Testing & Qualification Lead - Space Solar Hardware

Testing & Qualification Lead - Space Solar Hardware

Position Details

Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

Employment Type: Full-time

Department: Starlight Solar

About Starpath

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

The Role

The Starlight team is focused on dramatically improving space solar power to support Starpath's core mission and the greater space economy. Starlight manufactures the lowest cost and highest performance space solar ever, which will power the majority of new satellites built on Earth and all of Starpath's equipment on the Moon and Mars.

This is a pragmatic role: strong standards knowledge, strong judgment, and willingness to get hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Own internal processes for qualification and acceptance of space solar hardware
• Maintain environmental test plans and reference mission set aligned with NASA GEVS (and/or ECSS equivalent) and customer needs.
• Coordinate execution of environmental tests internally and externally (TVAC, vibration, thermal, radiation, etc.)
• Efficiently tailor and execute test plans as-needed to explore physical conditions beyond the standard reference mission set
• Drive right-sized risk analysis (FMEA/FMECA-lite, fault trees where useful)
• Support failure analysis, root cause investigations, and corrective/preventive actions
• Partner with Manufacturing on quality controls, acceptance gates, and nonconformance workflows
• Communicate testing rationale and results clearly to customers and internal stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• B.S. or higher in an engineering discipline
• 7+ years in reliability, quality, or test engineering for high-reliability hardware (space/aerospace strongly preferred)
• Experience building/owning environmental test programs (planning + execution)
• Strong judgment on test sufficiency vs overkill (schedule/cost/risk tradeoffs)
• Comfortable pushing back and aligning stakeholders around a clear reliability philosophy

Preferred Qualifications

• Radiation effects or space environment materials degradation experience
• Solar array / power subsystem experience
• Direct experience with quality and acceptance testing
• Startup or rapid development program experience

Compensation & Benefits

• Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA
• Salary base rate is $135-$170k/yr, plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience
• PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

EAR REQUIREMENTS:

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

Equal Opportunity

Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.