Entry Level Software Test Engineer Jobs in California

Burlingame, CA

Full time

On-site

Engineering Flight Software

• $132K – $178K • Offers Equity

The final job level and salary will be determined based on a range of factors including the candidate’s education, qualifications, knowledge, skills, abilities, and relevant experience. The listed salary range is provided to offer insight into potential compensation, but it’s not a guarantee of the final offer. While we include the full range to be transparent, offers most often fall within the middle portion rather than the top.

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar – the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit – Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

You will design, build, and execute structured software test procedures that validate spacecraft Flight Software (FSW) across integration milestones, system-level campaigns, and environmental test events. You will translate requirements, ICDs, and operational concepts into repeatable, high-signal procedures with objective pass/fail criteria, then execute those procedures on real hardware and integrated test environments to produce flight-ready verification evidence.

This role combines software test engineering, system integration, automation, and hands‑on test operations. You will work closely with the Flight Software team to ensure features are testable, measurable, and validated under nominal and off‑nominal conditions prior to launch.

Space experience is not required. We welcome candidates from robotics, autonomy, automotive, aerospace, defense, or other mission/safety‑critical systems.

• Develop and maintain detailed Flight Software test procedures covering nominal mission threads, off‑nominal scenarios, fault responses, safing behavior, and recovery workflows.

• Translate requirements and ICDs into structured procedures with defined preconditions, configuration baselines, operator actions, expected results, and measurable pass/fail criteria.

• Build and maintain test software and utilities (command sequencing, telemetry validation, log capture, automated reporting) to execute procedures reliably.

• Run integration and regression campaigns on development benches, integrated avionics stacks, and HIL/SIL environments.

• Implement fault‑focused scenarios to validate FDIR behavior, limit monitoring, safe‑mode entry, and recovery logic.

• Own test data collection and time correlation, including telemetry, logs, performance metrics, and relevant instrumentation.

• Develop and maintain live monitoring and post‑test dashboards (e.g., Grafana) to track system health, event timelines, and test progress.

• Support environmental test campaigns as a primary test operator when required, executing runbooks and maintaining disciplined event logs.

• Experience producing structured verification evidence and disciplined test reports.

• Built test harnesses or automation tooling in Python, C++, or similar languages.

• Integrated regression suites into CI workflows with clear automated reporting.

• Strong understanding of determinism, configuration control, and reducing false positives in system‑level environments.

• Hands‑on experience running system‑level campaigns and operating hardware during integration or environmental test events.

• Familiar with workflows such as thermal vacuum, thermal cycling, vibration, shock, or EMI/EMC support.

• Comfortable triaging issues across hardware, firmware, and software boundaries under schedule pressure.

• 2+ years of experience in software test engineering, system integration testing, or validation for embedded or mission‑critical systems.

• Demonstrated ownership of structured test procedures for complex software systems, including authoring, review, version control, and operational discipline.

• Experience building or maintaining test software used to execute procedures and validate outcomes, including data capture and reporting.

• Comfortable working from ICDs and debugging across hardware/software interfaces using telemetry, logs, and lab instrumentation.

• Experience with test data collection and observability practices, including dashboards and time‑correlated datasets.

• Strong documentation and cross‑functional communication skills.

If you’re excited about the role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply.

• Experience in mission‑critical or safety‑critical engineering environments.

• Experience integrating automated test environments and regression suites into CI/CD workflows.

• Experience supporting environmental test events and operating hardware during structured test campaigns.

For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.