Non-Destructive Inspection Lead

Swarmaero

Fayetteville (AR)

On-site

USD 90,000 - 130,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

Health benefits

PTO & sick leave

Wellness stipend

Office lunch

Parental leave

Impactful mission

Strong team

Job summary

Swarm Aero in Fayetteville, AR seeks an experienced NDI Engineer to define and stand up the NDI capability for composite and metallic structures. You will develop inspection plans, write procedures, and ensure quality as production scales.

You will apply SPC, disposition defects, and collaborate with design and manufacturing to improve inspectability, leading toward building an NDI team with training and certification programs.

Qualifications

NDI experience in aerospace/composites/metals; high-rate manufacturing.
Hands-on experience establishing new NDI procedures.
Knowledge of materials and inspection methods and their limits.
Experience with ultrasonic (incl. phased array), radiography or CT.
Familiarity with NAS 410 / ASNT SNT-TC-1A or equivalent.

Responsibilities

Define and stand up NDI capability: methods, equipment, procedures.
Develop inspection plans, acceptance criteria, references.
Create quality docs and control requirements for scaling.
Collaborate with design and production to improve inspectability.
Apply SPC to inspection and manufacturing data to detect drift.
Disposition defects and support root cause investigations.
Identify bottlenecks and test floor improvements for throughput.
Lay groundwork for an NDI team: training and certification programs.

Skills

NDI in aerospace/composites/metals

Hands-on NDI procedure setup

Materials knowledge (composites/metals

Ultrasonic inspection (phased array)

NAS 410 / ASNT SNT-TC-1A familiarity

Education

Relevant technical degree in NDI/Materials/Manufacturing

Tools

Ultrasonic (phased array) equipment

Radiography/CT inspection

Eddy current inspection

Thermography inspection

NDT qualification standards knowledge

Job description

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.

The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

We’re building a new kind of aircraft, and we’re building the factories to produce it. We’re hiring a Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) Engineer to help turn early builds into a repeatable, high-rate manufacturing operation where quality is designed in from the start.

This is a chance to shape the floor while the decisions still matter. You’ll work across design, manufacturing, materials and processes, and operations to define how we inspect composite and metallic structures across the company. There is no legacy inspection system to inherit here. You’ll be building it.

What you’ll do

Define and stand up our NDI capability: select methods, specify equipment, and write the inspection procedures for composite and metallic components
Develop inspection plans, accept/reject criteria, and reference standards in partnership with design and stress engineering
Create quality documentation and control requirements that hold up as we scale from first articles to rate production
Work directly with the people designing and building the aircraft to influence designs for inspectability and catch problems before they become permanent features of the build
Apply Statistical Process Control (SPC) to inspection and manufacturing data so we can see process drift early and act on it
Disposition defects, support material review and root cause investigations, and feed what you learn back into design and process
Identify bottlenecks early, test improvements on the floor, and use production data to improve throughput, quality, and predictability
Lay the groundwork for an NDI team: training, qualification, and certification programs for the inspectors and engineers who follow

What you bring

NDI experience in aerospace, composites, metallics, or another complex hardware manufacturing environment
Hands-on experience establishing new NDI procedures for a program, company, or production line
Working knowledge of composite and metallic materials and processes, and how they affect the capability and limitations of different inspection methods
Depth in one or more methods such as ultrasonic (including phased array), radiography or CT, thermography, eddy current, penetrant, or magnetic particle
Familiarity with NDI qualification and certification standards (NAS 410, ASNT SNT-TC-1A, or equivalent)
The judgment to put structure in place where it helps, without slowing down the team doing the work

Nice to have

NAS 410 Level III certification, or a clear path to it
Experience building or leading an NDI team or written practice from scratch
Background in automated inspection or high-rate composite production
Experience with aerospace quality systems such as AS9100

Requirements

Must be a U.S. person due to ITAR requirements
Able to work on-site in Fayetteville, AR

ITAR requirement

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.

What We Offer