Flight Systems Engineer - Data-Driven Flight Tests & PX4

SiFly Aviation, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

SiFly Aviation, Inc. in Santa Clara, CA, is seeking a hands-on Flight Systems Engineer to design and run test campaigns, build instrumentation, and develop dashboards that reveal how weight, performance, and reliability evolve during flight.

You will tune PX4 configurations, analyze logs, and ensure data feeds back to the engineering team. This is an onsite, full-time role combining bench work and flight line activities.

Qualifications

• Hands-on flight test or systems test on real aircraft.
• Closed loop from controls systems or flight data back into autopilot parameters or code.
• Estimation and control fundamentals: coordinate frames, Kalman filtering and sensor fusion.
• Data analysis and scripting — Python or equivalent.
• Comfortable with instrumentation, harnessing, and debugging on the flight line.
• FAA Part 107 certification if not already certified.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute test campaigns end to end — objectives, success criteria, test cards, instrumentation, and safety and site coordination.
• Choose the right validation modality for each question: simulation, log replay, hardware-in-the-loop, ground test, or flight.
• Tune and test changes to PX4 — parameters, control and estimation tuning, and configuration.
• Analyze flight logs and telemetry to diagnose issues across firmware, hardware, and companion computers.
• Build and maintain test infrastructure: benches, HIL setups, instrumentation, and data pipelines and dashboards behind them.
• Own progression from bench test to flight — including anomaly reports and configuration records.
• Generate flight test evidence for FAA submissions.
• Find and share AI-assisted approaches to log analysis and data reduction.

Skills

Flight test

Controls systems

Kalman filtering

Sensor fusion

Python scripting

Data analysis

Automation and dashboards

FAA Part 107

Hands-on hardware

AI tooling

Tools

ROS 2

MAVSDK

Linux

DAQ

Job description

SiFly Aviation, Inc. in Santa Clara, CA, is seeking a hands-on Flight Systems Engineer to design and run test campaigns, build instrumentation, and develop dashboards that reveal how weight, performance, and reliability evolve during flight.

You will tune PX4 configurations, analyze logs, and ensure data feeds back to the engineering team. This is an onsite, full-time role combining bench work and flight line activities.