Flight Test Engineer
Elroy Air
Software Engineering, Quality Assurance
Byron, CA, USA
Posted on May 14, 2025
The Flight Test Engineer at Elroy Air will play a crucial role in the development and certification of Chaparral, our autonomous VTOL cargo aircraft. This role involves the comprehensive planning, execution, and analysis of flight test activities to validate the performance, safety, and reliability of our innovative aircraft systems. You will collaborate closely with a multidisciplinary team of engineers, pilots, and technicians, working to advance the future of middle-mile logistics.
Responsibilities
- Test Planning: Develop detailed ground and flight test plans, procedures, and test cards for autonomous VTOL aircraft. This includes defining test objectives, parameters, and instrumentation needs. Collaborate with engineers to align plans with system requirements and certification, and manage test schedules and risk assessments.
- Flight Testing: Execute flight tests for autonomous systems like navigation, control, and cargo handling. Operate data acquisition systems to collect and analyze performance data. Evaluate system reliability in various flight conditions and contribute to optimizing VTOL and forward flight profiles.
- Data Analysis and Reporting: Process and analyze flight test data to evaluate system performance and identify deviations. Generate comprehensive reports with data summaries, analysis results, and conclusions. Contribute recommendations for aircraft design and performance improvements.
- System Integration and Validation: Participate in integrating and validating aircraft sub-systems. Collaborate with engineering teams to debug and resolve identified issues.
- Safety and Compliance: Adhere to all safety regulations and company policies during flight tests, especially for autonomous operations. Ensure compliance with FAA and UAS regulations. Participate in safety reviews and risk assessments.
- Instrumentation and Modeling: Set up and maintain flight test instrumentation. Utilize modeling and simulation to predict aircraft performance, comparing results with flight test data, for VTOL and forward flights.
Our Ideal Candidate
- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- 4+ years of experience in flight testing or a related engineering field, preferably with experience in autonomous systems or VTOL aircraft.
- Strong understanding of aircraft systems,, and flight test principles, with a focus on autonomous flight.
- Proficiency in instrumentation, data acquisition, and analysis tools (e.g., MATLAB, LabVIEW).
- Familiarity with UAS regulations and certification requirements.
- Excellent problem-solving, analytical, communication and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work in demanding environments, including flight test operations.
Bonus Points For
- Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering or a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in flight testing or a related engineering field, preferably with experience in autonomous systems or VTOL aircraft.
- Experience with DOD customer aircraft programs.
- Knowledge of risk management practices related to autonomous flight.
- Experience with modeling and simulation.
What’s In It For You
- Competitive salary + equity package.
- Competitive insurance package including medical/dental/vision/long term disability/life.
- 401(k) with broad access to low-cost investment funds, paid parental leave, and highly flexible vacation policy.
- You’ll work with a kind, diverse, and highly skilled team.
- You'll help define a new category of aerospace / logistics / robotics, and you'll work on systems that have never been built before.
- As an early member of a fast growing team, you'll help shape and define our company culture and values.
We encourage you to apply even if you aren't an exact match for our open role as many of our team members come from nontraditional backgrounds.
This position will require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws and regulations, including Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Please note that any offer for employment will be conditioned on any required authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export control laws and regulations necessary to perform the responsibilities of the position.
Elroy Air does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters that we do not have a written agreement with and all employment activities are managed through our People & Places team. We reserve the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes received without being responsible for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes.