Senior Manager, Test Engineering

About the role

Muon is seeking a Sr. Manager of Production Test Engineering to lead our Production Test Engineering organization and scale test capabilities to support increasing spacecraft production. This role manages Spacecraft Test Engineers and Environmental Test Engineers while owning spacecraft test strategy, customer payload integration testing, environmental test engineering, and the infrastructure and processes required for high-rate production.

The ideal candidate combines strong spacecraft test engineering experience with proven technical leadership and the ability to build scalable teams, processes, and test infrastructure. You will work closely with AIT, Systems Engineering, Mission Engineering, Flight Software, Manufacturing, Quality, and customers to translate spacecraft and mission requirements into robust, repeatable, and production-ready test processes.

This position is fully onsite and requires working in our San Jose, CA office five days a week.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop Spacecraft Test Engineers and Environmental Test Engineers.
• Own the spacecraft production test strategy, including test requirements, procedures, scripts, configurations, limits, and acceptance criteria.
• Define which requirements and tests should be performed at the spacecraft, module, or component level.
• Own traceability between spacecraft test requirements and production test procedures.
• Lead spacecraft integrated testing and transition new or immature tests into repeatable production processes.
• Lead environmental test engineering for vibration, thermal vacuum (TVAC), thermal, EMI/EMC, and related qualification and acceptance testing.
• Lead customer payload integration test planning and execution, including translating customer requirements into production test requirements and procedures.
• Partner with customers and Mission Systems Engineering to define payload integration test requirements and required test capabilities.
• Coordinate with Flight Software to identify required test features, interfaces, and test hooks.
• Define requirements for spacecraft testbeds, EGSE, test racks, instrumentation, and other production test infrastructure.
• Establish test capacity and infrastructure requirements based on production volume, test duration, and throughput targets.
• Develop and execute the roadmap for scaling test engineering capabilities as spacecraft production increases.
• Standardize and replicate mature test setups, procedures, and processes to support production growth.
• Identify test bottlenecks and drive improvements in test time, throughput, repeatability, and ease of test.
• Partner with Production Test Technicians to transition mature tests into production execution and resolve test-related issues.
• Work cross-functionally with Systems Engineering, Manufacturing, Mission Engineering, Flight Software, Quality, and Production to ensure test readiness.
• Establish test engineering standards, processes, and best practices in partnership with Test & Reliability leadership.
• Develop organizational capacity, technical depth, and cross-training to eliminate test engineering single points of failure.

Qualifications

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident.
• 8+ years of experience in spacecraft, aerospace, defense, or complex hardware test engineering.
• 3+ years of experience leading or managing test engineers.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing spacecraft or system-level test programs.
• Experience with spacecraft AIT and integrated system testing.
• Experience with environmental testing such as vibration, thermal vacuum, thermal cycling, or EMI/EMC.
• Experience translating system and mission requirements into executable test procedures and acceptance criteria.
• Experience developing testbeds, EGSE, test racks, or automated test systems.
• Demonstrated ability to scale test processes, infrastructure, and teams to support increasing production volume.
• Strong technical leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced aerospace production environment with changing priorities and compressed schedules.

Nice-to-have Skills

• Direct spacecraft or launch vehicle integration and test experience.
• Customer payload integration and customer-facing test engineering experience.
• Experience developing automated spacecraft test frameworks, scripts, or test software.
• Experience with Python, LabVIEW, C/C++, or other test automation environments.
• Familiarity with Flight Software test interfaces, simulators, or hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Experience designing and commissioning spacecraft testbeds, EGSE, or automated production test infrastructure.
• Experience establishing test capacity models and infrastructure roadmaps.
• Experience reducing test cycle time through automation, parallelization, or process improvement.
• Familiarity with requirements traceability, configuration management, and AS9100 aerospace quality systems.
• Experience building and scaling technical organizations in a New Space or high-rate aerospace manufacturing environment.

Salary

The salary range for this role is $207,000 - $230,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.

Muon is currently registered and able to hire in the following states

AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IA, ID, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA

ITAR/EAR Requirements

This position requires access to export controlled information.

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency.

The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.