seeking a Development Test Engineer to own the planning, execution, and analysis of tests that validate flight-ready hardware across avionics, mechanisms, propulsion, and structures.

This hands-on role sits at the heart of engineering, manufacturing, and operations, requiring strong debugging, fixture design, and collaboration with design teams to feed test results back into rapid refinement.