Aviation Software Test Engineer Jobs in Virginia

Overview of Opportunity 

We are seeking a Senior Software Development in Test  to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for developing and executing comprehensive manual functional and user-acceptance tests to assess software product quality. However, your work will extend beyond isolated software testing to include evaluating how custom applications, distributed architectures, and interoperable non-kinetic data streams function as a unified ecosystem. As our testing practices evolve, you will assist in implementing automated testing frameworks to scale these efforts. Additionally, you will contribute to new testing strategies aimed at verifying AI-assisted code development, ensuring the robustness and integrity of our software ecosystem.

You will collaborate closely with program engineering, development, and field operations teams to establish testing processes, evaluate complex features, and isolate critical defects. You will play a vital role in ensuring mission readiness, validating intricate data flows across multiple disparate networks, and aligning the entire test life cycle directly with strategic operational timelines.

Location: This role is expected to be on-site at TST's Arlington headquarters 4-5 days per week.

Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain production-grade test infrastructure-frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, hardware-in-the-loop simulation services, and developer tooling-as software products (code-reviewed, versioned, instrumented, and owned end-to-end).
• Design reusable libraries and APIs (Python/Go) that let engineers express contract, property-based, and mutation tests in a few lines-not write one-off scripts.
• Perform full-stack system testing via API endpoints, hardware interfaces, and diagnostic tooling to isolate and investigate the root causes of complex technical problems.
• Develop functional, end-to-end, regression, and performance tests that validate the seamless integration of software with physical hardware components.
• Evaluate how hardware endpoints, distributed architectures, and interoperable data streams function together as a unified, mission-ready ecosystem.
• Design and maintain the testing environment to ensure that hardware and software configurations accurately mirror operational deployments.
• Assist in the progressive rollout and implementation of automated testing frameworks to scale existing manual integration efforts.
• Design and implement testing strategies to verify the quality, robustness, and integrity of AI-assisted code development.
• Detect, document, and track system-level defect reports and feature requests. 
• Operational Schedule Integration: Trace and align test lifecycles with unified program milestones managed in the program schedule, ensuring testing velocities support the broader customer vision, strategic intent, and the Pilot timeline.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5+ years of systems testing experience, with a proven track record of automating tests for software-hardware interfaces, API endpoints, or embedded systems (e.g., using Python, Bash, or similar).
• 3+ years of software engineering experience building test frameworks, developer platforms, or CI/CD systems-not just authoring test cases. You treat test code with the same rigor as production code: modular design, observability, and API stability.
• 3+ years of experience in system-level integration testing, focusing on backend API endpoints and validating complex hardware/software ecosystems. 
• Solid understanding of networking concepts, distributed systems, and cross-network data flows.
• Experience with UNIX / LINUX-based operating systems.
• Experience with SQL or other relational/non-relational database technologies.
• Familiarity with or a strong interest in modern development workflows that use AI-assisted coding tools and methods for verifying code integrity. 
• Experience testing complex, data-heavy systems or interoperable data streams. 
• Solid grasp of technical writing and documentation.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, or comparable professional experience.

Nice If You Have: 

• Military cyber experience, networking experience, or understanding of common military, cyber, and networking vernacular.
• Familiarity with AI development and testing capabilities.
• Familiarity with virtualization or cloud technologies such as Docker, vSphere, Ansible, or AWS.
• Understanding of the Agile Software Development Life Cycle.
• Experience refining low-level testing or configuration scripts using Bash, Python, or JavaScript.
• Experience with creating automated tests for geospatial libraries such as OpenLayers and CesiumJS.

Clearance Qualifications:

• Eligible to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance.

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