Test Platforms Lead

York Space Systems•Austin, TX

17h•$130,000 - $205,000

About The Position

York Space Systems was founded to radically improve spacecraft affordability and reliability, transforming, and enabling next- generation space mission operations worldwide. Today, York is one of the most innovative aerospace companies, specializing in end-to-end customer solutions and the rapid production of spacecraft platforms. York’s complete Space Segment Solution includes spacecraft production, payload integration, system integration & test, launch services, ground segment services, and mission operations, enabling customers to leverage York’s existing technology solutions to get to orbit rapidly and responsively. We’re looking to expand our team across the board. We are looking for a talented and enthusiastic engineer to lead the Test Platforms application teams in the Simulation, Integration and Test Department with a passion for launching hardware into space and a desire to revolutionize the space industry. Our ideal candidate thrives in a highly collaborative environment and enjoys finding ways to innovate and make processes more efficient. This role develops and maintains a full-stack application suite that York's test organization runs on. One is our test execution platform and the entry point for all testing across the organization, used by engineers on the production floor to run mission critical tests on real spacecraft before they ship. Another platform is the test artifact management and visualization application for our system of recording test data, capturing results from CI/CD and the production floor and turning them into the dashboards, metrics, and reports that internal teams and customers depend on. The other platform is our full-stack GUI for fault injection, simulation control, and visualization of our spacecraft simulation. Together they cover the full arc of a test: run it, see it, and prove what happened. In this role you will coordinate platform requirements with internal and external customers and drive design, development, maintenance, and support of all three products. You will manage tasking across the group, own product roadmaps and release cadence, and convey progress to upper management. You will also be one of the primary integration points across the department, working closely with Simulation, Test Infrastructure & Execution, and SRE/DevOps to keep the platform coherent end to end. This is primarily a management role, but it is not a hands-off one. You should expect to stay in the codebase, contribute directly on focused work, and review your engineers' code with real technical judgment. You will follow your products from development to deployment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or greater in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
4+ years of experience in software engineering or a related field
Experience leading a software team, including tasking, technical direction, and prioritization
Demonstrated experience owning a product roadmap and release cadence for user-facing software
Demonstrated full stack development experience, with proficiency across both frontend (React or equivalent) and backend (Python)
Experience designing and working with APIs and the data services behind them
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and release processes
Demonstrated proficiency in a Linux environment, with bash scripting, and with Docker and containerization
Demonstrated proficiency with Git and modern Agile software development practices and tools
Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs, priorities, and progress clearly to both engineers and upper management

Nice To Haves

Experience with both product and people management
Experience building internal tooling or platforms with a defined internal user base, including gathering feedback and iterating directly with users
Experience with database management and data modeling (PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, MongoDB, Redis)
Experience with data visualization, dashboards, or automated report generation
Experience with agentic or AI-assisted software development workflows
Experience with C++
DevOps background, especially using GitLab CI/CD
Interest in 3D graphics or mapping (three.js, deck.gl, WebGL, MapLibre)
Experience in end-to-end, system-level automated testing
Experience with Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) and/or Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) test systems
Ability to interface with and handle flight hardware
Familiarity with writing test documentation, such as test plans, procedures, and reports
Familiarity with the space domain and satellite operations
Networking concepts like UDP/TCP
Embedded development
Active Top Secret security clearance or ability to obtain

Responsibilities

Manage a team of 5-7 engineers with strong leadership skills, including tasking, technical direction, career growth, and performance
Set priorities across the three full stack application platforms, working through a designated engineering lead for each, and grow that structure as the group scales
Stay hands-on, contributing code on focused work and reviewing your engineers' work directly
Lead design, development, delivery, maintenance, and support of full stack applications supporting internal test teams, production floor operations, external customers, and mission operations
Own product roadmaps and release cadence across all three platforms, and align them with internal customer roadmaps
Direct development of a full-stack test execution platform enabling scripted, manual, and automated test flows, and stay close to the test engineers who use it daily
Direct development of centralized test visualizer, including recording and storage of test results from CI/CD and the vehicle production floor, dashboards, metrics, and reporting tools, and real-time data visibility for Test Execution, TIE, and AI&T
Direct development of simulation GUI, including fault injection tooling, simulation control UI/UX, and visualization tooling for simulated components
Drive integration across the SIT portfolio, including Maestro, simulation tooling, SW automation infrastructure, and backend data services
Partner with SRE/DevOps on deployment, production controls, and platform reliability across on-premise and cloud test environments
Partner with Test Infrastructure & Execution on interface requirements and on release testing
Support the Test Execution team during scenario-based testing
Receive feature requests and bug reports from across the company, prioritize them appropriately, and communicate tradeoffs clearly
Relay team plans, progress, and needs to upper management regularly
Follow SIT software development processes to ensure fast and quality releases of core platform products
Implement software development, testing, and CI/CD practices across all platform products that meet division and department standards for software
Develop and maintain product documentation and user guides
Be available to support large test initiatives with our internal stakeholders