Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Software Product Assurance Engineer - Space

Our client is an established European space company developing advanced space systems. They work on programmes for major space agencies and build their systems to ESA and NASA standards.

They are looking for an experienced Software Product Assurance Engineer, based in Munich, to manage the quality of their space projects from a software perspective. Sitting within the Software team, you will be the software quality focal point for space projects, with a main focus on the company's flagship spacecraft programme. This is a full-time role, starting on a contract basis with the option to move to a permanent position.

The successful candidate will have experience in software assurance or quality assurance in aerospace, aviation or defence, and a strong grasp of software lifecycle evaluation, configuration management and V&V. They will be comfortable running audits, managing non-conformances and working independently within a multidisciplinary team.

Key responsibilities:

• Establishing and maintaining the project's SW PA&S requirements baseline in line with applicable NASA and ESA requirements and best market practice
• Developing and implementing a SW Quality Assurance Programme in accordance with NASA-STD-8739.8, covering all project lifecycle phases
• Developing, implementing, monitoring and reviewing SW QA plans
• Carrying out independent evaluations of software development processes against organisational standards and safety requirements
• Analysing and evaluating software design, including change impact analysis and regression testing, particularly for COTS software
• Overseeing and taking part in V&V to a defined plan, ensuring traceability of all requirements and exclusion of unauthorised functions
• Supporting Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) activities to reduce software risk and improve safety and quality
• Managing SW nonconformities, deviations and alerts, and assessing their impact
• Contributing to risk management and managing SW Critical Items
• Managing and applying SW lessons learned
• Planning, conducting and following up on project SW audits
• Overseeing configuration management against approved plans: identification, status accounting, change control, verification and delivery
• Ensuring software reliability and maintainability requirements are met and traceable to system requirements
• Carrying out software trade studies that account for safety, reliability, maintainability and quality assurance requirements
• Supporting hardware/software interaction analysis (HSIA)
• Overseeing software integration with hardware

What they're looking for:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or technical sciences
• Experience in software assurance, quality assurance or a related field, particularly in aerospace, aviation or defence
• Strong analytical skills and experience with software lifecycle evaluation, configuration management and V&V
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python for development and scripting
• Proficiency in managing non-conformances and corrective actions
• Ability to run rigorous audits, evaluations and reviews
• Excellent communication skills, a detail- and solution-oriented mindset, and the ability to work independently and lead within a multidisciplinary team
• Working fluency in English

Nice to have:

• Familiarity with NASA software assurance standards, especially NASA-STD-8739.8 and NASA-GB-8719.13
• Git, plus GitHub or GitLab for collaboration, issue tracking and version control
• CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment (e.g. Jenkins, GitLab CI)
• Software testing frameworks and automated testing tools (e.g. googletest, gmock)
• Static code analysis tools (e.g. SonarQube, Coverity)

What's on offer:

• Full-time contract with the option to move to a permanent role
• Competitive day rate, reflecting your experience
• Relocation support, including visa sponsorship where applicable
• An agile, open and collaborative team that shares risks and solves problems together
• Ownership of software quality on a flagship spacecraft programme

This role suits an experienced software assurance professional from aerospace, aviation or defence who wants to own software quality on a high-profile space programme.