Senior UAV Flight Test Engineer: Autonomy & Analysis

Firestorm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, and …

401(k) retirement plan

Equity grants

Unlimited PTO

Generous holiday calendar

Parental leave

Job summary

Firestorm Labs is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer to join our Flight Test Team in San Diego, CA. You will lead the design and execution of flight test plans, supervise test readiness, and work with autonomy, software, hardware teams to validate UAV platforms across mission profiles.

The role emphasizes safety, test discipline, data analysis (DOE, MATLAB, Python), and generation of technical artifacts for internal and customer deliverables.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Robotics, or related field; equivalent hands-on experience accepted.
• Minimum 5 years of flight test engineer experience focusing on autonomous or remotely piloted systems.
• U.S. Citizenship due to ITAR; ability to obtain DoD security clearance.
• FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate or ability to obtain.
• Experience with flight documentation and post-flight reports.
• Ability to design and execute full lifecycle flight test programs; instrumentation and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead developmental flight testing with sub-scale and full-scale UAVs.
• Create, implement, and document environmental stress tests.
• Develop flight test plans, test cards, and safety procedures.

Skills

Flight test engineering

Autonomous systems

DOE analysis

Python

MATLAB/Simulink

Communications

C++

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Robotics, or related field

Tools

MATLAB

Simulink

Python

Test instrumentation

Job description

Firestorm Labs is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer to join our Flight Test Team in San Diego, CA. You will lead the design and execution of flight test plans, supervise test readiness, and work with autonomy, software, hardware teams to validate UAV platforms across mission profiles.

The role emphasizes safety, test discipline, data analysis (DOE, MATLAB, Python), and generation of technical artifacts for internal and customer deliverables.