HIL Test Automation Engineer

Terabase Energy•Woodland, CA

1d•$80,000 - $100,000•Onsite

About The Position

At Terabase Energy, we believe that digitalization and automation will drive the next wave of innovation and cost reduction in large scale solar. To fully unlock the potential of this opportunity, Terabase is developing an interconnected software and construction automation platform. We work alongside project developers, owners, and engineering & construction firms to support the design, optimization, and construction of huge solar projects around the world. Our team is a blend of solar-industry veterans and newbies, thought-leaders, dreamers, software, electrical and mechanical engineers, coders, product managers, project managers, and sales and marketing professionals. We are based in Northern California, with several other offices in the United States and around the world. Test Automation Engineer is responsible to develop, and execute automated test frameworks for environments like SIL(Software-in-the-loop) and HIL(Hardware-in-the-loop), that allow us to test our power plant controller and SCADA system. Your mission is to build the automated frameworks that catch edge cases before they hit the field, ensuring every product we ship meets the highest standards of reliability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
2+ years of professional experience in software validation or test automation for hardware-focused systems.
Expert-level proficiency in Python and Bash scripting, alongside a practical reading knowledge of PLC/RTAC/IEC 61131-3 Control logic.
Direct experience architecting or heavily extending modern pythonic test frameworks (such as Pytest or OpenHTF).
A dedicated mindset for "breaking" software. You have a track record of finding critical edge cases in complex state machines and control loops.
Experience with Git, Jenkins/GitHub Actions, and containerization tools like Docker for managing consistent test environments.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of NERC, FERC, ISO/RTO, and utility interconnection requirements is preferred.
Experience with utility-scale solar PV, Battery ---Energy Storage Systems (BESS), hybrid renewable energy plants, or inverter-based resources (IBR) is preferred.
Advance user-level with Git and modern branch management strategies.
Communication protocols (e.g., IEC 61850, Modbus, DNP3)

Responsibilities

Automation Framework Development: Design, build, and maintain scalable automated test frameworks and scripts for power, control and SCADA systems using Python. You will transition our validation processes from manual intervention to a fully automated, scalable framework.
V&V Strategy: Define and execute comprehensive Verification and Validation (V&V) plans, ensuring all software requirements for the site controller and SCADA systems are met under normal and fault conditions.
CI/CD Integration: Integrate automated HIL/SIL testing into our CI/CD pipelines, providing real-time feedback to the development teams and serving as the final gate for production-ready code.
Requirements Investigation: Analyze and interpret technical specifications to author comprehensive automated test suites, actively tracking down gaps in system requirements.
Multi-Environment Execution: Execute automated test suites across SIL, MIL, and HIL setups. Analyze test captures, isolate system failures, and generate detailed engineering reports.
Root Cause Analysis: Work closely with the controls and systems teams to debug complex failures found during validation, using logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and telemetry logs to pinpoint issues.