Retired Engineers Jobs in Colorado (NOW HIRING)

About Narravity

Narravity, Inc. is an early-stage aerospace company developing the HEX System, a modular payload system designed to simplify the integration of experiments and commercial payloads with flight vehicles.

HEX is moving from prototype development toward flight hardware, and we are building the technical, test, and operational foundation required to support repeatable missions.

Narravity has a signed LOI with a flight partner and is working toward an initial flight demonstration targeted for Q1–Q2 2027, followed by an initial commercial mission.

We are a small, hands-on team. Engineers working with Narravity have the opportunity to directly influence how the system is built, tested, integrated, and ultimately operated in the field.

About the Role

Narravity is looking for an experienced, hands-on Integration & Test Engineer to help prepare HEX for its first flight demonstration.

This is a fractional engineering role of approximately 10 hours per week, designed for someone who can make a meaningful contribution without needing to join Narravity full time.

You may be an independent consultant, an experienced aerospace engineer looking for a fractional role, a semi-retired engineer who wants to remain involved with flight hardware, or someone interested in contributing to an early-stage aerospace program alongside other professional commitments.

The immediate focus is practical: help us establish and execute the integration and test activities needed to move HEX from prototype hardware toward a flight-ready system.

You will work with Narravity's technical team to determine what needs to be tested, how it should be tested, what equipment and instrumentation are required, and what evidence is needed to demonstrate that the hardware is ready for its next milestone.

Because HEX is still developing, you will not be stepping into a mature program where every requirement, procedure, and test configuration has already been established. Part of the opportunity is helping us build that discipline.

We are looking for someone who is comfortable moving between a test plan and the actual hardware—someone who can develop a procedure, configure instrumentation, troubleshoot an interface, review the resulting data, and help determine what should happen next.

Key Responsibilities

Integration & Test Planning

• Help define the integration and test approach for HEX as the system progresses toward flight.
• Translate system requirements and interface definitions into practical verification, qualification, acceptance, and readiness activities.
• Develop clear test plans, procedures, configurations, acceptance criteria, and test documentation.
• Help establish repeatable integration and test practices that can mature with future HEX missions.

Test Setup, GSE Instrumentation

• Support technical coordination with test facilities, suppliers, customers, and flight partners.
• Help verify interfaces between HEX, payload hardware, and partner systems.
• Participate in partner-site and launch-site integration and readiness activities as the program progresses toward flight.
• Review test and flight data to inform troubleshooting, hardware acceptance, and future HEX improvements.

Hands-On Hardware Integration & Test Execution

• Support HEX hardware assembly, checkout, integration, and functional testing.
• Participate in environmental and system-level testing with external test facilities when required.
• Troubleshoot mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and interface issues.
• Review test results, identify anomalies, and help determine corrective actions and retest requirements.

Partner & Data Support

• Support technical coordination with test facilities, suppliers, customers, and flight partners.
• Help verify interfaces between HEX, payload hardware, and partner systems.
• Participate in partner-site and launch-site integration and readiness activities as the program progresses toward flight.
• Review test and flight data to inform troubleshooting, hardware acceptance, and future HEX improvements.

Required Qualifications

The strongest candidates will have:

• A bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Hands-on experience integrating and testing aerospace, flight, or similarly complex hardware.
• Experience developing and executing test plans and procedures.
• Experience with instrumentation, sensors, test equipment, or data-acquisition systems.
• Strong hardware troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work from engineering drawings, requirements, and interface documentation.
• Experience reviewing test data and documenting results, anomalies, and corrective actions.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills.
• Comfort working independently in a small, fast-moving engineering team.

Preferred Qualifications

Any of the following would be valuable, but we do not expect one person to be an expert in all of them:

• Aerospace experience with launch vehicles, spacecraft, payloads, payload adapters, or related flight hardware.
• Launch-vehicle payload integration, spaceport operations, mission-readiness, or joint launch-provider acceptance experience.
• Experience with vibration, shock, modal, thermal/vacuum, structural, or other environmental test campaigns.
• Experience designing or operating DAQ systems, sensors, flight instrumentation, and synchronized test data collection.
• Experience with one or more general-purpose programming languages, such as C++ & Python.
• Experience with CAD software such as Solidworks.
• Wiring schematic, harness design, and soldering experience
• Ability and willingness to travel occasionally to partner facilities, test sites, and launch sites and perform hands-on hardware work.
• Startup or small-team experience with broad, hands-on ownership across hardware test and integration milestones.

What Success Looks Like

Over the first several months, success means helping Narravity establish a practical, disciplined path from HEX prototype hardware to flight-ready hardware.

That includes having the right tests defined, the necessary test equipment and instrumentation in place, procedures that another engineer can follow, test results that can be traced to engineering requirements, and technical issues identified early enough to resolve them before flight integration.

As HEX progresses toward its first flight, this role will also help ensure that interfaces with payloads and flight partners are understood, hardware configurations are controlled, and integration and test evidence supports informed flight-readiness decisions.

Over time, the work completed in this role will become part of a repeatable integration and test framework for future HEX missions.

What This Role

This is not a narrow subsystem assignment.

It is an opportunity to work directly with an early-stage aerospace system as it moves toward its first flight—to help determine how the hardware will be tested, how integration will work, what tools and processes are needed, and how Narravity builds a repeatable approach for future missions.

If you enjoy flight hardware, solving practical engineering problems, and having visible ownership of the work you do, we'd like to talk with you.

Location: Fremont, CO (hybrid preferred) | Occasional travel to partner, test, and launch sites

Type: Part-time (Opportunity to transition to full-time)

Compensation: ~$70/hour (Estimated ~10 hours per week)