Testing Team Lead (Hardware Testing)

About Blackwave

Blackwave designs, manufactures and ships flight-qualified, commercial off-the-shelf composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) for launch vehicles and satellites. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, the company delivers COPVs from a standardized portfolio with flight heritage. The approach reduces lead time from months to days while ensuring that each tank is qualified and flight-ready. Blackwave's mission is to end COPV failure in spaceflight. The company employs more than 150 people across manufacturing facilities in Germany and Texas.

More information at Blackwave.com and the procurement platform COPV.com.

Role Mission

The mission of the Testing Lead is to ensure high product quality, system reliability, and release readiness by defining, executing, and continuously improving testing and quality assurance practices. The role ensures that our COPVs (Carbon overwrapped Pressure Vessels) meet functional, technical, and business requirements before release and supports scalable, repeatable quality processes as the organization grows.

Key Responsibilities

Within the role, the Testing Lead is expected to:

• Ensure timely and high-quality releases with reduced defect leakage into production
• Provide transparent reporting on quality status, risks, and test results
• Improve test coverage, efficiency, and reliability across releases
• Enable strong collaboration between testing, engineering, and other production teams
• Build and sustain a high-quality, on-site testing function
• In charge of testing team members executing the processes
  
  

Core Responsibilities

• Own and lead all on-site testing and quality assurance activities
• Plan, execute, and oversee manual and automated testing (functional, integration, system, regression)
• Coordinate testing activities
• Identify, document, prioritize, and track defects through resolution
• Ensure re-testing and validation of fixes before release approval
• Collaborate closely with engineering, quality, and operations teams
• Provide regular quality reports, metrics, and risk assessments to stakeholders
• Continuously improve testing processes, tools, and methodologies
• Mentor and guide testers and quality engineers on-site
  
  

Required Qualifications

Education & Experience

• 3+ years of experience in hardware testing or quality assurance
• Proven experience as a Manufacturing Team Lead, QA Lead, or similar role
• Strong understanding of testing methodologies and QA best practices
  
  

Technical & Professional Skills

• Experience with both manual and automated testing
• Ability to structure, document, and communicate test results clearly
• Strong coordination and stakeholder management skills
  
  

Language Skills

• English: Fluent (required): Must be able to communicate clearly and professionally in spoken and written English in a US business environment
• German and/ or Spanish is a plus
  
  

Location & Travel

• Our current facility is located in Lockhart, Texas (near Austin/San Antonio)
• In mid-2026, Blackwave will relocate to a new site in the Port San Antonio aerospace hub
• On-site presence is mandatory
• Ability to collaborate daily with on-site teams and stakeholders
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with test automation tools and frameworks
• Prior experience building or scaling testing processes
• First people leadership or mentoring experience
  
  

Equal Opportunity Employer

Blackwave Texas Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to protected characteristics under applicable law.

ITAR Requirement

This position requires eligibility under U.S. export regulations (ITAR). Candidates must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or otherwise authorized to access export-controlled information.

For this U.S.-based role, your application will be managed by our global People Team in Germany.