Space Deployable Structures Test Engineer

E-Space; Arlington (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Health and wellness options

Job summary

E-Space seeks a Deployable Structures Test Engineer to own the ground deployment test program for its large deployable antenna structure. You will design gravity‑offload rig setups, execute deployment tests and establish ground‑to‑flight correlation to validate aperture geometry requirements.

The role involves coordinating with deployment and structural teams, handling measurements, and ensuring repeatable deployments across temperature and sequencing variations.

Qualifications

• BS, MS or PhD in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
• Experience with deployment or mechanism testing of flight hardware such as solar arrays, antennas, booms, or deployable structures.
• Hands-on experience with gravity-offload test setups for large flexible hardware.
• Experience with force/torque measurement, deployment kinematics instrumentation, and photogrammetry or optical shape measurement.
• Understanding test-to-flight fidelity gaps for deployable structures in 1g.

Responsibilities

• Own the deployment test plan from requirements to rig design, test execution and post-test correlation.
• Design or oversee gravity-offload fixtures for large deployable structures, including friction budget analysis and rig compliance.
• Execute deployment tests, capture force/torque profiles, trajectories, timelines and shape measurements.
• Establish ground-to-flight correlation methodology and bound residual uncertainty in flight deployment prediction.
• Verify repeatability and assess sensitivity to sequencing, temperature and lubricant state.
• Coordinate with deployment mechanism team to characterize actuator force output and stiffness/backlash.
• Coordinate with structural teams to define an integrated testing campaign.
• Feed test data into the structural model and participate in model-test correlation reviews.

Skills

Aerospace Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Deployment Testing

Ground Tests

Photogrammetry

Flight Hardware

Education

Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering degree

Tools

Test rigs

Force/Torque measurement

Kinematics instrumentation

Job description

E-Space seeks a Deployable Structures Test Engineer to own the ground deployment test program for its large deployable antenna structure. You will design gravity‑offload rig setups, execute deployment tests and establish ground‑to‑flight correlation to validate aperture geometry requirements.

The role involves coordinating with deployment and structural teams, handling measurements, and ensuring repeatable deployments across temperature and sequencing variations.