Test Operations Lead — UAV Flight & Ground Test

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems; Palmdale (CA); On-site; USD 89,180 - 155,825; Full time

Job summary

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) seeks a seasoned Test Operations Leader to plan and manage daily activities at our High Desert Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA.

This role ensures safe, compliant ground and flight testing of avionics, airframe, and powerplant systems, coordinating with customer teams. The incumbent will supervise schedules, allocate resources, and guide cross-functional teams to meet program objectives while maintaining cost and schedule.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related technical field and 9+ years of progressive professional experience in manufacturing processes, planning, scheduling, and budget management.

Responsibilities

• Manage and coordinate planning, scheduling, and activities of Test Operations personnel to meet objectives safely and effectively.
• Schedule daily work assignments with consistent personnel support for medium- to long-term test programs.
• Lead cross-functional teams to configure unmanned aircraft system software and hardware to meet test objectives with internal and external customer engineering teams.
• Provide high-level technical assistance to test and sustainment teams in troubleshooting complex systems.
• Track and document test performance and provide feedback to customers.
• Develop processes to improve consistency and reliability of test execution methods across multiple platforms.

Skills

Project management

Leadership

Analytical skills

Verbal and written communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related technical field

Job description

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) seeks a seasoned Test Operations Leader to plan and manage daily activities at our High Desert Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA.

This role ensures safe, compliant ground and flight testing of avionics, airframe, and powerplant systems, coordinating with customer teams. The incumbent will supervise schedules, allocate resources, and guide cross-functional teams to meet program objectives while maintaining cost and schedule.