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Software Engineer, Test & Automation

Cowboy Space Corporation· Software Engineering
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San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA$100k - $200kFull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Software Engineer, Test & Automation to build and own software, tooling, and infrastructure for verifying spacecraft systems across development lifecycle, including SIL, HITL, environmental and radiation testing, and field tests.

Responsibilities

  • Design, develop, and maintain reusable software frameworks for automated spacecraft testing across SIL, HITL, environmental, radiation, integration, and field-test environments
  • Own the software and automation for HITL infrastructure that exercises real flight software against flight, engineering, or emulated spacecraft hardware
  • Build SIL environments that support rapid development, regression testing, fault injection, and validation without requiring physical hardware
  • Automate environmental and qualification testing, including thermal-vacuum, vibration, shock, electromagnetic compatibility, and other test campaigns
  • Build scheduling, resource management, and reporting systems that make shared test infrastructure repeatable, self-service, and usable across multiple concurrent programs
  • Integrate automated tests into continuous integration workflows and provide clear, actionable results to engineering teams
  • Stand up, configure, and maintain test racks and supporting lab equipment, including power, data, instrumentation, and safety interfaces
  • Develop software interfaces for controlling and collecting data from power supplies, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, data-acquisition systems, environmental chambers, and other test equipment
  • Partner with engineering teams to define test coverage, prioritize gaps, and validate hardware and software releases before integration and flight
  • Investigate failures and anomalies, distinguish test-infrastructure issues from genuine hardware or software defects, and drive root-cause analysis to closure
  • Manage configuration, calibration, versioning, data provenance, and traceability so test environments and results are reproducible and trustworthy
  • Document the test platform, develop operating procedures, and champion its adoption across the company

Qualifications

  • 3+ years of experience, or equivalent practical experience, in test automation, embedded software, hardware/software integration, validation infrastructure, or a related discipline
  • Strong software development skills in Python, C/C++, or Rust
  • Experience designing maintainable software tools, libraries, services, or frameworks used by other engineers
  • Hands-on experience testing software against physical hardware and integrating software with lab or test equipment
  • Experience with common embedded communication interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and Ethernet
  • Ability to debug complex issues that cross software, hardware, instrumentation, and test-environment boundaries
  • Demonstrated focus on reusability, reliability, observability, and maintainability rather than one-off test solutions
  • Ability and willingness to support hands-on testing in laboratory, test-facility, and field environments

Skills

Required:PythonC/C++Embedded hardware testingTest automation design
Nice to have:Rust

Benefits

  • Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their eligible dependents
  • 401(k) retirement savings plan
  • Paid time off
  • 10 paid holidays per calendar year
  • Paid parental leave
  • Relocation assistance if applicable
  • Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks
Last updated Oct 18, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Cowboy Space Corporation

Powering Humanity From the High Frontier

Cowboy Space Corp. is building a power grid in outer space for artificial intelligence. It is an integrated system of satellites and rockets to haul high-performance compute and optical data transmission down from Low Earth Orbit. Earth's energy grid can't run at the pace of AI. We can.

Orbital Data CentersAI compute in spacesolar-powered data centersLow Earth Orbitpower grid in space
Company profileWebsite

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