Integration and test
Space Jobs for Test Engineers
, SpaceJobs.Now lists 414 open roles for test engineers on 31 space industry employers, including Muon Space, Hubble Network and Inversion Space; their typical pay runs $109k to $201k a year, with a median of $130k, and the highest advertised rate is $265k a year at SpaceX.
Space Test Engineer (opens the job details)
HawkEye 360 · Systems & Test · Herndon, VA, United States· 1w agoDetails
$70,000/yr
Measured from 208 distinct posted rates, across 21 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 206 of the 414 open roles here state no pay.
Space companies hire test engineers to prove hardware before it flies: on engine test stands, in thermal vacuum chambers and on the integration floor. Every role is checked against its employer's job board every hour.
Live roles for test engineers
Updated 29 Oct 2026, 14:01 UTCShowing the HawkEye 360 roles. See every employer
Some links on this site are referral links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what an employer pays you.
Propulsion and hot-fire test
1 openEngine and component testing on the stand: test plans, stand operations and data review.
Space Test Engineer (opens the job details)
HawkEye 360 · Systems & Test · Herndon, VA, United States· 1w agoDetails
$70,000/yr
Before you apply
Space hardware is built, tested and flown in person, so many roles name a factory, a test site, a launch site or a control room, and each listing states its location. US roles that touch export-controlled technology (ITAR or EAR) can ask that you be a U.S. person, and some ask for a security clearance. A real employer never charges you to apply, never interviews you only by chat app and never asks you to buy equipment.
Pay by specialty
Each specialty's typical pay is measured over its own open roles the way every band on this site is (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top), and shown only where at least three distinct rates are posted.
| Specialty | Open roles | Typical pay | Highest rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propulsion and hot-fire test | 412 | $109k–$200k/yr | $265k/yr |
| Integration and test | 1 | Too few rates | Not stated |
| Test engineers | 1 | Too few rates | $218k/yr |
What the roles ask for
Read from the requirements of 58 of the 414 open roles for test engineers: the lines each role's pop-up lists from its posting. A role counts once, at the lowest degree it accepts.
- Name years of experience49
- Ask for coding (Python, SQL and the like)12
- Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)5
- Name a security clearance5
- Ask where you live or may work1
The roles that name experience ask for a median of 4 years.
Who hires test engineers in the space industry
Ordered by what applying is worth, lifted by a referral boost for the employers that pay us a referral fee; it never changes what an employer pays you.
Where these roles are posted
Roles an employer posts for one country, and roles whose title names a language. Each place opens its own page; each count opens these roles.
Experienced in Systems, Integration & Test?
One profile for every space employer. Companies ask us for people with a specific skill, country or credential: add yours once, and when a role fits, we introduce you, only with your yes. Free.
systems & test alerts
Get new systems & test roles by email
We'll email you the newest systems & test roles at every employer we track, with the pay each states, so you don't have to keep checking. Free, and unsubscribe anytime.
We email new roles, not spam. One click to unsubscribe.
Frequently asked questions
How much do test engineers earn in the space industry?
Across the 208 distinct hourly rates posted for roles for test engineers right now, typical pay runs from $109000 to $201000 an hour, with a median of $130000. The highest posted rate is $265000 an hour, at SpaceX. 206 of the 414 open roles for test engineers state no pay, so check each listing.
What do test roles ask for?
Usually an engineering degree and hands-on test experience, with the data and automation tools the role names. Each listing states what it requires and where it is based. Of the 58 open roles for test engineers whose requirements we read, 1 a master's, 51 a bachelor's or a degree and 6 name no degree.
What does a test engineer do at a space company?
A test engineer at a space company plans and runs the tests that prove hardware works: writing procedures, building test setups, running the test and reading the data, from a single valve to an engine on the stand or a whole satellite in a vacuum chamber.
How do space companies hire test engineers?
Each employer runs its own hiring, and each listing says what it asks for: the degree or the hands-on experience, the location, and for export-controlled work in the US, often U.S. person status.
Are these jobs real?
Every role here is read from a space employer's own careers page or job board (Muon Space, Hubble Network, Inversion Space and Xona Space Systems among them), and each employer's page here covers who they are and how they hire. A real employer never charges you to apply, never asks you to buy equipment and never interviews you only by chat app.
More work by profession
Space jobs for manufacturing engineers
Production, process, additive, composites and fabrication engineering.
Space jobs for systems engineers
Vehicle and mission systems, requirements and verification.
Space jobs for quality engineers
Quality engineering, inspection, NDT and mission assurance.
Space jobs for GNC engineers
Guidance, navigation and control, flight dynamics and trajectory.
Space jobs for mission operations engineers
Launch operations, mission control and satellite operations.
Space jobs for RF engineers
Antennas, phased arrays, communications systems and payloads.
Space jobs for physicists
Optics and photonics, space science, astronomy and plasma physics.
Space jobs by profession
Every profession space companies hire, with live counts and pay.
Systems, Integration & Test
Every open systems & test role across space employers, with live pay.