Systems Test Engineer

Location: Huntsville, AL; Hollywood, AL

Department: Systems Engineering

About the Job

CFD Research is seeking a full-time Systems Test Engineer to support the continued development, verification, and qualification of a complex multidisciplinary aerospace and defense hardware system.

The Systems Test Engineer will serve as a primary technical integrator for formal system verification testing and will work closely with systems engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, controls, software, modeling and simulation, manufacturing, quality, reliability, maintainability, test operations, external test facilities, and program leadership.

The position will support a mature requirements-based verification program with a large number of requirements verified through formal testing. The Systems Test Engineer will organize those requirements into efficient test activities, develop and integrate formal test documentation, coordinate test readiness and execution, and ensure that test results provide objective evidence supporting system verification.

About the Role

The Systems Test Engineer will be responsible for planning and integrating the system verification test program from verification planning through final test reporting.

The role requires strong technical breadth and the ability to translate system requirements into executable test activities while coordinating the specialized knowledge of multiple engineering disciplines. The engineer is not expected to independently replace the technical expertise of the organizations responsible for the systems being tested. Detailed technical content will be developed collaboratively with the applicable subject matter experts.

The engineer will work closely with the Verification, Compliance and MBSE Systems Engineer and Lead Systems Engineer to maintain traceability between system requirements, test activities, test configuration, test evidence, and final verification status.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and maintain the integrated system verification test strategy and associated test planning.
• Organize requirements assigned to verification by test into logical and efficient test events to minimize unnecessary duplication of testing.
• Develop formal verification test plans identifying test objectives, applicable requirements, system configuration, operating conditions, resources, instrumentation, required evidence, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop and integrate formal test procedures using technical content provided by applicable engineering subject matter experts.
• Review internally and externally generated test procedures to confirm that planned testing adequately addresses assigned verification requirements.
• Coordinate internal and offsite verification testing with engineering teams, test organizations, customer or government facilities, and external test providers.
• Work with engineering subject matter experts to define required operating conditions, measurements, ranges, accuracy, sampling, instrumentation, and technical acceptance criteria.
• Coordinate with controls, instrumentation, data acquisition, and test personnel to ensure required measurements and test capabilities are available.
• Conduct or support formal test readiness reviews and verify that required procedures, configurations, instrumentation, personnel, facilities, and technical approvals are in place before testing begins.
• Maintain test configuration control and ensure test evidence can be traced to the specific hardware, software, firmware, and system configuration evaluated.
• Coordinate formal test execution and maintain visibility of deviations, anomalies, incomplete objectives, and test failures.
• Initiate or support failure reporting and corrective action activities associated with verification test failures.
• Coordinate with engineering subject matter experts to evaluate test results, determine root causes where required, and establish appropriate retest activities.
• Develop and integrate formal test results reports using test records, collected data, engineering analyses, and technical conclusions provided by the responsible engineering organizations.
• Ensure test results and artifacts provide sufficient objective evidence to support verification closure.
• Support qualification testing, factory acceptance testing, environmental testing, subsystem testing, system integration testing, demonstrations, and other formal verification activities.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, or another closely related engineering discipline.
• Three or more years of engineering experience involving complex hardware development, system integration, testing, verification, qualification, or a related technical activity. More experienced candidates are encouraged to apply.
• Proficiency with military regulations and standards such as MIL-STD-810 (Environmental Testing), MIL-STD-461 (EMI and EMC electrical testing) and MIL-STD-464 (E3 Testing).
• Experience developing, reviewing, or executing engineering test plans, procedures, or reports.
• Ability to interpret engineering requirements and translate them into practical verification activities.
• Working knowledge of test instrumentation, data acquisition, measurement accuracy, calibration, test configuration, and engineering data analysis.
• Ability to understand multidisciplinary technical systems and work effectively with specialized engineering subject matter experts.
• Strong technical writing skills and experience developing controlled engineering documentation.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to coordinate engineers, technicians, test personnel, vendors, external facilities, and customer representatives.
• U.S. citizenship required due to the nature of the company's work and contractual requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance, as required.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience supporting DoD acquisition or aerospace hardware development programs.
• Experience with formal requirements-based verification.
• Experience with qualification, environmental, reliability, performance, or acceptance testing.
• Experience supporting external or government test facilities.
• Experience with failure reporting, root-cause investigation, FRACAS, or corrective-action processes.
• Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler, SysML, requirements management tools, or MBSE environments.
• Experience supporting technical reviews, test readiness reviews, qualification reviews, or functional and configuration audits.