Lead Production Test Development Engineer, Customer Hardware (Starlink)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

About the role

SpaceX is leveraging its experience in building rockets and spacecraft to deploy Starlink, the world’s most advanced broadband internet system. As a Starlink Production Test Development Lead, you will lead a team of test engineers responsible for high‑volume production test of customer‑facing devices such as Starlink dishes/user terminals, Wi‑Fi routers, power supplies, and upcoming products. You will design, implement, and verify development, production, and reliability test solutions, interact regularly with senior leadership, and collaborate with electrical, silicon, software, mechanical, and manufacturing teams to steer projects from concept to full‑scale production.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small team of test engineers developing fixtures, test cases, and automated test solutions for high‑volume consumer phased arrays, Wi‑Fi routers, power supplies, and upcoming products.
• Develop and maintain Design For Test (DFT) guidelines and work with design teams to implement the guidelines on new products.
• Develop test strategies, perform thorough test coverage analyses, and conduct formal test strategy reviews with peer teams.
• Write automation software in Python to interact with units under test, test equipment, instrumentation, field data, and production documentation systems.
• Provide consistent feedback to design engineers, manufacturing engineers, and test lab teams to drive design or infrastructure improvements that increase product quality and yield.
• Challenge assumptions and find simple solutions to complex problems.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or other engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of experience with hardware development or electronics test engineering (internship and extracurricular experience is applicable).
• 5+ years of object‑oriented programming experience.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• 2+ years of experience with technical leadership.
• Experience analyzing circuits, developing functional test plans, and performing test coverage analysis.
• Experience designing and troubleshooting PCBAs.
• Proficiency with test equipment and measurement techniques (oscilloscope, multimeter, electronic load, spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, vector signal generator, source measurement unit, etc.).
• Understanding of electrical schematics and electronics manufacturing to analyze and improve test coverage.
• Understanding of metrology, sources of measurement error, and uncertainty analysis.
• Experience interacting with repositories using Git commands.
• Thorough understanding of electronics reliability and failure mechanisms.
• Experience in environmental testing such as HALT/HASS, thermal, vibration, and TVAC.
• Strong understanding of computers and programming languages (Python, C/C++).
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly cross‑functional role.
• Basic understanding of networking concepts, Virtual LANs (VLANs) and Network Address Translation (NAT).

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission‑critical deadlines.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, the applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (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.