Entry Level- Test Engineer; Onsite- Aberdeen Maryland

Salary Range: $75,000.00 To $85,000.00 Annually

Fairwinds Technologies is continuously looking for curious, methodical, and hands-on early-career engineers who want to verify that advanced communications, RF, embedded-computing, and mixed-signal products perform as intended. In this role, you may support either our xG or Mixed Signal product development team, or technical-services contracts aligned with those product areas.

You will work alongside experienced test, systems, RF, network, DSP, FPGA, embedded software, electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and quality personnel to plan tests, configure equipment, collect evidence, analyze results, troubleshoot failures, and improve repeatability. Assignments may span internal product development and customer-funded research, integration, qualification, demonstration, acceptance, and field-support activities.

• Help translate product, system, interface, and customer requirements into clear test objectives, methods, procedures, data needs, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop and maintain test plans, test cases, procedures, checklists, test configurations, data sheets, traceability records, and formal test reports.
• Configure and operate laboratory equipment, radios, network devices, embedded systems, channel emulators, RF components, computers, and automated test environments.
• Execute functional, performance, interoperability, regression, environmental-support, reliability, and acceptance testing under established procedures.
• Collect, organize, visualize, and analyze test data for metrics such as signal quality, frequency response, gain, noise, throughput, latency, packet loss, error rate, timing, thermal behavior, and system stability.
• Use oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, network analyzers, power meters, logic analyzers, packet-capture tools, and comparable instruments as appropriate to the assignment.
• Create Python, MATLAB, Bash, or other scripts to automate equipment control, configuration checks, data collection, analysis, plotting, and report inputs.
• Document test anomalies, reproduce failures, isolate contributing conditions, support root-cause investigations, and verify corrective actions.
• Coordinate test readiness, equipment availability, calibration status, software and firmware baselines, test articles, interfaces, safety controls, and configuration records.
• Participate in laboratory and field testing, customer demonstrations, design reviews, test-readiness reviews, and technical-service deliverables.

• xG wireless systems, including 5G, non-terrestrial networking, tactical communications, software-defined radio, mesh and mobile networks, radio integration, gateways, and edge-compute platforms.
• Mixed Signal products, including Global Link and Echo Phase-related capabilities, channel emulation, coherent combining, wideband RF systems, high-speed digital and data-converter interfaces, and embedded control.
• Radio and network performance, interoperability, RF translation, signal-path alignment, waveform behavior, channel effects, synchronization, calibration, and system management.
• Integrated systems that combine RF, antennas, DSP, FPGA logic, embedded Linux, networking, power, mechanical packaging, firmware, and management software.
• Government-funded R&D and technical-services contracts involving test planning, configuration, integration, performance characterization, documentation, demonstrations, acceptance support, and field troubleshooting.

• Hands-on experience testing radios, networks, electronics, embedded systems, RF components, software, mechanical…