Gravity-Offload Deployable Structures Test Engineer

Espace; Saratoga (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Health and wellness care options

Continuous learning and development

Job summary

E‑Space is seeking a Deployable Structures Test Engineer to own the ground deployment test program for our large deployable antenna structure. You will design gravity‑offload test campaigns, characterize deployment kinematics and force profiles, and verify repeatability against aperture geometry requirements.

This is a hands-on, on-site role in the US. Based out of Saratoga, CA or Arlington, TX, you will travel between sites as needed and contribute to cross‑disciplinary testing efforts to

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
• Experience with deployment or mechanism testing of flight hardware.
• Hands-on gravity-offload test setups for large flexible hardware.
• Experience with force/torque measurement and photogrammetry.
• Familiarity with model-test correlation for deployment dynamics.
• Knowledge of TVAC deployment testing and instrumentation challenges.

Responsibilities

• Own the deployment test plan from requirements through rig design, test execution, and post-test correlation.
• Design or oversee gravity-offload and support fixtures for large deployable structures, including friction-budget analysis and rig compliance.
• Execute deployment tests, capture force/torque profiles, trajectories, timelines, and deployment-state shapes.
• Establish ground-to-flight correlation, derive correction factors, bound residual uncertainty in flight deployment.
• Verify repeatability and sensitivity to sequencing, temperature, and lubricant state.
• Coordinate with deployment mechanism and structural teams to define integrated testing campaigns.
• Feed deployment test data into the integrated structural model and participate in model-test correlation reviews.

Skills

Aerospace engineering

Mechanical engineering

Deployment testing

Test program ownership

Ground test methods

Model-test correlation

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Gravity-offload rigs

Photogrammetry

Job description

E‑Space is seeking a Deployable Structures Test Engineer to own the ground deployment test program for our large deployable antenna structure. You will design gravity‑offload test campaigns, characterize deployment kinematics and force profiles, and verify repeatability against aperture geometry requirements.

This is a hands-on, on-site role in the US. Based out of Saratoga, CA or Arlington, TX, you will travel between sites as needed and contribute to cross‑disciplinary testing efforts to