Senior AI&T Engineer - Space Systems

At Axient Systems we are building sovereign Dutch space capability. From Delft, at the heart of the Dutch aerospace ecosystem, we develop advanced satellite systems for the Netherlands Ministry of Defence and other government and commercial customers. Our work spans mission integration, earth observation, secure communications, and space systems engineering. We are responsible for mission integration on PAMI-1, the satellite that will give the Netherlands its own optical space capability.

We are looking for a Senior AI&T Engineer to own assembly, integration, and test as a discipline at Axient.

The Role
You will become the owner of AI&T at Axient: the approach, the standards, and the judgement about whether hardware is ready for the next step. The role has two sides to it from the start.

The campaign.
Our current mission's AI&T campaign runs at a partner facility. Part of the campaign is our partner's to lead; part is Axient's responsibility, and there you work at the centre of the campaign, alongside experienced campaign specialists. How much you take on depends on what you bring: if you arrive with deep campaign experience, there is room to do considerably more.

Either way, you leave that campaign knowing the platform, the partner, and the people.

The capability.
Alongside the campaign you build AI&T as a discipline at Axient: the model philosophy, the integration strategy, the standards for procedures and test conduct, and the in-house test environment. That work starts while the campaign is still running, so the two overlap from early on. Axient is a young organisation and this discipline is yours to shape, which means what you set now becomes how we do it.

Most physical integration and test happens at partners and suppliers, in the Netherlands, Europe, and the United States. You define the verification and test approach, review and approve what suppliers propose, and are present when it matters: at readiness reviews, during critical test runs, and when something fails. In Delft we run software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing, and in time possibly a flatsat.

A campaign that runs under our responsibility is yours from plan to execution: you set the approach and the standards, and you are at the hardware when they are put to the test.

You are the person who says hardware is ready, or that it is not. That judgement needs to hold up when the schedule is under pressure.

You work closely with systems engineering, which owns the requirements and the verification matrix, and with the programme manager, who owns schedule and cost. AI&T is where those two meet the hardware.

What You Will Own

The AI&T approach at Axient: test philosophy and strategy including engineering, qualification, and acceptance testing as well as the use of engineering and STMs for risk mitigation

Axient's part of the current mission's AI&T campaign, alongside our partner and our campaign specialists

Definition of V&V requirements, and the verification close-out against them

Acceptance of subsystems before integration, at engineering model (EM) and flight model (FM) level

EM and flatsat activities: procedure creation and execution, result collection, and compliance evidence

FM activities: satellite-level procedures, execution, and participation in the environmental test campaign

Definition and procurement of mechanical and electrical ground support equipment

AIT plans, test specifications, and test procedures, at system level and at supplier level

Environmental and functional qualification campaigns: vibration, shock, thermal, TVAC, and EMC

Optical alignment, calibration, and performance verification, together with the payload team

Review of supplier AI&T documentation, and holding suppliers to it

Test Readiness Reviews and Test…