Drone Operator & Engineer — Live-Fire Test Pilot

Air Pixels, Inc.; Minden (NV); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Sentradel in Minden, Nevada seeks a Drone Operator to build, program, and fly the drones used by our turret system. You own the fleet end to end: airframes, firmware, flight profiles, and the repairs between sorties, ensuring repeatable test results.

This is a full-time, on-site role with frequent travel to ranges across the US for live-fire demos and customer engagements. You will fly autonomous missions, modify flight software as needed, and turn flight logs into usable data for the

Qualifications

• Extensive ArduPilot experience: Mission Planner, parameter tuning, custom builds, and reading a log to explain why the aircraft did what it did
• You can read the ArduPilot codebase, modify it, compile it, and flash it yourself
• FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate
• You have built drones from bare frames: soldering, wiring, ESCs, motors, power, and RF
• Expert level stick time, manual and autonomous
• You have fixed a broken aircraft in the field and flown it again the same day

Responsibilities

• Build, wire, solder, and repair the target drone fleet
• Flash and configure flight controllers, tune aircraft for repeatable test profiles
• Modify ArduPilot source to get behavior stock firmware will not do, including speed caps, failsafes, and autonomous attack profiles
• Plan and fly autonomous missions that produce consistent, repeatable engagements for the turret
• Serve as pilot in command at range tests and customer demos across the US
• Own batteries, radios, ground stations, and spares so a test day never stops for a missing part
• Pull flight logs and turn them into usable test data for the engineering team

Skills

ArduPilot expertise

Code reading & modification

FAA Part 107 certificate

Drone assembly & repair

Pilot experience (stick time)

Field repair on aircraft

Tools

Mission Planner

Job description

Sentradel in Minden, Nevada seeks a Drone Operator to build, program, and fly the drones used by our turret system. You own the fleet end to end: airframes, firmware, flight profiles, and the repairs between sorties, ensuring repeatable test results.

This is a full-time, on-site role with frequent travel to ranges across the US for live-fire demos and customer engagements. You will fly autonomous missions, modify flight software as needed, and turn flight logs into usable data for the