Lead Avionics Test Engineer

About the role

Why Castelion, Why Now Castelion is moving incredibly fast to develop and deliver advanced defense systems at a time when execution matters more than ever. We believe focus and technical excellence are decisive advantages - and we are building a team that can deliver real capability, not just concepts. This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, where your work will directly shape critical systems, influence major technical decisions, and have immediate, real-world impact.

Lead Avionics Test Engineer We are looking for a Lead Avionics Test Engineer to own the vision, architecture, and execution of our avionics test organization as we transition from prototype development to production and flight operations. In this role, you will set technical direction, mentor engineers, and drive test infrastructure, automated test equipment (ATE), integration, validation, and performance characterization across power electronics, digital interfaces, RF assemblies, motion control, and flight avionics. You will design fixtures, build automated test stations, support DVT and qualification, and define the test performance envelope for components, circuit cards, and integrated sub-systems. This role blends hands-on lab work with systems-level reasoning and close collaboration with electrical, controls, software, and mechanical engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across the avionics test organization, establishing standards, processes, and best practices for scalable test development
• Develop and execute test plans at component, subassembly, and integrated system levels
• Design and build test fixtures, HIL environments, and automated test rigs
• Validate hardware performance across electrical, digital, mechanical, and RF metrics
• Instrument and log tests to ensure precision and traceability
• Lead failure analysis and root-cause investigations
• Support hardware teams by feeding test results back into design cycles
• Drive qualification and environmental test campaigns (thermal, vibe, EMI)
• Deploy and validate automated test equipment for boards and sub-systems

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• B.S./M.S. in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Aerospace, or related
• Experience testing high-power subsystems, high-speed digital interfaces, actuators, or RF hardware
• Hands-on experience developing automated test equipment using instruments such as oscilloscopes, DMMs, power supplies, loads, switch matrices, network analyzers, etc.
• Familiarity with embedded control systems and interfaces (CAN, RS-422/485, SPI, Ethernet)
• Experience with instrumentation control and data acquisition (Python, C++, protobufs, scripting)
• Ability to work independently and lead cross-functional test integration
• U.S. citizenship required; ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government–issued security clearance

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience in RF testing fundamentals or more advanced knowledge of Radar architecture
• Experience with software development for test automation for digital, power, and RF electronics (Python preferred)
• Experience controlling test instrumentation using SCPI, VISA, or PyVISA commands
• Experience developing GUIs or dashboards
• Experience writing custom scripts for data analysis & database creation
• Experience writing software for Environmental Chambers and/or RF Chambers
• Exposure to flight-like test environments, including environmental stress screening (ESS)