Staff Flight Test Engineer, Autonomy & UAS

Lever, Inc.; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Hivemind Solutions Staff Integration & Flight Test Engineer to drive integration, verification, and flight test of Hivemind AI Pilot capabilities on ACP programs. You will translate objectives into executable test plans across simulation, lab, and flight environments, while maintaining safety and configuration control.

You will coordinate with internal teams, OEM partners, and government customers to deliver autonomy capabilities at scale, leveraging disciplined

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience with a Bachelor's degree, or 6+ years with a Master's.
• Experience planning, conducting, and evaluating flight test of aircraft systems in military or defense aviation environments.
• Strong understanding of safety-of-flight principles, risk management, and disciplined test execution in aviation environments.
• Understanding aircraft performance, flight operations, and environmental effects influencing mission planning, test execution, and safety.
• Experience with system-level verification & validation across SIL, HIL, simulation, and flight environments.
• Experience cross-functionally across software, hardware, avionics, systems engineering, safety, and program teams.
• Experience with scripting or software tools (Python preferred) for test automation, data analysis, or system validation.
• Ability to communicate with pilots, operators, and engineers to develop executable flight test objectives, mission plans, and risk mitigations.
• Excellent technical leadership and communication skills, including briefing to program leadership and external customers.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance; U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute detailed integration and flight test plans across simulation, SIL, HIL, ground, and flight test environments.
• Coordinate readiness of simulation environments, integration laboratories, aircraft, and flight test assets.
• Apply aviation knowledge to develop safe, efficient, and operationally relevant test plans.
• Define test objectives, metrics, and success criteria with traceability to requirements.
• Lead and support aircraft integration and flight test activities, including system configuration and data analysis.
• Coordinate with OEMs, government ranges, and flight ops to meet readiness and safety criteria.
• Coordinate cross-functional execution across software, hardware, systems engineering, safety, and leadership.
• Evaluate test results, identify issues, and recommend corrective actions to mature capability.

Skills

Flight test planning

Safety principles

Aircraft performance

Systems verification

Cross-functional collaboration

Python scripting

Technical leadership

Clearance knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Python

Git

Jira/Azure DevOps

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a Hivemind Solutions Staff Integration & Flight Test Engineer to drive integration, verification, and flight test of Hivemind AI Pilot capabilities on ACP programs. You will translate objectives into executable test plans across simulation, lab, and flight environments, while maintaining safety and configuration control.

You will coordinate with internal teams, OEM partners, and government customers to deliver autonomy capabilities at scale, leveraging disciplined