Role: Lead - Satellite Checkout Engineer

Employment Type:Full Time

Educational Qualification: B.E./B.Tech/M.S/M.Tech in Electrical & Electronics (or Instrumentation) Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.

Work Experience: Minimum 10-12 years of experience in Checkout / Embedded Software Quality Engineering & Assurance / Software AIT within the aerospace, satellite manufacturing,automotive or defence industries. Experience in establishing and managing teams at an organisational level is highly desirable.

Role Description

Team lead of the Checkout group in the Space Department of Pixxel.

Responsibilities & Duties

• As a part of Pixxel’s Production group, you will be responsible for the integration and testing of all spacecraft systems software.
• You’ll develop and implement comprehensive system test plans, perform analysis, and document outcomes at different stages of satellite integration. You'll play a pivotal role in recording and categorizing defects, while also summarizing test results for clear communication.
• You’ll investigate and analyze defects, reproducing scenarios using ground-based rigs to aid Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Develop and implement tests to address defects effectively in collaboration with the design team.
• You will be expected to continuously optimize the checkout process and philosophy to be lean, simple, and reliable.
• You would be expected to lead various satellite test campaigns like - Thermo Vacuum Cycling campaigns, Hardware-In-Loop Tests, Day-In-Life Tests, EMI/EMC Campaign etc.
• You will be responsible for configuration managment of the deployment software for production satellites.
• You will be responsible for creation and maintenance of documentation of all test activities performed by the checkout team.
  
  

Leadership & Strategy

• You will lead, guide and manage a team of 5+ checkout engineers, assuming responsibility for both their technical leadership and personnel management. You will also be responsible for the staffing of the checkout team for all future missions.
• You will oversee sprint planning for the checkout team, including task allocation and bandwidth management.
• Guide the team towards continuous improvement and upskilling, enabling them to plan and conduct test campaigns independently, thereby reducing reliance on the design team.
• You will be expected to interface with Verification & Validation team, Flight Software Team, Program office, Production team and Quality assurance team on a regular basis to identify checkout activities, plan execution, and perform tests in sprint cycles.
  
  

Desirable Skills & Certifications

• Strong understanding and experience in Avionics / Payload Systems, cross functional system level knowledge of various satellite systems (Electrical Power, Sensors, Actuators, Radios, Propulsion, etc), result analysis, and multi-system testing.
• Experience in reading and understanding datasheets, technical reports, software release notes, wiring diagrams, schematics and test plans is a must. Should be well versed in providing technical feedback to the design team.
• Strong understanding of test campaigns - firmware release tests, Day-in-life test, Functional Checks, System performance test - and ability to quickly and accurately document test reports and results.
• Demonstrated experience in successfully running production level test campaigns for products in aerospace / automotive / defense sectors. Experience in testing of satellites - will be a bonus.
• High proficiency in Python, C, C++. Comfortable with Linux based tools.
• Strong written and interpersonal skills for effective collaboration with various subsystems in the space department’s design teams.
• You will have to be impeccable with your documentation - to record tests plans, results & be able to deliver technical feedbacks to the design teams.
  
  

Candidate Acumen

A strong desire to work in an unstructured, high-growth, fast-paced start-up environment. Ability to deal with challenges and work out innovative solutions to tackle them. Building a team and guiding them towards success.

Benefits

Health insurance coverage

Unlimited leaves & flexible working hours

Role-based remote work and work-from-home benefit

Relocation assistance

Professional Mental Wellness services

Creche facility for primary caregivers (limited to India)

Employee Stock Options for all hires

About Pixxel

Pixxel is a space data company, building a constellation of hyperspectral earth imaging satellites and the analytical tools to mine insights from that data. Pixxel’s constellation is designed to provide global coverage every 24 hours and help detect, monitor, and predict global phenomena across agriculture, mining, environment and energy use cases.

Pixxel is on a mission to build a health monitor for the planet through a constellation of cutting-edge hyperspectral small satellites. This unique hyperspectral capability will be the key to unearth underlying, unseen problems that are invisible to satellites in orbit today.

Pixxel has collaborated with prominent organizations such as the Indian Space Research Organization, NASA JPL, and SpaceX among other leaders in the space industry. The organization is backed by Lightspeed, Radical Ventures, Relativity's Jordan Noone, Seraphim Capital, Ryan Johnson, Blume Ventures, Sparta LLC and Accenture among others.

Recently, Pixxel successfully raised $36 Million in its Series B funding round, with participation from new investors like Google, alongside existing investors, bringing the company's total venture funding to $71 Million.

To know more about us, visit https://www.pixxel.space.

Link to Pixxel in Media