Director of Flight Test & Autonomous Systems Validation

Grex Defense, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 175,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Grex Defense, Inc. seeks a Director of Test & Evaluation to build and lead the T&E organization, ensuring autonomous aircraft are safe, reliable, and mission-ready from simulation to flight test.

You will establish test processes, recruit a multidisciplinary team, and drive strategies spanning SIL/HIL, aircraft integration, ground and flight tests, and operational missions, with DoD standards guiding every step.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or related technical field.
• Typically 15+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience building or leading multidisciplinary test teams and establishing effective engineering processes.
• Proven success developing and executing integrated test strategies for aerospace/defense systems.
• Extensive experience with aircraft integration, ground testing, flight operations, test readiness, and post-test analysis.
• Authority over test planning, readiness, execution, risk management, and test-progression decisions.
• Strong understanding of flight-test safety, airworthiness, configuration management, hazard analysis, and mission assurance.
• Ability to coordinate government, range, supplier, and engineering stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the company's T&E organization, processes, tools, infrastructure, and technical standards.
• Recruit, develop, and lead a multidisciplinary team of test engineers, flight-test engineers, test conductors, and analysts.
• Develop an integrated T&E strategy spanning simulation, SIL, HIL, integration laboratories, ground test, flight test, and operational missions.
• Partner with government customers, stakeholders, test ranges, and airworthiness authorities to plan and execute test activities.
• Translate customer needs into executable test plans, success criteria, and traceable verification evidence.
• Establish readiness criteria, configuration control, safety-of-flight requirements, hazard mitigations, and go/no-go processes.
• Develop the roadmap for test infrastructure, instrumentation, telemetry, simulation environments, data systems, and automated testing.
• Establish scalable T&E practices aligned with DoD developmental and operational test expectations.
• Serve as the senior technical authority for test readiness, execution, risk recommendations, and progression between test phases.
• Coordinate test execution across engineering, autonomy, flight operations, safety, program leadership, suppliers, and external partners.
• Prepare for flight-test campaigns for Group 5 autonomous aircraft, including envelope expansion, autonomy evaluation, payload integration, and threat-representative operations.
• Establish the airworthiness certification basis and compliance approach using MIL-HDBK-516C, MIL-STD-882E, and other aerospace standards.
• Support hardware and software integration, integration-laboratory testing, and system-level anomaly resolution.

Skills

Test leadership

Test planning

Risk management

Airworthiness

Test readiness

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering/computer science

Job description

Grex Defense, Inc. seeks a Director of Test & Evaluation to build and lead the T&E organization, ensuring autonomous aircraft are safe, reliable, and mission-ready from simulation to flight test.

You will establish test processes, recruit a multidisciplinary team, and drive strategies spanning SIL/HIL, aircraft integration, ground and flight tests, and operational missions, with DoD standards guiding every step.