Flight Test Engineering Manager

Zone 5 Technologies; San Luis Obispo (CA); On-site; USD 178,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Sick time

Company holidays

Job summary

Zone 5 Technologies is seeking a Test Engineering Manager to lead one of the Test & Evaluation teams. You will oversee flight, environmental, and ground tests for air vehicles and subsystems, ensuring safety, rigor, and timely delivery.

The role combines people leadership with hands-on testing, developing processes, and coordinating with program teams to advance test capabilities and infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline or related field.
• Experience leading test engineers or test teams.
• Hands-on experience planning and executing aerospace/defense test campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of test engineers with a focus on rigor and safety.
• Own team execution and contribute as a test engineer when needed.
• Standardize test methodologies, processes, tools, and standards across the discipline.
• Ensure engineers are trained, equipped, and supported for high-quality work.
• Staff and allocate engineers to programs with leadership alignment.
• Guide test planning, procedures, safety docs, and reports for various tests.
• Oversee readiness including instrumentation and data acquisition.

Skills

Team leadership

Test engineering

Aerospace testing

Telemetry & data acquisition

Cross-functional coordination

Safety culture

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field

Tools

Instrumentation systems

Test data analysis software

Job description

At Zone 5 Technologies, we're redefining what's possible in precision weapons and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Our team of engineers and innovators are developing cutting-edge autonomous solutions to deliver affordable and scalable precision weapons, interceptors, and UAS.

We're building the next generation of munitions and unmanned systems for the United States and its allies. If you're driven by hard problems, energized by rapid innovation, and ready to make an impact on defense technology, you belong here.

Position Summary

As a Test Engineering Manager, you will lead one of the engineering teams within Zone 5's Test & Evaluation organization — which spans flight testing, test operations, and environmental testing — while partnering with T&E leadership and peer managers to grow the discipline's shared methods, tools, and standards. You will be a working manager: accountable for your team's execution against its commitments, and expected to contribute independently at the test engineering level when that is what it takes to get the job done. Your team plans and executes the testing that verifies our air vehicles and their subsystems — from lab and environmental campaigns through integrated ground test and flight test — and your role is to ensure that work is delivered safely, rigorously, and consistently, and that your engineers are developed, supported, and well matched to the programs they serve.

Responsibilities

• Manage and grow a team of test engineers, fostering collaboration, technical rigor, and a strong safety culture.
• Be accountable for your team's execution — the test commitments it makes to programs and concept development efforts — and contribute independently as a test engineer where needed to deliver.
• Ensure the correct and consistent application of test methodologies, processes, tools, and standards within your team, and contribute to their continued development across the discipline.
• Ensure your engineers are trained, equipped, and supported to do high-quality work, and be accountable for the quality of your team's test planning, execution, data, and documentation.
• Staff and balance your engineers across concept development efforts and program teams based on skills, availability, and development needs, in coordination with T&E leadership and peer managers.
• Guide the team in developing test plans, procedures, safety documentation, and reports, and in executing lab, environmental, ground, and flight test campaigns.
• Oversee test readiness — instrumentation, telemetry and data acquisition, range and facility coordination, and hazard analysis — so campaigns enter execution prepared.
• Represent the test discipline at design and test readiness reviews, ensuring designs are testable and verification evidence is credible.
• Capture lessons learned from completed test campaigns and help fold them back into discipline processes, standards, and training.
• Drive innovative approaches to test methods, automation, and infrastructure that increase test tempo without sacrificing rigor.
• Ability to travel a pproximately 25% ( roughly equivalent to one week a month), with expectation to be flexible to test schedule(s)

This role is located onsite in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline or related technical field.
• Demonstrated experience leading test engineers or test teams, with responsibility for their development and the quality of their work.
• Hands-on experience planning and executing test campaigns for aerospace or defense systems — flight test, environmental test, and/or integrated ground test.
• Experience authoring test plans, procedures, hazard analyses, and test reports, and reviewing others' work for rigor and completeness.
• Working knowledge of instrumentation, telemetry, and data acquisition systems and of test data reduction and analysis.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to coordinate across engineering, manufacturing, and program teams.
• Must be a U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident).

Preferred Qualifications

• Flight test experience with UAS, munitions, or other air‑launched systems, including range operations, airspace and frequency coordination, and flight clearances.
• Familiarity with range safety practices (e.g., RCC standards).
• Experience standing up or scaling test infrastructure, automation, or data pipelines.
• Active DoD security clearance, or the ability to obtain one.

Pay range for this role

$178,000 - $227,000 USD

What's in it for you:

• Comprehensive benefit package options include medical, dental, vision, life, and more.
• 401k with company‑match
• 3 weeks of paid time off each year
• 40 hours of sick time
• 12 annual company holidays

Why Join Zone 5 Technologies?

• Innovative Environment: Work on cutting‑edge technology that is shaping the future of defense and aerospace.
• Collaborative Culture: Join a team of passionate professionals dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
• Career Growth: Opportunities for professional development and career advancement.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

Zone 5 Technologies is a federal contractor and participates in E‑Verify to confirm employment eligibility. As required by law, we will verify the identity and employment authorization of all new employees using the E‑Verify system. Learn more about your rights and responsibilities under E‑Verify: https://www.e-verify.gov .

Voluntary Self‑Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self‑identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Zone 5 Technologies’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three‑year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.