Flight Test Engineer

Next Matter; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Long-term stock incentives

Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance

Four weeks of paid time off per year

Job summary

A defense technology firm located in Torrance, California is seeking a Flight Test Engineer to support rapid development and testing of next generation defense systems. Responsibilities include developing test procedures, overseeing pre-flight integrations, and collaborating with design teams in a fast-paced environment. Requires a Bachelor's degree in Engineering and relevant hands-on experience with flight tests. The company offers competitive benefits including stock incentives and comprehensive insurance.

Qualifications

• 2+ years experience in missile, rocket, or flight vehicle testing.
• Hands-on experience with operation of ground support equipment.
• Ability to travel domestically up to 50 percent of time.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute test procedures for flight tests.
• Oversee pre-flight integration and ground control setup.
• Monitor and troubleshoot telemetry data streams.

Skills

Flight test instrumentation

Telemetry systems

Ground control operations

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Multidisciplinary test environment

Education

Bachelors degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering

Tools

MATLAB

Python

Spectrum analyzer

Job description

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.

Flight Test Engineer

As a Flight Test Engineer at Castelion, you will be working within the Test Operations and Logistics team to execute a rapid iterative development and test campaign. You will work alongside a test director to plan and execute flight tests, following best practices and processes to document and communicate to internal and external stakeholders. This role is hands‑on and collaborative, working closely with engineering design teams to ensure flight tests provide the insight in vehicle performance required to rapidly close on a production design.

Responsibilities

• Develop, coordinate and execute test procedures and instrumentation/test setup diagrams for flight tests.
• Support hardware integration of avionics, telemetry, propulsion, and flight control systems into flight test articles and ground test setups (vehicle/hardware in the loop).
• Oversee pre‑flight integration, ground control setup, instrumentation setup, and configuration control of test articles.
• Participate in flight readiness reviews, test planning meetings and technical interchange sessions with internal and government stakeholders.
• Ensure proper documentation of test anomalies, root cause investigations, and corrective action implementation.
• Support real‑time mission control operations, including monitoring and troubleshooting telemetry data streams.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering (or related field).
• 2+ years of relevant experience in missile, rocket, or flight vehicle testing.
• Hands‑on experience with flight test instrumentation, telemetry systems, and ground control stations.
• Hands‑on experience with operation of ground support equipment (electrical, hydraulic and/or pneumatic).
• Exceptional attention to detail with clear written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to operate in a fast‑paced, multidisciplinary test environment.
• Ability to travel domestically up to 50 percent of time.
• Active U.S. Secret (or higher) security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience interfacing with U.S. DoD customers and government flight test organizations.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet, and serial (CAN) communication protocols.
• Experience with command‑line interface in a Linux environment.
• Experience with troubleshooting RF systems using equipment such as a spectrum analyzer.
• Experience with troubleshooting ground support equipment (electrical, hydraulic, and/or pneumatic).
• Experience with troubleshooting and repair of electrical harnesses and cabling.
• Experience with data reduction scripting tools such as MATLAB or Python.

All employees are granted long‑term stock incentives as part of their employment at Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers four weeks of paid time off per year.

Leadership Qualities

Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to breakthrough ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.

High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.

Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company‑desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.

ITAR Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.