Founding Engineer – Systems and Safety Engineering

Flyer Ai; Salisbury; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Significant equity

Immediate impact in the team

Competitive salary

Unlimited paid time off

Job summary

A pioneering tech startup in the UK seeks a Founding Engineer for Systems and Safety Engineering. You will manage requirements, make critical hardware decisions, and lead safety assessments while shaping the engineering culture from day one. Looking for passionate team players with a deep systems engineering knowledge and an aeronautical engineering background. This role offers significant equity, competitive salary, and unlimited paid time off, as well as an opportunity to work on innovative aircraft technology.

Qualifications

• Team players who live our values: passion, commitment, courage, integrity, and trust.
• Deep knowledge of systems engineering principles.
• Structured yet Agile approach to implementing systems engineering processes.
• Detail-oriented mindset with strong analytical skills.
• Intuitive problem-solving skills and first-principles thinking.
• Knowledge of ARP 4761, SORA Methodology, CAA and overseas drone regulations.
• Background in Aeronautical Engineering.
• Experience in flight testing of piloted or UAV systems.
• Familiarity with UAV flight controllers and firmware.

Responsibilities

• Own the design of systems and safety engineering.
• Manage requirements for the entire system.
• Make critical decisions on hardware selection.
• Support the generation of Operational Authorisation from CAA.
• Lead the safety assessment process defined by ARP4761.

Skills

Team player

Deep knowledge of systems engineering principles

Agile implementation of systems engineering processes

Detail-obsessed mindset

Intuitive problem-solving skills

Knowledge of ARP 4761 and CAA regulations

Aeronautical engineering background

Experience in flight testing of UAV systems

Familiarity with UAV flight controllers

UAV flight controllers

Education

Degree in Aeronautical Engineering

Tools

UAV flight controllers

Job description

Founding Engineer – Systems and Safety Engineering

The first stage of our application process is a short Q&A session with our LLM interviewer. If you don't wish to proceed at any stage, you may type 'end interview'

Where you'll fit in

A small and focussed team has been developing our prototype aircraft for technical demonstrations and seed fundraising in Q1 2026. Now in receipt of 2 separate grant funding awards, Flyer is expanding our 3-person founding team with 3 key, critical roles.

You will join this incredible team, onsite, working directly with the founder and our expanding team to take Flyer from tech startup to global phenomenon over the next 5 years.

LOCATION

We are currently located near the beautiful and vibrant city of Salisbury, in Wiltshire. A move early next year to premises nearer Bristol or London is under consideration.

What you'll be doing

As a founding engineer for Systems and Safety Engineering at Flyer AI, you'll own the design. Specifically:

Requirements Management: You will capture and manage the requirements for the entire system, from the flight controller to our proprietary autonomous winch system (the "Puck") and Detect & Avoid (DAA) computer vision systems

Architectural Trade-offs: You will help make critical decisions on hardware selection (e.g., sensor redundancy vs. weight) to keep the aircraft under our 15kg target.

Regulatory Pathfinding: You will support the generation of the Operational Authorisation from the CAA, helping us move from the A3 Open Category into the Specific Category

The Safety Case: You will lead the safety assessment process which will lean on aspects of ARP4761, helping to define how we handle failures and manage emergency procedures.

Our vehicle is not just an aircraft - it is a complex robotic system integrating multiple sensors and processors, and executing multiple functions.

What we're looking for

We are not looking for ordinary people. We're looking for passionate, driven and enthusiastic team members who dream of doing impossible things with technology, and changing the world around us.

• Team players who live our values: passion, commitment, courage, integrity, and trust.
• Deep knowledge of systems engineering principles
• Structured yet Agile - you can implement systems engineering processes (Vmodel, requirements tracing) that are lightweight enough for a startup but robust enough for aviation.
• A detail-obsessed mindset who thrives on comprehensive analysis and planning, and spots the single point of failure that everyone else missed.
• Intuitive problem-solving skills and first-principles thinking
• Knowledge of ARP 4761, SORA Methodology, CAA and overseas drone aircraft regulations
• Aeronautical engineering background
• Experience in flight testing of piloted or UAV systems
• Familiarity with commercial / open source UAV flight controllers and firmware.

What you'll get

• Significant Equity – as a founding team member, you will own a significant stake in the future we are building
• Immediate Impact - you will be one of the first 6 employees, shaping the engineering culture from day one.
• Competitive salary – an initial stipend plus salary uplift following Q1 2026 fundraising
• Unlimited paid time off – take what you need, when you need it