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Senior Test Engineer - Space Solar Hardware

Position Details
Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA
Employment Type: Full-time
Department: Starlight Solar
Travel: Occasional

About Starpath
Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

The Role
The Starlight team is focused on dramatically improving space solar power to support Starpath's core mission and the greater space economy. Starlight manufactures the lowest cost and highest performance space solar ever, which will power the majority of new satellites built on Earth and all of Starpath's equipment on the Moon and Mars.

As a Senior Test Engineer on the Starlight team, you will own the test programs that prove our solar hardware is ready for flight. From electrical characterization of individual cells through full-array environmental qualification, you'll define how we test, what we test against, and how we know we're done. You'll set the technical direction for test, mentor a growing test team, and partner with design and manufacturing to make our hardware better with every campaign.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end test programs for space solar hardware - from cell-level electrical characterization through panel and array environmental qualification

• Define test strategy, requirements, and acceptance criteria for development, qualification, and acceptance testing

• Design and stand up test stands, fixtures, and data acquisition systems for electrical, thermal, mechanical, and environmental testing

• Lead environmental qualification campaigns - thermal vacuum (TVAC), thermal cycling, vibration, shock, and humidity - including test readiness reviews and post-test data review

• Execute electrical characterization of solar hardware - LIV/flash testing, electroluminescence imaging, dark IV, and degradation analysis

• Drive root-cause investigations on test failures and anomalies; partner with design engineering to close issues and improve hardware

• Write and review test procedures, test plans, and qualification reports to a standard that holds up under customer and regulatory review

• Influence hardware design from a testability perspective - push for instrumentation access, alignment features, and design choices that make hardware easier to qualify

• Mentor test engineers and technicians, set technical bar, and grow the team's capability as the program scales

• Push back on unnecessary complexity - simplify test setups, eliminate redundant verification, and cut overhead wherever it doesn't add value

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, materials, physics, or a related engineering or science discipline

• 6+ years of test engineering experience on hardware, with demonstrated ownership of test programs from planning through execution and reporting

• Track record of running qualification or acceptance test campaigns on production or flight hardware

• Experience leading technical work across cross-functional teams (design, manufacturing, quality)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in an engineering or science discipline

• Direct experience testing photovoltaic hardware - solar cells, strings, panels, or arrays - ideally multi-junction (III-V) cells for space or other high-reliability applications

• Hands-on experience operating and maintaining solar simulators (e.g., Spectrolab, AAA-class) and interpreting LIV/flash test data

• Proficiency with electroluminescence imaging, dark IV analysis, and other diagnostic techniques for solar hardware

• Experience leading environmental qualification campaigns - TVAC, thermal cycling, vibration, shock - and correlating results to analysis

• Familiarity with aerospace test standards (e.g., GEVS, MIL-STD-1540, AIAA S-111, AIAA S-112 for solar cells, NASA TVAC and dynamics standards)

• Strong data acquisition and analysis skills - LabVIEW, Python, MATLAB, or equivalent - including building custom DAQ for non-standard test setups

• Experience designing precision test fixtures and stands, including thermal and electrical interfaces to hardware under test

• Background in statistical analysis of test data, Weibull / life modeling, or accelerated life testing

• Prior experience mentoring or leading test engineers and technicians

• Exposure to aerospace, space, or other high-reliability hardware environments

Compensation & Benefits

• Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

• Competitive salary plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience

• PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

EAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Opportunity
Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.