Senior Software Engineer, Hardware Test at Muon Space
San Jose, CA
$184,000–$208,000from the description
Jul 30, 2026
San Jose, CA
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A technical lead role at an aerospace startup building and owning the software frameworks, tooling, and databases used to test satellite hardware from module level through fully assembled spacecraft. The work centers on designing Python-based test frameworks, writing instrument drivers, architecting results databases and UIs, and integrating with CI/CD and hardware-in-the-loop systems. Suits an engineer who is equally at home writing clean framework code and debugging lab equipment at the bench.
Senior level · 8+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 3,350 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 1,750–4,350
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 1, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (5)
This role sits between software development (15-1252) and hardware test/QA (15-1253). The primary work is building and owning test frameworks and tooling — i.e., shipping software — which tips the classification toward Software Developers, but the hardware-test context and QA-adjacent mission make 15-1253 a credible runner-up.
VISA/SCPI is listed as an example instrument protocol alongside serial, CAN, and Ethernet-based interfaces; all are facets of the same instrument-driver requirement. Serial and CAN are captured as alternatives since the posting treats them interchangeably as acceptable protocol experience.
The posting has an ITAR/EAR notice requiring US persons or export-authorization eligibility, but does not gate on a formal US government security clearance.
The role is hybrid (3 days on-site in San Jose); it is not fully remote.
'Databases and building tooling and user interfaces' is listed as a required qualification without naming a specific technology; the concrete database tools (SQL, InfluxDB, Grafana) appear only under Nice-to-have and are marked preferred accordingly.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.