Job Details
Posted date: Sep 08, 2025
Location: Redmond, WA
Estimated salary: $185,400
Range: $135,900 - $234,900
Description
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband network. Its mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world, and we’ve designed the system with the capacity, flexibility, and performance to serve a wide range of customers, from individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
The Kuiper Propulsion Team is seeking a Test Engineer Manager to lead the Propulsion Development Test Team. This team of engineers supports the development and continued improvement of propulsion flight hardware and its test infrastructure. The team is responsible for the design, build, optimization, and execution of electric propulsion testing of all propulsion subsystems, including the Hall effect thruster, cathode, feed system, avionics, propellant storage, and integrated propulsion system.
Development testing is focused on characterizing and validating existing flight designs and development hardware. Test objectives include improved understanding of failure modes to inform design improvements, production acceptance testing non-conformance investigations, and root cause investigations of on-orbit anomalies anomalies.
This team will work closely with Propulsion’s Production Test Team, supporting improvements and scaling of production acceptance test infrastructure and process improvements.
Key job responsibilities
- You will work with stakeholders across the Propulsion Manufacturing and Design Teams to coordinate and support development test efforts.
- Your team will define and document test processes and implementation, including test plans & detailed procedures, test software development, test execution, data analysis, and test reports. Your team will develop new test capabilities and optimize existing test systems for both production and development testing.
- In addition to building up the needed test infrastructure and execution of development testing, your team contributes to finding solutions to challenging technical problems by investigating root causes for hardware and test failures, and assists in the disposition of production & flight non-conformances.
- Your team leverages the growing amount of ground-test and flight data to inform determination of the severity and prevalence of observed anomalies, and formulate methods to accelerate production acceptance testing without impacting hardware screening capabilities.
- You will lead by example by developing a strong understanding of the flight hardware and its test systems as well as contribute to hiring, mentoring, and career growth of the engineers on your team, and within the Propulsion Manufacturing and Engineering organization.
A day in the life
The Propulsion Development Test Engineer Manager leads the team by example to ensure capabilities and plans are available to test existing hardware and candidate design improvements. You will work closely with other teams within the Propulsion Group such as the design, subject matter expert, production test, and manufacturing teams in order to execute development test needs and to maintain deep knowledge of both the hardware under test and test venues.
A successful candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment and is able to apply their technical expertise and commitment-to-quality to positively impact organization goals. To be successful, you will need to be highly motivated, detail oriented, and demonstrate high standards of execution.
About the team
The Kuiper Propulsion Design Team is responsible for the design and development of the propulsion system which provides maneuvering capability to the spacecraft. The Propulsion Design Team is made up of engineers from a variety of disciplines (e.g. aerospace engineering, physics, electrical engineering) which are responsible for different aspects of the development process: such as mechanical design, systems engineering, propulsion subject matter experts, manufacturing, and test. This integrated team structure allows direct communication and rapid process feedback while also promoting close collaboration across the team.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience- 2+ years experience managing engineering teams
- 5+ years developing test automation, data acquisition, or control software
- 5+ years experience with electrical test equipment and data acquisition systems
- 5+ years of developing, executing, and optimizing test processes
- 5+ years investigating hardware failures, performing root cause analysis, and delivering written reports to engineering teams
Extended Qualifications
- Advanced degree (M.Sc., Ph.D.) in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.- Experience managing engineers for the testing of satellite propulsion hardware
- Experience developing software with Python, LabVIEW, or TestStand
- Experience testing electric or chemical propulsion systems - or their subsystems
- Experience developing and operating pressurized fluid systems in aerospace environments
- Experience developing test processes in a production environment
- Experience working with space flight hardware
- Experience with Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) or quantifying strength of screening metrics for production test venues.
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $135,900/year in our lowest geographic market up to $234,900/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits. This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.
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