Autonomous Drone: Control & Flight Test Engineer

Startupvalleys; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct impact on a mission‑critical技术

Fast‑moving startup environment with高自

Work with a highly technical, hands‑on

Real-world testing, deployments, and c

Job summary

CDDS is seeking a Control & Flight Test Engineer to drive the control, vision, hardware and operational stack of our interceptor drone platform. You will test, tune and develop state-estimation, control and vision algorithms that determine successful target interception.

You will work with control, vision, software and hardware experts to ensure algorithms translate into field performance during real-world deployments and customer demonstrations in high-stakes environments.

Qualifications

• PhD or MSc in Robotics, Control Engineering, or Electrical Engineering with strong academic record.
• Strong analytical mindset to derive, evaluate and validate a complex system.
• Solid knowledge of classical & optimal control and Kalman filtering.
• Experience with state estimation and SE(3) rotations.
• Proficiency in Python and Linux.
• Willingness to travel frequently.

Responsibilities

• Design and validate low-latency guidance and control strategies.
• Assist multi-sensor fusion for state estimation.
• Test and verify new computer vision approaches and low-level software.
• Raise risks and issues from field tests to the R&D team.
• Analyze data, evaluate performance and failure modes of the full tactical unit during intercepts.

Skills

Kalman filtering

State estimation

Classical & optimal control

SE(3) rotations

Python

Linux

Analytical mindset

Travel willingness

Team collaboration

Education

PhD or MSc in Robotics, Control Engineering, or Electrical Engineering (ETH Zürich or equivalent)

Tools

ROS2

PX4

ArduPilot

Gazebo

Isaac Sim

Job description

CDDS is seeking a Control & Flight Test Engineer to drive the control, vision, hardware and operational stack of our interceptor drone platform. You will test, tune and develop state-estimation, control and vision algorithms that determine successful target interception.

You will work with control, vision, software and hardware experts to ensure algorithms translate into field performance during real-world deployments and customer demonstrations in high-stakes environments.