Founding GNC and Flight Software Engineer

Vight; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental included

Job summary

Vight is building private use eVTOLs and is assembling a founding team in San Francisco to own flight control and flight software architecture for subscale prototypes. You will oversee end-to-end behavior from the flight stack to simulation, logs, and configuration discipline, shaping a safety-critical software stack for future MOSAIC vehicles.

In the early weeks you will own the loop that makes the Part 107 prototype fly safely, iterating on flight stack changes, instrumentation, log review,

Qualifications

• Have done exceptionally hard things on UAV, aircraft, or robotics programs at high velocity: first flights, DARPA programs, or early-stage startups where you had significant ownership of controls or flight software.
• Have transition vehicle experience, e.g. with tailsitter, tilt-wing, or tilt-rotor aircraft, or demonstrate ability to reason clearly about the GNC challenges with these aircraft designs.
• Have experience with custom or proprietary flight stacks or heavily modifying ArduPilot / PX4.
• Are hands-on and excited to own architecture, iterate quickly, and learn from flight data.
• Have personally designed flight control laws, modified flight software or parameters, stood up sims, and been in the control room or field during flight test.
• Are skilled in controller design, system ID from flight data, log review, and real-time filters or estimators like EKF.

Responsibilities

• Build on the existing plant model, simulation, and replay framework, including ML-assisted tooling and automated testing where it can accelerate development.
• Own the near-term subscale flight software loop: from model assumptions to firmware/configuration to field evidence.
• Longer term, you will define the flight control architecture for hover through cruise, including control allocation, envelope protection, stability shaping, degraded cases, and high level safety functions.
• Coordinate with structures on dynamics, avionics on sensor performance and logging, and propulsion on motor response, control allocation, and avoiding actuator or torque saturation.
• Close the loop during fast-paced flight testing: isolate unexpected vehicle behavior, separate GNC issues from hardware or instrumentation issues, and turn the result into the next change.

Job description

About VightVight is building private use eVTOLs that make point to point flight as normal as driving, starting with rural property owners and flight clubs. We are a small founding team shipping fast in the real world with subscale VTOLs and a clear path to two seat, FAA MOSAIC aircraft and beyond.

Backed by leading investors and operators, our team and advisors include engineering leaders behind world-class hardware at Airbus Vahana, Kittyhawk, SpaceX and Rivian.

We want the hard problems you solve here with other exceptional engineers to be your life's work.

Role

As part of the founding team, you will initially own the flight control and flight software architecture for our subscale prototypes.

You will be responsible for the end to end behavior of the vehicle, from PX4 or custom flight stack work, simulation, logs, and configuration discipline to the feel of the stick in hover, transition, and cruise. You will balance rapid subscale iteration with the discipline needed to architect a safety critical software stack for the full scale MOSAIC vehicle.

The first proving ground is our Part 107 prototype. In the first few weeks, you should be able to own the loop that makes it fly safely and with more learnings from each test: flight stack changes, configuration discipline, instrumentation, log review, and the next test card.

What You Will Do

• Build on the existing plant model, simulation, and replay framework, including ML-assisted tooling and automated testing where it can accelerate development.
• Own the near-term subscale flight software loop: from model assumptions to firmware/configuration to field evidence.
• Longer term, you will define the flight control architecture for hover through cruise, including control allocation, envelope protection, stability shaping, degraded cases, and high level safety functions.
• Coordinate with structures on dynamics, avionics on sensor performance and logging, and propulsion on motor response, control allocation, and avoiding actuator or torque saturation.
• Close the loop during fast-paced flight testing: isolate unexpected vehicle behavior, separate GNC issues from hardware or instrumentation issues, and turn the result into the next change.

You Might Be A Fit If You

• Have done exceptionally hard things on UAV, aircraft, or robotics programs at high velocity: first flights, DARPA programs, or early-stage startups where you had significant ownership of controls or flight software.
• Have transition vehicle experience, e.g. with tailsitter, tilt-wing, or tilt-rotor aircraft, or demonstrate ability to reason clearly about the GNC challenges with these aircraft designs.
• Have experience with custom or proprietary flight stacks or heavily modifying ArduPilot / PX4.
• Are hands-on and excited to own architecture, iterate quickly, and learn from flight data.
• Have personally designed flight control laws, modified flight software or parameters, stood up sims, and been in the control room or field during flight test.
• Are skilled in controller design, system ID from flight data, log review, and real-time filters or estimators like EKF.

Nice To Have

• Pilot certificate: commercial, instrument, or private. You do not need a pilot cert to write control laws, but someone who flies their own airplane has deep intuition about how aircraft should feel and behave.
• Builds own aircraft, contributes to open-source autopilot projects, competes in RC / UAV competitions, or has public builder artifacts such as technical blogs, GitHub, conference talks, flight test notes, or published sim / tooling work.
• Demonstrated exceptional ability to learn new tools, domains, or technical skills quickly.
• Familiarity with aviation certification standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, MOSAIC, or ASTM F3201.
• Experience in a fast-moving hardware environment like DBF, a university UAV lab, or a hardware startup.

What We Offer

• You will own the flight software and control architecture for subscale prototypes, with the opportunity to own more of the autonomy and vehicle intelligence systems as the team grows.
• Hands-on, fast-cycle hardware development: subscale VTOLs in the air and minimal management overhead and opportunities for local travel for flight testing.
• The opportunity to do career-defining work on the ground floor of a generational change to personal aviation and mobility, helping shape the culture in the process.
• Medical and dental included.