Director of System Test

About Skylo Skylo Technologies is building the world’s most affordable and accessible satellite network, enabling real-time IoT connectivity for industries such as agriculture, logistics, maritime, and emergency services. Our network leverages existing geostationary satellites, cloud-based infrastructure, and cutting-edge software-defined networking to connect devices anywhere on the planet. This role is located Mountain View, CA where we are onsite 3 days a week in office. Summary Of How You Will Impact Skylo As the Director of System Test , you 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. 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 Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field with emphasis on telecommunications, or equivalent practical experience. Functional 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. Industry Experience: Experience working with or within a mobile network operator (MNO), MVNO, or network equipment vendor; familiarity with MNO operational processes and partner onboarding. Network Change Management: Hands-on experience with formal network change control processes, defining quality gates, and managing test-to-release workflows. Advanced Analytics (Preferred): Familiarity with the application of machine learning techniques to test automation, anomaly detection, or network performance analysis. Non-terrestrial Networks (Preferred): Prior exposure to satellite-specific testing (GEO/LEO) and/or 3GPP NTN standards (Release 17 and beyond). Systems Tools: Proficiency with cloud-based test infrastructure (GCP preferred), test automation frameworks (e.g., Robot Framework), and 3GPP RAN/core protocol analysis tools. Communication Influence: Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical risks into clea ... (truncated, view full listing at source)