Drone Pilot for Reality Capture & Digital Delivery

Jacobs; Clark (NJ); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 104,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Stock options

Paid time off

Job summary

Jacobs is seeking a technically focused Drone Pilot who can safely transform aerial data into practical project information across construction, BIM/VDC, reality capture, and digital delivery. You’ll produce deliverables that support design, commissioning, facility operations, and digital delivery initiatives.

The role requires FAA Part 107 certification, 3+ years of drone operations, and strong collaboration with project teams.

Qualifications

• Current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.
• 3+ years of experience operating commercial drones, preferably in construction, engineering, surveying, industrial, infrastructure, or facility environments.
• Experience developing flight plans and executing UAS operations around active construction or industrial sites.
• Working knowledge of photogrammetry, orthomosaics, 3D meshes, point clouds, digital elevation models, and volumetric data.
• Understanding of construction sequencing, BIM/VDC coordination, design documentation, and field verification workflows.
• Experience with survey control, coordinate systems, georeferencing, and accuracy requirements.
• Experience processing, validating, publishing, and archiving large imagery and reality‑capture datasets.
• Ability to interpret construction drawings, BIM models, site plans, and project schedules.
• Strong safety awareness and ability to work within formal project and client compliance programs.
• Excellent communication, organization, documentation, and stakeholder-engagement skills.
• Ability to travel to project sites and work flexible hours when flight windows require off‑shift or weekend operations.

Responsibilities

• Plan and conduct commercial drone flights in accordance with FAA regulations, company policies, project requirements, and site-specific safety procedures.
• Maintain required pilot credentials, aircraft registrations, operating records, pre-flight documentation, and flight logs.
• Perform pre-flight inspections and verify aircraft, batteries, sensors, firmware, remote-controller settings, and data-storage capacity.
• Operate drones safely in active construction, industrial, and data center environments while maintaining situational awareness and required separation distances.
• Coordinate flight windows, airspace restrictions, site access, security requirements, and operational constraints with project stakeholders.
• Use appropriate visual observers, spotters, and site communication protocols when required.
• Respond appropriately to changing weather, site conditions, equipment issues, and other operational risks.
• Capture high-quality aerial imagery, video, 360-degree imagery, and other UAS data for design, construction, commissioning, and operational use cases.
• Develop repeatable flight plans and capture standards for progress documentation, quantity verification, site logistics, existing-condition documentation, and turnover verification.
• Collect nadir and oblique imagery suitable for photogrammetry, orthomosaics, 3D meshes, point clouds, digital elevation models, and topographic or volumetric analysis.
• Coordinate ground control points, checkpoints, survey control, and site reference information when required for accurate mapping and model production.
• Integrate drone data with terrestrial laser scanning, BIM models, GIS data, schedules, and digital twin platforms, and asset-information systems.
• Ensure captured data is complete, properly organized, and traceable to the project, location, date, flight, and applicable coordinate system, and meets project quality requirements for downstream processing and analysis.
• Process and quality-check drone imagery and reality-capture data using approved software and project workflows.
• Produce orthomosaic maps, 3D models, point clouds, digital surface models, progress exhibits, inspection images, and site documentation packages.
• Publish or transfer approved deliverables to Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), project document-management systems, GIS platforms, or other designated environments.
• Perform visual and technical quality checks for image clarity, coverage, overlap, alignment, control, coordinate systems, file naming, and metadata.
• Coordinate with VDC and design teams to compare captured conditions against BIM models, drawings, schedules, construction plans, and model coordination environments.
• Maintain organized project archives and ensure raw data, processed data, reports, and final deliverables can be retrieved for future reference.
• Support construction progress tracking, workface planning, site logistics, schedule reviews, and 4D coordination activities.
• Provide aerial documentation to support installation verification, quality reviews, safety observations, commissioning, punch-list resolution, and turnover.
• Assist with documentation of hard-to-access, elevated, or potentially hazardous areas when drone operations provide a safer alternative to conventional access methods.
• Collaborate with project teams to define flight objectives, required accuracy, image coverage, frequency, and deliverable formats before mobilization or fieldwork.
• Communicate findings clearly and identify limitations, data gaps, obstructions, or conditions that may affect the reliability or intended use of deliverables.
• Participate in site visits, coordination meetings, and demonstrations to promote effective use of drone data across the project lifecycle.

Skills

FAA Part 107

Drone operations

BIM/VDC coordination

Tools

Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC)

ReCap

Pix4D

DroneDeploy

BIM coordination tools

ArcGIS

Job description

Jacobs is seeking a technically focused Drone Pilot who can safely transform aerial data into practical project information across construction, BIM/VDC, reality capture, and digital delivery. You’ll produce deliverables that support design, commissioning, facility operations, and digital delivery initiatives.

The role requires FAA Part 107 certification, 3+ years of drone operations, and strong collaboration with project teams.