Flight Test Automation Lead for Autonomous Flight

Skydio, Inc.; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Stock options

Health insurance

Paid time off

401K

Job summary

Skydio, Inc. is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer focused on software automation to lead the Flight Test Automation Pod and scale validation of autonomous flight.

You will design automated test systems spanning CI, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real-world flight, incorporating AI-enabled workflows for test generation, analysis, and coverage measurement. You will mentor engineers, own the automation roadmap, and define metrics to drive faster, safer releases.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in software testing, automation or test infrastructure.
• Track record of setting technical direction and driving adoption across teams.
• Strong Python skills and experience building test frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD systems and integrating automated tests into build pipelines.
• Experience applying AI and agentic workflows to software development or testing.
• Proven ability to define and measure test coverage across complex systems.
• FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is required.
• Bonus: background in aviation, drones, embedded systems or hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Flight Test Automation Pod: set technical direction, own the roadmap, and mentor engineers who contribute to automation.
• Establish and own CI test pipelines that validate every build automatically and give developers fast, actionable feedback.
• Design an extensible test framework that scales across teams, making it easy for engineers to add and maintain their own tests.
• Apply AI-assisted and agentic workflows to test generation, failure triage and flight log analysis to speed up issue detection.
• Define test coverage metrics tied to requirements and risk, and use them to drive our test strategy and reduce manual effort.
• Partner with software, flight test, and reliability engineering leads to shape how testing is planned and prioritized.

Skills

Python

Automation testing

CI/CD

Leadership

AI workflows

Test coverage

Job description

Skydio, Inc. is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer focused on software automation to lead the Flight Test Automation Pod and scale validation of autonomous flight.

You will design automated test systems spanning CI, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real-world flight, incorporating AI-enabled workflows for test generation, analysis, and coverage measurement. You will mentor engineers, own the automation roadmap, and define metrics to drive faster, safer releases.