Integration and System Test Engineer

Tential Solutions; Annapolis (MD); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Collins Aerospace is seeking a Senior Integration and System Test Engineer to join the GLOBALink Engineering team. The role focuses on building the test environment, writing test plans, and leading a test team through integration and system testing within a multi-interface, end-to-end data link system.

Ideal candidates have 3–6 years in engineering roles as contributors and on project teams, with leadership experience. On-site work from Annapolis, MD is expected as part of this position.

Qualifications

• Engineering degree required; strong systems engineering background.
• 3–6 years of engineering experience as an individual contributor.
• Experience as a technical lead on a project team.

Responsibilities

• Build out the test environment and write test plans; coordinate with other technical teams to resolve issues; lead a test team through a test phase.
• Conduct integration and system testing; decompose requirements into test cases and verify results.
• Collaborate with Systems Engineering and deployment teams during requirements, design reviews, and deployment procedures.

Skills

Test planning

Integration testing

System testing

Leadership experience

Systems engineering

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

Linux

IBM MQ

Job description

Job Title: Senior Integration and System Test Engineer
Collins Aerospace is seeking to fill a position on the GLOBALink Engineering team who deliver products and services for a large data link communication used by commercial aviation around the world. The candidate must have 3 to 6 years of experience working within an engineering organization as an individual technical contributor while also working on a project team to achieve success in meeting project goals. In addition, the candidate must have experience as a technical lead on a project team.
A candidate with experience in either of these roles, including a leadership role, would be a good fit to join the Integration and System Test team.

• Integration and System Test duties: building out the test environment, writing test plans, conducting integration and system testing, coordination with other technical teams to resolve issues, and leading a test team through a test phase. Preferably working on a medium to large scale system with multiple interfaces. Also, working with an external customer to conduct interoperability testing with their system is desired but not required.
• Well-rounded Systems Engineering duties: working with a customer to solicit customer or business need, writing technical requirements, and developing system design to meet customer needs. Also, decomposing technical requirements into test cases and conducting system test and/or factory acceptance testing. Working with the customer to plan and execute during the Deployment phase is desired but not required.
  

The GLOBALink Engineering team develops, integrates, and tests software and hardware solutions for real-time, high availability, 24×7 data link messaging services for supporting commercial carriers’ business operations. COTS hardware is also selected per required specifications but not necessarily the unit under test. Rather, in-house developed software and COTS software applications, database applications, storage server applications, and custom internetworking running on the devices is the primary focus for seamlessly integrating into the system and performing system testing.
Subsystem upgrades are delivered to the Operation Center which is staffed 24/7 for managing and monitoring the system which provides the service. On-call support is provided to the Operations Team by the Engineering organization.
Integration and system testing in the laboratory environment includes functional testing enhancements handed off to the System Integration and Test Team according to system requirements, functional testing of operational defects corrected in a new software/configuration baseline, end-to-end testing, security testing, failure scenario testing to redundant subsystems, and soak & stress testing. Deployment rehearsals in the test environment are also performed to validate deployment procedures as well as operational instructions documentation of the Operations Team.
Most of the system testing is done manually with the use of test tools that drive the messaging, logging, and storage throughout the system. We are an integral part of the engineering project teams diving deep to develop test procedures for technical requirements, and system/software design & implementation, and our own operational scenarios not identified by System Engineering or Software/Network Development teams. After system testing is complete the product(s) are handed off to the Operations Implementation Team for deployment into the Production System. We do not have a QA Team, however, our SI&T team ensures high quality products are delivered to meet very high SLAs with commercial airline customers.
The test environment located in a single laboratory consists of a large, complex aviation end-to-end data communications system which consists of dozens of Linux-based servers, VHF radios, several internetworking devices, interfaces to a WAN transport network, and an IBM MQ customer network. Also included is a variety of test tools for data traffic generation and performance monitoring.
Note: This is not a web-based application system but rather one that has its roots dating back to the late 1970s when data link service was first developed for the aviation industry. An Engineering Degree is required to perform in this role. A talented engineer with several years of experience in Systems Engineering, requirements-based Integration & System Test Engineering (not QA/QC) disciplines, Software Development, or a Design Engineer on a medium to large systems/projects would be a good fit for this position.
The Engineering organization is a certified CMMI Level 3 organization which that follows a rigorous set of defined processes throughout the Waterfall Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

Roles And Responsibilities

• Working in a team environment with system engineers, software developers, network engineers, and other test engineers. Fully engaged from the start to end of a project. This includes participating in system requirements reviews, software design reviews, understanding design specification and other technical information, test plan reviews, technical support while integrating and testing in the laboratory, and test report reviews. Strong verbal and written communication skills are a must when interacting with the technical teams throughout the project lifecycle.
• Pre-Integration & test duties include setting up a test environment and writing a comprehensive Integration and System Test Plan from scratch from pre-defined and new operational scenarios for new/enhanced functionality. Strong verbal and written communication skills as well as critical thinking skills are a must to achieve success during this phase of the project lifecycle.
• Integration & test duties include conducting integration and system testing with other test engineers in the test environment in order to verify technical requirements, identify and resolve operation defects, validate user documentation and deployment procedures. A final report is also reviewed with the technical team and other external stakeholders, as necessary. Strong technical skills, verbal and written communication skills are a must to achieve success during this phase of the project lifecycle.
  

Note: Opportunities for career development through transfer to othe GLOBALink development and system engineering teams within the GLOBALink Engineering organization is offered and encouraged. If interested, a transition to another team would begin after working in the I&ST team for 2 to 3 years.

Per Manager

Looking a candidate who can boost about their career progression, challenges they have overcome, and a remarkable success story(s) achieved independently or their part in a team effort. Interested in candidates who is: intelligent, hardworking, self-starter, eager to learn, enthusiastic, focused, adaptable, dependable, good communicator, flexible, growth-minded, and passionate about the opportunity to get this job. Career growth and advancement is supported by all leaders at Collins.

Onsite Work Requirements

Candidates should be within 30 miles or so from Annapolis to perform their assigned duties every day. Initially, there will be onboarding activities and a mentor from the team will be assigned to assist with training and skill development.