Test Equipment Development Engineer (HIL and Test Equipment)

CHAOS Industries•El Segundo, CA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Special Test Equipment (STE) Designer to own the full lifecycle of interceptor test systems, from requirements analysis and qualification strategy through physical design, hardware build, and Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) deployment. The role spans development benches, qualification fixtures, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) systems, and production acceptance stations. The engineer will ensure test systems provide rigorous requirements verification while remaining physically robust, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with production-rate targets. This is a design, build, and deploy ownership role, with hands-on work at the bench and on the production floor. The role includes deriving test-equipment requirements from system and subsystem specifications; establishing requirement-to-test traceability; defining test, qualification, acceptance, fault-injection, and edge-case strategies; and developing interface control documents. It also involves designing and building STE hardware, producing technical data packages, integrating instrumentation, and creating safe test interfaces as required. The engineer will lead and support hardware assembly, wiring, harness fabrication, fixture assembly, bring-up, and debugging, as well as hardware and automation-software integration. They will develop automated test software, architect and commission LRIP production test stations, support qualification and environmental testing, manage configuration and sustainment, and refine test systems as production scales. CHAOS Industries describes itself as a defense company founded in 2022, headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. The company reports 450 employees across five global offices.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.
At least 5 years of experience designing and building custom test equipment for aerospace, defense, automotive, or high-reliability electromechanical systems.
Demonstrated experience translating product requirements into test-system architecture.
Hands-on experience with electrical schematic design, wiring and panel integration, mechanical fixture design, data-acquisition systems, and instrumentation integration.
Experience debugging integrated electromechanical systems.
Familiarity with root-cause methodologies and failure analysis.
U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a DoD clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with missile, UAV, or guided munition systems.
Experience designing HIL systems for avionics or control systems.
Experience deploying test stations into LRIP or production environments.
Familiarity with NI hardware platforms, RF testing, actuator/servo testing, or PCBA-level testing.
Experience integrating test systems with MES/PLM infrastructure.
Experience in energetics or explosive-safe environments.

Responsibilities

Derive test-equipment functional requirements from system and subsystem specifications and establish traceability between interceptor requirements and test coverage.
Define subassembly test strategies, qualification test configurations, production acceptance test philosophy, and fault-injection and edge-case coverage approaches.
Develop interface control documents between product and test systems, balancing verification rigor with cycle time, cost, and production-rate considerations.
Design complete STE hardware systems, including mechanical fixtures, electrical interface panels, breakout harnesses, load simulators, signal-conditioning hardware, test racks, and enclosures.
Generate technical data packages, including schematics, wiring diagrams, harness drawings, mechanical CAD models, and assembly documentation.
Select and integrate instrumentation such as data-acquisition systems, power supplies, RF equipment, and environmental interfaces.
Design safe high-voltage, high-current, and energetics-compatible test interfaces as required.
Lead and support rack assembly, panel wiring, harness fabrication, fixture assembly, hardware bring-up, and debugging.
Conduct bench-level integration of hardware and automation software; debug electrical, mechanical, and software integration issues; and validate signal integrity, power distribution, and system stability.
Develop automated test software using tools such as LabVIEW, Python, or C++.
Architect production test stations for throughput, repeatability, operator simplicity, and error-proofing.
Define takt-aligned test cycle times in coordination with Industrial Engineering and integrate STE into MES for data capture and traceability.
Lead factory installation and commissioning of LRIP test stations and refine them during pilot and early production builds.
Design and build fixtures and instrumentation for vibration, thermal shock, and EMI/EMC testing; support qualification campaigns with robust data acquisition strategies.
Lead root cause analysis of test anomalies and update STE configurations as designs mature.
Manage test-system configuration control and revisions; improve test cycle time and reliability; establish maintenance, calibration, and sustainment strategies; drive cost reduction; and plan test-station replication as production rates increase.