Flight Controls Engineer — UAV Autopilot & Validation

Findrs; Leeds; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

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Job summary

Findrs is seeking an aerospace technology engineer to advance flight-control algorithms from modelling and simulation to ground testing and into real flight. You will drive stability and controllability improvements for unmanned aircraft and autonomous platforms, ensuring safe, repeatable deployment.

You will apply control theory to practical flight tests, work with PX4 or ArduPilot, and collaborate across avionics, software, and test teams to validate performance using real-world data.

Qualifications

• Experience developing and testing control algorithms on real aircraft, UAS, robots or autonomous platforms.
• Understanding flight dynamics, control theory, stability and tuning.
• Familiarity with autopilots, IMUs, GNSS/INS, actuators and onboard systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop control laws, flight-dynamics models and simulation approaches.
• Configure, integrate and tune autopilot systems.
• Support guidance, navigation and control integration, system identification and flight-data analysis.
• Develop software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Diagnose stability, sensor-fusion and actuator issues.
• Support ground tests, tethered tests, field trials and flight testing.
• Build documentation and validation evidence for dependable systems.

Skills

Control algorithms

Flight dynamics

Autopilot systems

ROS/ROS2

Python

C/C++

Rust

Kalman filtering

State estimation

Tools

PX4

ArduPilot

Job description

Findrs is seeking an aerospace technology engineer to advance flight-control algorithms from modelling and simulation to ground testing and into real flight. You will drive stability and controllability improvements for unmanned aircraft and autonomous platforms, ensuring safe, repeatable deployment.

You will apply control theory to practical flight tests, work with PX4 or ArduPilot, and collaborate across avionics, software, and test teams to validate performance using real-world data.