Test Equipment Development Engineer (HIL and Test Equipment)

CHAOS Industries•El Segundo, CA

10h•$110,000 - $160,000•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 develops and maintains the interceptor test ecosystem, including development benches, qualification fixtures, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) systems, and production acceptance stations. Test systems must provide rigorous requirements verification while remaining robust, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with production rate targets. This is a design, build, and deployment role with hands-on integration work at the bench and on the production floor. The engineer will translate product requirements into test architectures and equipment, produce technical data packages, integrate instrumentation and automation, and support qualification and production deployment. The role also manages test-system configuration, maintenance, calibration, reliability, cycle-time improvement, cost reduction, and replication as production rates increase.

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 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 or servo testing, and PCBA-level test.
Experience integrating test systems with MES or 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 configurations, production acceptance 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.
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 directly 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.
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 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 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 cycle time and reliability as production scales.
Establish maintenance, calibration, and sustainment strategies, drive production test-system cost reductions, and plan replication of test stations as rates increase.