UAS Flight Test & Mission Operator — Field & Lab

Chaos Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits: medical, dental, and

401k with company match

Free daily lunch

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

CHAOS Industries is seeking an experienced UAS Pilot/Flight Test & Mission Operator based in El Segundo, CA. You will support the full lifecycle of unmanned aircraft operations, from development and verification to production acceptance testing and field missions.

The role requires flying Group 1–3 UAS platforms across diverse airframes, and traveling to customer sites as needed. The position demands hands-on expertise, strong safety practices, and the ability to work in both test-range

Qualifications

• Current FAA Remote Pilot Certificate with a Small UAS Rating, or ability to obtain one before independent operations.
• At least two years of UAS operations or flight testing experience.
• Experience configuring, inspecting, and safely operating remotely piloted aircraft across multiple platforms.

Responsibilities

• Review flight-test plans, test cards, mission objectives, engineering requirements, aircraft limitations, risk assessments, airspace/site conditions, and success/abort criteria.
• Participate in test-readiness reviews, safety reviews, preflight briefings, post-mission debriefs, and lessons-learned activities.
• Coordinate with flight-test engineers, software/hardware engineers, avionics personnel, maintainers, range personnel, PMs, and stakeholders.
• Prepare and inspect aircraft, payloads, batteries, propulsion components, ground control stations, and verify configuration against documentation.
• Perform preflight functional checks of flight controls, navigation, propulsion, power, links, payloads, sensors, and data acquisition systems.
• Operate across Group 1–3 UAS platforms and various propulsion systems; adapt procedures to class size and complexity.
• Record test-point completion, mission results, and telemetry; annotate data and preserve logs.

Skills

UAS operations

Flight testing

Safety awareness

Technical writing

Communication

Education

High school diploma

Associate or bachelor’s degree in aerospace/related field

Tools

PX4

ArduPilot

Mission Planner

QGroundControl

ATAK

Jira

Confluence

Git

MATLAB

Job description

CHAOS Industries is seeking an experienced UAS Pilot/Flight Test & Mission Operator based in El Segundo, CA. You will support the full lifecycle of unmanned aircraft operations, from development and verification to production acceptance testing and field missions.

The role requires flying Group 1–3 UAS platforms across diverse airframes, and traveling to customer sites as needed. The position demands hands-on expertise, strong safety practices, and the ability to work in both test-range