Sr. Reliability Test Engineer

Aerospace is at a turning point — costs are rising, supply chains are strained, and old ways of building can’t keep up. At Neon Aero, we’re breaking that mold. We move fast, think big, and combine start-up agility with aerospace expertise to design, build, and scale aircraft in ways the industry has never seen. Our team leverages automation, AI-driven tools, and a fully connected digital backbone to accelerate innovation and reduce barriers to production.

Here, you won’t just take a job — you’ll help reinvent how the world flies. If you’re ready to solve complex problems, push technology further, and work alongside some of the brightest minds in aerospace, this is your chance to make a real impact.

We’re looking for a Senior Reliability Test Engineer to define, build, and lead reliability and validation testing across complex electromechanical systems. Sitting within the systems development team, this role is responsible for ensuring our products meet critical performance, durability, and operational requirements through rigorous engineering validation and characterization.

You will own the reliability test strategy, lab infrastructure, and execution for systems that include electromechanical actuators, thermal management systems, and hybrid power platforms. Your work will uncover failure modes early, quantify design risk, and generate the data needed to drive confident engineering decisions. While this role does not directly own design, your insights, observations, and test strategy will have a major influence on engineering tradeoffs and system direction.

This is an engineering-driven validation role focused on understanding real-world behavior, breaking systems intelligently, and ensuring designs are ready before formal qualification. It is central to a fast, iterative development approach that emphasizes learning through early prototype testing rather than waiting for a single certification-bound build. As the first senior hire in reliability and validation, you will help define the philosophy, infrastructure, and operating model for how this function scales across the company.

Why This Role Matters

This role is foundational to how we validate products before they reach certification and production. You will shape the way we test, learn, and improve across product lines by building a reliability function from the ground up and creating the systems, infrastructure, and rigor needed to support rapid hardware development.

In this role, you will:

• Define reliability and validation test strategies for complex electromechanical systems based on requirements and expected use conditions
• Translate engineering requirements into structured test plans, methodologies, and measurable success criteria
• Design tests that reveal failure modes, edge cases, and system limitations early in development
• Build and scale internal lab capabilities, including fixtures, instrumentation, data acquisition systems, and repeatable workflows
• Lead hands-on execution of mechanical, thermal, electrical, and combined-stress testing on prototype hardware
• Manage external test vendors and integrate outside test results into the broader validation strategy
• Analyze data to assess performance margins, degradation trends, and residual design risk
• Partner closely with systems, mechanical, and electrical engineering teams to support design readiness and pre-certification validation efforts

Your work will directly determine whether systems perform as expected in real-world conditions and whether the organization can move forward with confidence into qualification and production.

What you’ll Bring

You bring deep experience in reliability engineering, validation, or system-level hardware testing, along with the judgment and hands-on capability to succeed in a fast-moving prototype environment. You know how to turn requirements into structured test strategies, build practical test infrastructure, and extract meaningful insight from complex data. You are a strong systems thinker who brings curiosity, sound technical judgment, clear communication, and a hands-on, low-ego approach to solving problems across disciplines.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in reliability engineering, validation testing, or system-level hardware testing
• Proven experience developing and executing test strategies for complex electromechanical systems
• Strong hands-on background building and operating test setups, fixtures, and instrumentation
• Solid understanding of mechanical, electrical, and environmental stress testing
• Experience working with external test labs and managing outsourced test campaigns
• Ability to translate engineering requirements into structured test plans and measurable outcomes
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex test results
• Comfort working directly with prototype hardware in lab environments
• Clear communication skills and the ability to translate technical findings into actionable insight
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, adapt quickly, and drive work through execution and follow-through

Preferred experience includes:

• Aerospace, automotive, robotics, or consumer hardware systems
• Familiarity with reliability and environmental standards such as DO-160 or similar frameworks
• Experience with accelerated life testing, fatigue testing, and environmental stress testing
• Background in statistical analysis methods and tools such as Weibull analysis, DOE, JMP, Python, or MATLAB
• Experience testing actuator systems, motor-driven systems, or power electronics
• Experience building or scaling test infrastructure in early-stage or rapidly growing environments

Why Join Us

• Work alongside elite engineering talent and innovators from across aerospace and tech.
• Be part of a team moving faster than the industry standard.
• Shape solutions that are lower-cost, autonomous, and scalable — the future of aviation.
• Competitive compensation, including equity participation, growth opportunities, and full heath benefits (health, vision, dental, 401K) designed to support you in and out of work.

Neon Aero, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.

We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation, and we welcome candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

All final candidates must successfully complete a background check and drug screening as a condition of employment.

At this time, Neon Aero and its divisions are not accepting unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters or staffing agencies.