Software Development Engineer (Test)

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a Software Development Engineer & Test (SDET) to support an innovative space technology company building resilient, mission-critical software systems. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, DevOps, and advanced test automation, with a strong emphasis on real-world system behavior, scale, and resilience.

You will design and build automated end-to-end tests that mirror actual customer workflows, deliberately stress distributed systems, and validate recovery when things go wrong. If you enjoy breaking systems on purpose — and fixing them — this role is for you.

This position is Hybrid out of Los Angeles, CA and requires an active Secret or TS/SCI Security Clearance.

Responsibilities of the SDET:

• Design, build, and maintain end-to-end automated test suites using frameworks such as Playwright or Cypress
• Simulate real customer use cases across satellite tracking, antenna reservation, and command-and-control services
• Execute large-scale test scenarios simulating hundreds to thousands of concurrent system operations
• Act as a chaos engineer, injecting failures to validate system resilience and recovery procedures
• Test and troubleshoot API-driven, distributed systems, including event-driven and multi-tier architectures
• Validate behavior across NoSQL and relational databases, caching layers, and serverless components
• Identify, debug, and fix issues in deployed production software
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, with a preference for GitHub Actions
• Support validation and verification efforts for complex, mission-critical software systems
• Collaborate closely with software engineers, DevOps, and product teams to uphold high quality standards

Qualifications for the SDET:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field
• 3+ years of professional experience in software testing, backend development, DevOps, or related roles
  • Exceptional self-starters with strong technical skills and real project experience will also be considered
• Strong proficiency in Python
• Working knowledge of TypeScript and/or JavaScript
• Experience with end-to-end testing frameworks (Playwright, Cypress, or similar)
• Strong understanding of containerized and serverless architectures
• Hands-on experience testing and troubleshooting:
  • APIs and backend services
  • Distributed systems
  • Event-driven architectures
  • NoSQL and relational databases
  • Caching systems
• Experience with task automation and CI/CD pipeline development
• Proficiency with Git and GitHub (or similar version control systems)
• Active U.S. Security Clearance (Secret required; TS/SCI preferred)

Compensation & Benefits:

• $120,000 - 140,000+ *Dependent on experience*
• Comprehensive Benefits with extremely generous PTO and Bonuses!
• Hybrid flexibility

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