Entry Level- Test Engineer (Onsite- Aberdeen Maryland)

About the role

Fairwinds Technologies is continuously looking for curious, methodical, and hands-on early-career engineers who want to verify that advanced communications, RF, embedded-computing, and mixed-signal products perform as intended. In this role, you may support either our xG or Mixed Signal product development team, or technical-services contracts aligned with those product areas. You will work alongside experienced test, systems, RF, network, DSP, FPGA, embedded software, electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and quality personnel to plan tests, configure equipment, collect evidence, analyze results, troubleshoot failures, and improve repeatability. Assignments may span internal product development and customer-funded research, integration, qualification, demonstration, acceptance, and field-support activities.

Responsibilities

• Help translate product, system, interface, and customer requirements into clear test objectives, methods, procedures, data needs, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop and maintain test plans, test cases, procedures, checklists, test configurations, data sheets, traceability records, and formal test reports.
• Configure and operate laboratory equipment, radios, network devices, embedded systems, channel emulators, RF components, computers, and automated test environments.
• Execute functional, performance, interoperability, regression, environmental-support, reliability, and acceptance testing under established procedures.
• Collect, organize, visualize, and analyze test data for metrics such as signal quality, frequency response, gain, noise, throughput, latency, packet loss, error rate, timing, thermal behavior, and system stability.
• Use oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, network analyzers, power meters, logic analyzers, packet-capture tools, and comparable instruments as appropriate to the assignment.
• Create Python, MATLAB, Bash, or other scripts to automate equipment control, configuration checks, data collection, analysis, plotting, and report inputs.
• Document test anomalies, reproduce failures, isolate contributing conditions, support root-cause investigations, and verify corrective actions.
• Coordinate test readiness, equipment availability, calibration status, software and firmware baselines, test articles, interfaces, safety controls, and configuration records.
• Participate in laboratory and field testing, customer demonstrations, design reviews, test-readiness reviews, and technical-service deliverables.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering Technology, or a closely related technical field, completed or expected before start date.
• Coursework, laboratory, internship, capstone, research, maker-space, or personal-project experience involving test, measurement, troubleshooting, integration, data analysis, or technical documentation.
• Foundational understanding of the engineering test lifecycle, including objectives, configurations, procedures, measurement, repeatability, acceptance criteria, and reporting.
• Basic experience using laboratory instruments, software tools, command-line utilities, or data-analysis applications to investigate technical behavior.
• Ability to follow controlled procedures while recognizing unexpected results, asking good questions, and documenting observations accurately.
• Ability to use structured problem solving, organize test evidence, communicate assumptions, and explain results clearly.
• Ability to collaborate in a multidisciplinary engineering environment and satisfy customer, site-access, export-control, and security requirements associated with assigned work.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience testing radios, networks, electronics, embedded systems, RF