Senior Engineer, Flight Test (R5371)

This role focuses on developing and executing flight test strategies to validate autonomous behaviors, software integrations, and system performance for the Hivemind autonomy platform. You will design test scenarios, build analysis tools, review flight data, and collaborate with engineering teams to improve product quality. You will also mentor junior engineers and help establish testing best practices across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute flight test plans that validate new autonomy capabilities, software integrations, and system performance in real-world flight environments.
• Design and execute test scenarios that reproduce operational customer workflows and mission conditions to identify software defects, integration issues, and performance limitations.
• Build analysis tools and validation workflows that improve test coverage, accelerate regression testing, and reduce time to identify issues.
• Review flight logs, telemetry, rosbags, and system data to triage issues, perform root-cause analysis, and collaborate with engineering teams to drive resolution.
• Work closely with middleware, autonomy, and integration teams to develop complementary test strategies, share tooling, and improve overall product quality.
• Provide technical guidance to junior engineers, establish testing standards, and help improve engineering processes across the organization.
• Maintain standard operating procedures, participate in flight operations, and contribute to the continuous improvement of testing processes and operational readiness.

Requirements

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 4 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience.
• Proficiency in software quality engineering, test automation, and programming with Python and C++.
• Experience planning and executing field or flight testing for robotics, autonomous systems, or complex software platforms.
• Experience developing automated test tooling, validation frameworks, or data analysis tools.
• Demonstrated experience designing, documenting, executing, and tracking test plans, test cases, and software defects.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to analyze flight logs, telemetry, and system behavior to identify root causes.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across software, hardware, product, and test organizations.
• FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (or the ability to obtain one within a reasonable timeframe).

Nice to have

• Experience using GenAI tools to improve engineering productivity or software quality.
• Experience with C++14/C++17, TypeScript, JSON, and modern software development practices.
• Experience with ROS.
• Proficiency with simulation tools and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing environments.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with networking, Linux operating systems, and radio communications.
• Experience testing autonomous aerial systems or other robotic platforms.
• Experience analyzing flight telemetry, sensor data, and autonomy behaviors.

Benefits

• Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
• Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)