Test Infrastructure Engineer – Space Systems CI & HIL

Loft Orbital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

AD&D insurance

Short-Term Disability

Long-Term Disability

Flexible Time Off

12 paid holidays

401(k) plan and equity options

Daily catered lunches

International exposure to our team in/

Fully paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Loft Orbital is seeking a Test Infrastructure Engineer to design, build, and maintain advanced test infrastructure and automation for hardware and software testing across our satellite programs. You will design high‑fidelity HIL testbeds and EGSE interfaces to validate spacecraft software prior to launch campaigns.

You will collaborate with systems, software, hardware, and operations teams, extending CI pipelines and developing fault-injection tools to ensure robust mission readiness in a

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or a similar field.
• 2+ years working with Linux systems, including configuration, debugging, and system-level troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of networking fundamentals (OSI layers, packet analysis, data exchange protocols like TCP/IP and UDP).
• Hands-on experience with embedded systems or low-level hardware (Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontrollers, or similar).
• Proficiency in Python (3.9+) for building test automation frameworks, device drivers, or test orchestration tools.
• Experience containerizing applications with Docker.
• Familiarity with at least one modern CI tool (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Buildkite, CircleCI) and integrating test pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and maintain high-fidelity Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testbeds that emulate spacecraft systems, sensors, and communication links.
• Design, build, deploy, and maintain Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) interfaces for Validation and Verification of spacecraft software before launch campaigns.
• Develop tools and frameworks to simulate faults, edge cases, and mission scenarios.
• Collaborate with systems, software, hardware, and operations teams to integrate evolving test requirements.
• Maintain and extend test infrastructure to support CI pipelines with realistic system-level tests.
• Troubleshoot complex system issues spanning software, embedded hardware, networking, and configuration.

Skills

Linux systems

Networking fundamentals

Python

Docker

CI tools (Jenkins/GitLab CI/Buildkite)

Embedded systems

Troubleshooting

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Buildkite

CircleCI

Job description

Loft Orbital is seeking a Test Infrastructure Engineer to design, build, and maintain advanced test infrastructure and automation for hardware and software testing across our satellite programs. You will design high‑fidelity HIL testbeds and EGSE interfaces to validate spacecraft software prior to launch campaigns.

You will collaborate with systems, software, hardware, and operations teams, extending CI pipelines and developing fault-injection tools to ensure robust mission readiness in a