Space Hardware Test & Automation Engineer (HITL)

Cowboy Space Corporation; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Holidays

Parental leave

Relocation assistance

Lunch in office

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a Build & Test Engineer to own HITL test infrastructure—racks, tooling, and automation for real flight software against spacecraft hardware. You will extend and harden tools for multi-program reuse and support other engineers as customers.

Responsibilities include building reusable HITL platforms, developing hardware emulation, and integrating tests into CI workflows. Bring experience with embedded interfaces and lab equipment to a fast-paced, ownership-driven team.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in test infrastructure, embedded software, hardware/software integration, or a related discipline.
• Strong programming skills in Python, C/C++, or similar languages for test automation.
• Hands-on experience testing software against physical hardware, including lab equipment such as power supplies, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
• Experience with common embedded communication interfaces (e.g., SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, Ethernet).
• Experience building tools, frameworks, or infrastructure used by other engineers, with a demonstrated instinct for reusability, reliability, and maintainability over one-off solutions.
• Familiarity with version control, continuous integration, and automated test workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, build-out, and operation of hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure that exercises real flight software against real or emulated spacecraft hardware.
• Extend and harden existing internal test tooling into a reusable platform that serves multiple concurrent flight programs, rather than one-off setups per program.
• Develop and maintain hardware emulation and simulation of spacecraft subsystems where flight hardware is unavailable or scarce.
• Build automation for test orchestration, scheduling, and reporting so HITL runs are repeatable, self-service, and integrated into continuous integration workflows.
• Stand up, configure, and maintain HITL test racks and supporting lab equipment, including power, data, and instrumentation interfaces.
• Define interfaces and conventions that let flight software, avionics, and systems engineers add their own tests without deep knowledge of the test stack.
• Partner with flight software, electrical, and systems teams to define test coverage, prioritize gaps, and validate new hardware and software releases before integration and flight.
• Investigate test failures and anomalies, distinguish infrastructure issues from genuine flight software or hardware defects, and drive root cause analysis to closure.
• Manage configuration, versioning, and traceability of test environments so results are reproducible and trustworthy.
• Document the test infrastructure and champion its adoption, making it the default path for verification across the company.

Skills

Python

C/C++

Test automation

Embedded systems

Lab equipment handling

Hardware interfaces

CI/CD familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or related field

Tools

Git

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a Build & Test Engineer to own HITL test infrastructure—racks, tooling, and automation for real flight software against spacecraft hardware. You will extend and harden tools for multi-program reuse and support other engineers as customers.

Responsibilities include building reusable HITL platforms, developing hardware emulation, and integrating tests into CI workflows. Bring experience with embedded interfaces and lab equipment to a fast-paced, ownership-driven team.