Flight Test Engineer

Responsibilities

• Develop comprehensive flight test plans, test cards, and functional hazard analyses (FHA) for full-scale autonomous aircraft systems and subsystems.
• Act as a Test Director or Responsible Engineer during ground runs, taxi tests, and envelope-expansion flight test events.
• Monitor real-time telemetry during flights. Collect, process, and interpret flight test data using scripting tools to assess vehicle performance, stability, and control, overall system performance, engine performance, and fuel system performance.
• Define requirements for and support the installation of flight test instrumentation (FTI), sensors (strain gauges, load cells, pitot-static systems), and data acquisition systems onboard the test assets.
• Partner closely with Avionics, Propulsion, Flight Controls, and Structural design, Flight Sciences, and Airplane Configuration Design teams to define objective pass/fail validation criteria.
• Lead pre-flight briefings and post-test debriefs. Enforce strict safety protocols on the flight line, identifying operational risks and implementing rapid mitigation strategies.
• Maintain meticulous traceability between regulatory/design requirements and test results. Write formal flight test reports documenting system anomalies, performance metrics, and airworthiness findings.

Qualifications

• Experience: 5+ years as an experimental flight test engineer, or in aerospace systems validation, or in UAS/aviation flight operations.
• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in related field or equivalent experience.
• Airplane Familiarization: Overall airplane-level familiarization, including aircraft operations and performance across fixed-wing platforms.
• Testing Rigor: Proven track record drafting detailed flight test cards, managing test configurations, and operating within highly structured flight test environments.
• Data Tools: Proficiency in MATLAB, Python, or similar languages for processing, reducing, and visualizing large flight-log datasets.
• Systems Familiarity: Strong foundational knowledge of data acquisition systems (DAQ), telemetry hardware, and sensor calibration.
• Field Readiness: Hands-on problem solver comfortable troubleshooting complex electrical, mechanical, or software anomalies on the flight line. Willingness to work outdoors at active test ranges under varying weather conditions.
• Bonus points for FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate or a private pilot’s license (PPL).
• Experience making aviation-standard VHF radio calls and communicating clearly in high-workload control room environments.
• Experience working with heavy or large-scale remotely operated vehicles / autonomous systems (Group 3-5 UAS).
• Familiarity with FAA experimental certification processes, airworthiness standards, or military test protocols (MIL-STD).
• Basic CAD experience for designing simple test brackets, fixtures, or harness layouts.