V&V Engineer (Avionics/Flight Controls)

At The ePlane Company, code that flies is held to the highest standard on Earth. We are seeking a meticulous and highly technical V&V Engineer to be the ultimate guardian of our avionics and flight control software. Your mission is to rigorously verify and validate every line of safety-critical C/C++ code, and to generate the evidence that proves it is safe. You will be simulating sensor failures, testing data bus integrity, and validating control law logic in our labs. This role is the critical link between software development and a safe, certifiable aircraft.

The ePlane Company is at the forefront of India's urban air mobility revolution. Incubated at IIT Madras, we are a deep-tech startup dedicated to designing and building the world's most compact electric flying taxi. Our mission is to make door-to-door flying a reality, drastically reducing commute times and decongesting our cities for a cleaner, greener future. We're a passionate team of engineers, designers, and visionaries working on cutting-edge technology, and we're looking for brilliant minds to help us take flight.

As a V&V Engineer, you will be responsible for ensuring the correctness and safety of our most critical software. You will:

• →Develop Test Plans: Author and maintain comprehensive V&V plans, test cases, and test procedures for safety-critical avionics and flight control software, based on system requirements derived from standards like ARP4754A.
• →Execute Rigorous Testing: Perform low-level (unit/integration) and high-level (system/HIL) testing on our embedded C/C++ code, focusing on flight control laws, sensor fusion logic, data bus management, and redundancy management.
• →Automate Testing: Design, write, and maintain robust test scripts (primarily in Python) to automate test execution on our System Integration Lab (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) platforms, simulating real-world flight scenarios and fault injections.
• →Generate Certification Evidence: Meticulously document all V&V activities and test results to serve as formal evidence for certification. You will be directly responsible for producing the test artifacts required to comply with DO-178C objectives.
• →Perform Coverage Analysis: Be the subject matter expert for Structural Coverage Analysis (SCA), ensuring that our code meets the stringent coverage objectives (e.g., MCDC) required by DO-178C.
• →Manage Requirements Traceability: Establish and maintain meticulous traceability between system requirements, software requirements, test cases, and test results using tools like JAMA or DOORS, as required for certification.
• →Collaborate & Review: Work closely with software developers to review requirements for testability, understand software architecture, and assist in debugging.

• Experience: 3+ years of hands-on experience in Verification & Validation (V&V), Software Quality Assurance (SQA), or Test Engineering for safety-critical embedded systems.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Safety-Critical Standards: Direct, practical experience and a strong working knowledge of DO-178C. You must understand the why behind its V&V objectives. Familiarity with the systems engineering framework of ARP4754A is also required.
• C/C++ Testing: Demonstrable experience writing test cases and procedures to verify and validate real-time embedded software written in C and C++.
• Coding Standards: Strong understanding and practical experience with coding standards such as MISRA C/C++ and the associated testing methodologies to ensure code quality and safety.
• Structural Coverage: Proven experience with Structural Coverage Analysis (SCA) and the tools used to measure it (e.g., LDRA, VectorCAST, GCOV/LCOV). Must understand coverage metrics up to Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MCDC).
• Test Scripting: High proficiency in a scripting language, especially Python, for test automation.
• Test Environments: Hands-on experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and/or System Integration Lab (SIL) test benches.
• Avionics Testing Knowledge: Solid understanding of avionics data buses (ARINC 429, CAN) and experience using bus analysis tools (e.g., Vector CANalyzer, PEAK-System).

• An ISTQB certification for software testing
• A Master’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Direct experience testing fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control software, actuator control logic, or integrated avionics suites.
• Expertise with specific V&V toolchains such as the LDRA Testbed, VectorCAST, or Parasoft C/C++test.
• Experience with static analysis tools (e.g., Polyspace, Coverity, Klocwork).
• ISTQB certification is an added advantage
• Familiarity with requirements management tools (e.g., JAMA, IBM DOORS).
• Knowledge of Model-Based Development (MBD) and testing (e.g., Simulink Test).
• Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) or other test-based development approaches.