Principal Engineer: Environmental Verification

CubeSpace ADCS; Stellenbosch; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

CubeSpace ADCS seeks a Principal Engineer: Environmental Verification to lead the EV functional area and serve as the technical authority for proving product fitness for orbit. You will oversee environmental verification methods, standards, and facilities, and sign off on test results at reviews.

You will also line-manage the EV team, drive qualification campaigns, and mentor engineers while staying hands-on in critical analysis and testing campaigns that matter most.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Mechanical/Mechatronic/Aerospace Engineering.
• 8+ years of experience in environmental testing and/or structural/thermal analysis.
• Demonstrated leadership of qualification or acceptance test campaigns.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers.
• Advantageous: radiation, EMC or magnetic testing experience; test-facility commissioning or investment; a PhD in a related field.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical authority for all EV work across CS products, and sign off EV content at technical reviews.
• Give the qualification/acceptance pass-or-fail sign-off on whether a product has met its requirements by test.
• Set and maintain environmental, verification, qualification, acceptance and reliability test methods and standards.
• Be accountable for CS’s environmental test facilities and external test houses, and drive the test-facility business case.
• Line-manage, hire, mentor and grow the EV engineers.
• Lead qualification and acceptance test campaigns, from test plan to signed-off report.
• Model, analyse and correlate structural and thermal behaviour (analytical, numerical, FEM) under shock, vibration and thermal loads.
• Own the area’s reusable test procedures, fixtures, models and templates, and feed lessons from products back into the standards.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Environmental testing

Structural/thermal analysis

FEM

Education

Master’s degree in Mechanical/Mechatronic/Aerospace Engineering

Tools

FEM software

Job description

CubeSpace (CS) is seeking a Principal Engineer: Environmental Verification to lead the Environmental Verification (EV) functional area. You will be the technical authority for how CS proves its products are fit for orbit, and the line manager of the EV technical team.

You hold the qualification and acceptance authority: you set the environmental, verification, product qualification, product acceptance and reliability test methods and standards, you are accountable for our test facilities, and you give the pass-or-fail sign-off on whether a product has met its requirements by test. The scope covers shock, vibration, thermal vacuum, radiation, accelerated life, EMC and magnetic cleanliness. You attend and contribute to the major design, qualification and acceptance reviews of every hardware product, and you stay hands-on in the analysis and test campaigns that matter most.

We are looking for an experienced, rigorous engineer who holds a high-quality bar under schedule pressure, explains technical decisions clearly, and enjoys growing other engineers.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Act as technical authority for all EV work across CS products, and sign off EV content at technical reviews.
• Give the qualification/acceptance pass-or-fail sign-off on whether a product has met its requirements by test.
• Set and maintain environmental, verification, qualification, acceptance and reliability test methods and standards, tailored from ECSS, NASA and MIL standards.
• Be accountable for CS’s environmental test facilities and external test houses, and drive the test-facility business case.
• Line-manage, hire, mentor and grow the EV engineers.
• Lead qualification and acceptance test campaigns, from test plan to signed-off report.
• Model, analyse and correlate structural and thermal behaviour (analytical, numerical, FEM) under shock, vibration and thermal loads.
• Own the area’s reusable test procedures, fixtures, models and templates, and feed lessons from products back into the standards.

What we're looking for:

• Master’s degree (MEng or MSc) in Mechanical, Mechatronic or Aerospace Engineering, with a focus on structural dynamics, thermal modelling or environmental testing.
• At least 8 years’ experience in environmental testing and/or structural and thermal analysis, preferably on space, aerospace or defence hardware.
• Demonstrated leadership of qualification or acceptance test campaigns.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers.
• Advantageous: radiation, EMC or magnetic testing experience; test-facility commissioning or investment; a PhD in a related field.

What you'll get from us:

• Work that leaves the atmosphere. Contribute to meaningful global space missions, with work that has real impact.
• Driving innovation. Be part of groundbreaking ADCS engineering, with an R&D team that keeps pushing the boundaries through custom projects and iterative design.
• A team worth learning from. Over a century of combined experience in control systems and satellite technology, and an ADCS team eager to share it.
• An environment built for the work. Free-form workspaces, a coffee bar, a ‘play’ room, daily lunch, an attractive leave policy and flexible hours where the role allows.