Senior Flight Test Automation Engineer (Equity)

skydio; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health insurance

401K savings plan

Paid vacation

Sick leave

Holiday pay

Job summary

Skydio is seeking an experienced Software Automation Engineer to lead the Flight Test Automation Pod and scale validation of autonomous flight. You will design automated test systems running from CI through simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, to real-world flight, applying AI-supported workflows to tests.

The role sits in Product Integrity, shaping testing strategy, coverage metrics, and reducing manual effort while ensuring high-quality 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 with maintainable, well-structured test frameworks and infrastructure.
• 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.
• Proficiency with mobile and browser automation tools (Appium, Playwright, Selenium).
• FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is required for this position.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Flight Test Automation Pod: set technical direction, roadmap, and mentor engineers who contribute to automation.
• Own automated test workflows across mobile, browser, and integrated hardware/software systems, from simulation to real-world flight.
• 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, reduce manual effort, and focus flight time where it matters most.
• Partner with software, flight test, and reliability engineering leads to shape how testing is planned and prioritized.

Skills

Python

CI/CD

Test automation

Mentoring

Tools

Appium

Playwright

Selenium

Job description

Skydio is seeking an experienced Software Automation Engineer to lead the Flight Test Automation Pod and scale validation of autonomous flight. You will design automated test systems running from CI through simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, to real-world flight, applying AI-supported workflows to tests.

The role sits in Product Integrity, shaping testing strategy, coverage metrics, and reducing manual effort while ensuring high-quality releases.