Automation Simulation Engineer Jobs in Elkridge, MD

Job Summary:
AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space. They are seeking an OSS Test & Automation Engineer to develop and maintain automation processes within their OSS platform, collaborating with internal teams to ensure reliability and efficiency in network operations and service assurance.
Responsibilities:
• Design, develop, and maintain automation workflows and orchestration scripts executed within our own OSS platform, covering network operations, fault management, service assurance, reporting, and inventory
• Own and grow the automation backlog - identify manual, error-prone, or repetitive operational processes as candidates for automation, estimate effort, and drive items through to production delivery
• Design, implement, and maintain automated test suites that validate automation workflows under both nominal and fault/edge-case conditions
• Execute test plans, document results, track defects, and drive resolution in collaboration with all involved internal teams
• Produce clear test documentation of test plans, test cases, test reports, and coverage summaries
• Cooperate with internal Service Assurance and Service Delivery teams by fostering knowledge transfer, gathering requirements, and jointly identifying next steps in developing new automated workflows and processes
• Proactively identify automation failures, performance degradations, or reliability issues and drive root-cause analysis and remediation
• Continuously improve automation reliability, coverage, and maintainability based on operational feedback and incident learnings
• Act as first line contact and support line for internal Service Assurance and Service Delivery concerning OSS automated processes and workflows already introduced into production
• Maintain clear, accurate documentation for all automation workflows introduced
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, telecommunications or a related field — or equivalent professional experience.
• A minimum of 3+ years of professional experience in automation engineering, test engineering, or a combined software/QA role, preferably in telecom, network operations, or OSS/BSS systems.
• Proven experience designing and building automation workflows, orchestration scripts, or operational automation pipelines — not just test scripts.
• Solid proficiency in Python or any other scripting language and familiarity with modern test frameworks (e.g. pytest, Robot).
• Familiarity with at least one workflow orchestration or BPM tool (e.g. Camunda, Apache Airflow, Ansible, or similar).
• Ability to query and manipulate data in SQL and/or NoSQL databases.
• Strong command of test strategy design, test case development, test automation frameworks, and defect lifecycle management.
• Familiarity with telecom OSS concepts like FCAPS, TMF eTOM framework or similar operational support system concepts.
• Practical exposure to network operations workflows and/or service assurance processes.
• Working knowledge of NETCONF/YANG, SNMP, or TMF Open APIs as integration surfaces for automation workflows.
• Familiarity with OSS platforms, NMS/EMS systems, or network simulation tools used for test environment setup.
• Hands-on experience integrating automation with REST APIs and event-driven messaging systems (e.g. Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS).
• Experience embedding quality gates and automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent).
• Practical experience with monitoring and logging tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or equivalent) for making automated workflows observable in production.
• Comfortable developing, deploying, and debugging automation in Linux.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with a bias toward automation and operational efficiency.
• Collaborative and communicative — comfortable working in a globally distributed team.
• Ownership mentality - take responsibility for end-to-end reliability of systems under your care.
• Adaptable and self-directed, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Meticulous attention to detail in documentation, change management, and operational procedures.
Preferred:
• Familiarity with OSS platforms, NMS/EMS systems, or network simulation tools used for test environment setup.
• Working knowledge of NETCONF/YANG, SNMP, or TMF Open APIs as integration surfaces for automation workflows.
• Hands-on experience integrating automation with REST APIs and event-driven messaging systems (e.g. Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS).
• Experience embedding quality gates and automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent).
• Practical experience with monitoring and logging tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or equivalent) for making automated workflows observable in production.
• Comfortable developing, deploying, and debugging automation in Linux.
Company:
AST SpaceMobile is a space-based broadband cellular network company for unmodified mobile devices. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Midland, USA, with a team of 501-1000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.