Director of System Test

About Skylo

Skylo is a global Non-Terrestrial Network service provider based in Mountain View, CA, offering a service that allows smartphone and IoT cellular devices to connect directly over existing satellites. Skylo’s direct-to-device service is now live on millions of activated devices across five continents, with more than 60 million square kilometers of coverage, in partnership with multiple satellite operators, mobile network operators (MNOs), Tier-1 chipset makers, and OEMs. Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo's commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3GPP standards-based cloud-native base station and core. Skylo provides an anywhere, anytime connectivity solution that seamlessly roams between terrestrial and satellite networks. Our focus is on enabling connected services for people outdoors and connected workflows across three main verticals: mass-market consumer devices, automotive, and industrial IoT.

This role is located Mountain View, CA where we are onsite 3 days a week in office. 

Summary Of How You Will Impact Skylo

Skylo is hiring a Director of System Test, who will lead the organization responsible for ensuring that Skylo’s services are production-ready before release. The System Test team serves as Skylo’s quality gate, defining and executing service-level acceptance and automation to ensure releases are validated, observable, and operationally ready before handoff to Operations. 

In this role, you will build the frameworks, infrastructure, and standards used to validate complex satellite-to-cellular network behavior across devices, satellites, cloud infrastructure, and mobile network operator integrations. You will lead a global team responsible for system-level validation while remaining deeply engaged in the technical systems that ensure reliable service validation at scale.

How You Will Contribute

• Own end-to-end system testing across Skylo’s global network platform, spanning RAN infrastructure, 3GPP-based cloud-native core networks, back-office and provisioning systems, and integrations with customer and MNO partner networks
• Lead a high-performing global team by managing performance through OKRs and KPIs, remaining technically engaged in diagnosing complex system failures and building a culture of innovation and reliability across multiple time zones.
• Define and drive Skylo’s system test strategy to establish a consistent, data-driven view of test coverage, automation efficiency, and bug escape prevention across engineering teams.
• Envision, design, and scale Skylo's worldwide system test architecture and lab strategy — maintaining hybrid test environments that span physical devices, satellite channel emulators, and cloud-based automation agents to enable thorough pre-production validation of NTN-specific behaviors.
• Maintain traceability between product requirements, test coverage, and release acceptance criteria to ensure complete validation of customer-facing services.
• Drive company-wide frameworks and standards for quality, test automation, validation infrastructure, and defect escape prevention, ensuring consistent approaches to tooling, coverage, and release readiness across engineering teams

What We Look For 

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field with emphasis on telecommunications, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10 years of hands-on experience in telecommunications system testing and/or test automation, including at least 5 years in a technical leadership or people management role building high-performing teams.
• Experience working with or within a mobile network operator (MNO), MVNO, or network equipment vendor; familiarity with MNO operational processes and partner onboarding.
• Hands-on experience with formal network change control processes, defining quality gates, and managing test-to-release workflows.
• Proficiency with cloud-based test infrastructure (GCP preferred), test automation frameworks (e.g., Robot Framework), and 3GPP RAN/core protocol analysis tools.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical risks into clear narratives and drive alignment across engineering, operations, product, and external partners.
• Experience building and leading high-performing engineering teams, with the ability to set technical direction while remaining hands-on.

What Makes you Stand Out 

• Familiarity with the application of machine learning techniques to test automation, anomaly detection, or network performance analysis.
• Prior exposure to satellite-specific testing (GEO/LEO) and/or 3GPP NTN standards (Release 17 and beyond).

What We Offer

With employees working across three continents, Skylo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. Our worldwide and inclusive culture encourages a flexible approach to work, and we also offer an attractive range benefits such as: 

• Competitive compensation packages including a stock option based equity program 
• Comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision, retirement plan
• Monthly allowances for wellness and education reimbursement
• A generous time off policy, holidays, and the opportunity to temporarily work abroad
• Once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of developing and running world’s first commercial, live direct-to-device satellite network and service 
• Access to world-class team and talent across tech domains: software, hardware, chipsets, telecom, satellite and network virtualization 
• Open, transparent, inclusive culture that blends the Silicon Valley, Nordic and South Asia characteristics
  
  

Additional information

The compensation range for this position is: $215,000 - $225,000 plus equity. This range reflects the low and high end of the range Skylo reasonably and generally expects to pay the hired candidate in this role.

EEO Statement
Skylo is an equal-opportunity employer and we celebrate diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, parent or caregiver status, political affiliation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. Please let us know if you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability.