Software Development Engineer in 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 Washington D.C. 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 #LI-EA1 #LI-Hybrid Software Development Engineer in Test, SDET, Software Engineer in Test, Python Developer, Backend Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Test Automation Engineer, End-to-End Testing, E2E Testing, Playwright, Cypress, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python Automation, API Testing, REST APIs, Distributed Systems, Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture, Serverless Architecture, Containerized Applications, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, DevOps Automation, Chaos Engineering, Chaos Monkey, System Resilience, Reliability Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, SRE, NoSQL Databases, Relational Databases, SQL, Distributed Databases, Caching Systems, Redis, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS, Cloud-Native Applications, Infrastructure as Code, Git, GitHub, Validation and Verification, V&V, Mission-Critical Systems, Production Support, Debugging, Troubleshooting, Secure Software Development, Cleared Software Engineer, Secret Clearance, TS SCI, Government Contracting, Defense Technology, Space Systems Software, Satellite Operations Software