Senior Mechanical Test Engineer - Space Systems

Inversion; United States; On-site; USD 137,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Inversion, based in Playa Vista, CA, seeks a Senior Test Engineer to own planning and execution of critical mechanical test campaigns from early development through qualification and production. You will work with design, analysis, manufacturing, and external test partners to retire risk and validate system performance.

The role requires a Bachelor's in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering with 5 years of relevant experience and strong test planning, fixture design, and cross-functional

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• Experience developing and executing component and subsystem-level test campaigns for mechanical hardware.
• Experience writing test plans, procedures, test readiness documentation, and post-test reports.

Responsibilities

• Own the planning and execution of component, subsystem, and system-level test campaigns supporting deployment and separation mechanism development.
• Lead complex test campaigns to demonstrate system performance under representative environments.
• Develop test plans, procedures, success criteria, and test readiness documentation for mechanical development and validation activities.
• Coordinate closely with external test facilities and vendors to define test requirements, facility interfaces, schedules, constraints, and execution plans.
• Design and develop test fixtures, adapters, support equipment, and other GSE required to safely and effectively execute testing.
• Partner with structures, mechanisms, dynamics, and manufacturing engineers to ensure test articles, fixtures, and instrumentation support key technical objectives.
• Define instrumentation and data collection needs in collaboration with internal and external partners to ensure test results can validate performance and inform model correlation.
• Drive test campaign logistics including hardware readiness, facility integration, procedural development, configuration tracking, and execution coordination.
• Lead troubleshooting and issue resolution during test preparation and execution, and drive rapid turnaround on test learnings into follow-on hardware or procedures.
• Author test reports and communicate results, risks, and recommended next steps in design reviews and cross-functional program forums.

Skills

Aerospace engineering

Mechanical engineering

Test campaigns planning

Test execution

Written and verbal communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Adaptability to fast-paced environment

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or related field

Master's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or related field

Tools

CAD tools

Job description

Inversion, based in Playa Vista, CA, seeks a Senior Test Engineer to own planning and execution of critical mechanical test campaigns from early development through qualification and production. You will work with design, analysis, manufacturing, and external test partners to retire risk and validate system performance.

The role requires a Bachelor's in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering with 5 years of relevant experience and strong test planning, fixture design, and cross-functional