Spacecraft Test Engineer - Build & Validate Flight Hardware

Approach Venture; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 105,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation through stock opt

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Paid parental leave

Three weeks of paid vacation

Ten or more paid holidays annually

Job summary

Approach Venture in Denver, CO seeks a Test Engineer to own the test systems for spaceflight hardware, from development through flight. You will plan, execute, and improve tests across components and subsystems, develop strategies, procedures, fixtures, and automation to validate performance.

Collaborating with engineering teams, you'll build test infrastructure, analyze data, lead anomaly investigations, and help scale verification as programs move to production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical, aerospace engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in engineering test campaigns.
• Hands-on experience planning and executing test campaigns across hardware.
• Experience with functional, structural, environmental, EMI/EMC testing.
• Experience with data acquisition, instrumentation, and test hardware.
• Ability to analyze test data and identify failure modes.
• Experience with test automation or scripting using Python, LabVIEW, MATLAB.

Responsibilities

• Own test planning and execution across component, subsystem, and system-level spacecraft hardware.
• Develop test plans, procedures, readiness documentation, and verification criteria with clear traceability to requirements.
• Build and maintain test infrastructure including fixtures, instrumentation, data acquisition, automation, and supporting tooling.
• Execute functional, structural, environmental, and performance test campaigns.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret test data against defined pass/fail criteria.
• Develop scripts and automation to improve test repeatability, efficiency, and data quality.
• Lead anomaly investigations, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action efforts.
• Partner with mechanical, electrical, avionics, software, systems, and manufacturing teams.
• Support design reviews and serve as a technical point of contact for major test activities.
• Improve test workflows to support faster hardware iteration and production readiness.
• Support qualification and acceptance testing as hardware progresses toward flight.
• Document test results, anomalies, and technical conclusions in clear engineering reports.
• Help define the broader test strategy, standards, and processes as the program scales.

Skills

Test planning

Data acquisition

Test automation

Python

LabVIEW

MATLAB

Systems testing

Root-cause analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical/electrical/aerospace engineering or related technical discipline

Tools

LabVIEW

MATLAB

Python

Job description

Approach Venture in Denver, CO seeks a Test Engineer to own the test systems for spaceflight hardware, from development through flight. You will plan, execute, and improve tests across components and subsystems, develop strategies, procedures, fixtures, and automation to validate performance.

Collaborating with engineering teams, you'll build test infrastructure, analyze data, lead anomaly investigations, and help scale verification as programs move to production.