Flight Software Test Lead Engineer - TeraWave

Blue Origin • Littleton, CO

17h

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! Blue Origin is pioneering the future of space-based communications with TeraWave, a revolutionary satellite communications network designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. This multi-orbit constellation will consist of optically interconnected satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO), providing enterprise-grade connectivity for critical operations worldwide. Blue Origin is seeking an experienced Flight Software Test Lead Engineer to drive verification and validation efforts for our TeraWave satellite constellation. In this role, you will lead a team of test engineers responsible for ensuring flight software reliability, safety, and performance across our next-generation satellite platform. You will own the test strategy from component qualification through system-level integration, working closely with systems engineers, flight software developers, avionics engineers, fault management engineers, and other test leads to deliver flight-ready software for a large-scale LEO constellation.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical field
• 7+ years of experience in software testing, verification and validation, or software quality engineering, with at least 2+ years in a technical leadership capacity
• Demonstrated experience testing embedded or real-time flight/mission-critical software
• Strong proficiency in Python for both test script development and test execution architecture design, with the ability to build and maintain frameworks that function across multiple test environments (software-only, software & hardware, and HWIL)
• Proven experience managing test campaigns with rigorous requirements traceability — mapping requirements to test cases, tracking results, and generating verification artifacts for formal milestone closeout
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing and simulation environments
• Familiarity with software development lifecycle processes for safety-critical or mission-critical systems
• Experience with requirements management and test traceability tools (e.g., DOORS, Jama, JIRA)
• Strong understanding of version control systems (Git) and CI/CD pipelines
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in a relevant engineering discipline
• Experience testing flight software for satellites, spacecraft, or other aerospace vehicles
• Familiarity with satellite constellation operations, including onboard autonomy, fault management, and command & data handling (C&DH) systems
• Experience with flight software architectures (e.g., cFS, VxWorks, RTOS environments)
• Knowledge of communication protocols relevant to satellite systems (CCSDS, SpaceWire, CAN, MIL-STD-1553)
• Experience supporting on-orbit anomaly resolution and software patch/update campaigns
• Prior experience in a high-rate production environment supporting multiple concurrent satellite builds

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and execution of comprehensive test plans and procedures for flight software across satellite bus and payload subsystems
• Define and maintain the overall FSW verification and validation strategy, including component qualification, integration, regression, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing
• Collaborate directly with systems engineering, flight software, avionics, fault management, and peer test leads to develop automated tests that verify component qualification and system-level requirements
• Architect and maintain scalable test execution frameworks in Python (or equivalent) capable of operating seamlessly across software-only environments, software & hardware bench environments, and full hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) configurations — not just individual test scripts, but the underlying execution infrastructure
• Manage a team of test engineers, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and performance feedback
• Own the end-to-end test campaign management process, including: Mapping system and software requirements to individual test cases with full traceability, Tracking test execution status, results, and associated artifacts, Producing verification documentation sufficient to close requirements at milestone reviews
• Coordinate test campaigns using flight software testbeds, simulators, and hardware-in-the-loop rigs to validate software behavior under nominal and off-nominal conditions
• Collaborate with FSW developers to establish testability requirements early in the software design lifecycle
• Own defect tracking, root cause analysis, and closure processes for issues identified during test
• Support software qualification and certification activities, ensuring compliance with mission assurance and safety requirements
• Participate in test readiness reviews, test result reviews, and flight readiness reviews
• Drive continuous improvement of test processes, tools, and methodologies to increase constellation production velocity
• Support anomaly investigations and regression testing during on-orbit operations

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
• Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior