Assembly, Integration and Test Engineer IV
About The Position
Vantage Systems, Inc. is seeking a highly qualified Assembly, Integration, and Test (AI&T) Engineer for a contract position onsite at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM, supporting the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) SSHINE contract. This role is responsible for developing, executing, and documenting test procedures for space technology systems, ranging from CubeSats to ESPA-class spacecraft, to ensure performance, functionality, and reliability for AFRL space missions. The engineer will be involved in integrating spacecraft hardware and software, conducting space-qualified environmental testing, troubleshooting technical issues, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. This is a senior-journeyman level position requiring hands-on experience with space hardware, understanding of spaceflight environmental requirements, and the ability to work in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) supporting the full lifecycle of space missions.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience with BS degree or 5+ years of experience with MS degree or 0+ years of experience with PhD degree.
- Clearance: TS with ability to obtain SCI.
- U.S. Citizenship is required for this position.
- Hands-on experience with space hardware.
- Understanding of spaceflight environmental requirements.
- Ability to work in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs).
Responsibilities
- Perform hands-on assembly and integration of spacecraft buses, payloads, and experiments within government facilities.
- Support integration of CubeSat through ESPA-class spacecraft and high-altitude balloon systems.
- Integrate flight hardware and software components, ensuring proper interfaces and functionality.
- Support spacecraft mechanical installation, harnessing, thermal blanketing, and system closeouts.
- Coordinate with spacecraft subsystem engineers (power, communications, attitude control, propulsion, structures).
- Maintain clean room protocols, ESD procedures, and contamination control standards.
- Support government integration facility management including equipment maintenance and calibration.
- Develop and execute test plans for space-qualified environmental testing, including thermal vacuum, vibration, acoustic, EMI/EMC, and functional testing.
- Conduct systems-level tests to evaluate performance of spacecraft, balloon, and ground systems/subsystems.
- Operate and maintain test equipment including thermal chambers, shake tables, and RF test equipment.
- Perform data reduction, analysis, and review of functional and environmental test results.
- Develop documented data acquisition, processing, analysis, and modeling/simulation tools for test evaluations.
- Develop comprehensive test plans, test procedures, and test cases for spacecraft verification and validation.
- Draft and review test specifications and user's guides.
- Prepare Safety Plans and Risk Management Plans for test activities.
- Document experimental processes and results to allow independent reproduction of tests.
- Participate in programmatic, technical, and safety reviews.
- Conduct reliability, operability, interoperability, and performance assessments.
- Maintain test reports, compliance artifacts, and lessons learned documentation.
- Support flight experiment launch integration activities at launch sites.
- Support telemetry archiving, analysis, and post-launch documentation.
- Pack, protect, and ship flight experiments and support equipment to launch facilities.
- Support hardware and software integration in preparation for launch, including mechanical installation, interface verification, functional testing, health checks, thermal blanketing, final closeouts, inspection, fairing integration, range safety procedures, day-of-launch processes, and anomaly resolution.
- Maintain and upgrade government integration capabilities and equipment.
- Identify and recommend mitigation for hazardous situations in workspaces, test facilities, integration areas, and pre-launch facilities.
- Support government integration facility management, including personnel training on laboratory equipment and safety procedures, facility security and access control compliance, and safety compliance and hazard identification.
- Analyze test results, troubleshoot issues, and support root cause analysis for test failures.
- Support re-engineering and re-design of software and hardware after testing.
- Implement corrective actions and retest to verify fixes.
- Document failure modes, lessons learned, and design improvements.
- Work closely with systems engineers, software engineers, hardware engineers, and operations personnel.
- Support direct analytical, technician, and systems engineering tasks of the RVE Assembly, Integration, and Testing Infrastructure Lead(s).
- Provide technical support for design reviews, customer demonstrations, and field testing.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
