Staff Flight Test Instrumentation & Data Engineer

$142,000 - $185,000/Yr

Anduril Industries - Costa Mesa, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

Costa Mesa, CA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

As a Staff Flight Test Instrumentation & Data Engineer at Anduril Industries, you will play a crucial role in the Test and Evaluation Team, focusing on the validation of Group 5 UAS. This position involves collaborating with various engineering disciplines to enhance flight safety and streamline data processing workflows. You will be responsible for designing and developing flight test instrumentation systems, managing data acquisition, and ensuring the efficient handling of flight test data. Your work will directly contribute to advancing military capabilities through innovative technology solutions.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate cross-functionally with UAS discipline engineers, the Customer, Airworthiness subject matter experts, and program managers to inform safety of test, safety of flight, strategic decisions, and positively impact 'speed-to-ramp'.
• Develop requirements, architecture, system design, test methods and operation for the flight test instrumentation, data acquisition system, data network, telemetry, data processing and data managing systems for a UAS.
• Fabricate and install flight test instrumentation sensors, data paths and equipment into one of a kind experimental aircraft, often utilizing novel approaches.
• Create a workflow for data processing and managing that encrypts, downloads, de-commutates, decrypts, reduces, stores, and transmits data internally and to the Customer at various classification levels.
• Manage and configure the aircraft instrumentation system to provide real time data for mission monitoring as well as logged data for post-flight analysis.
• Be the company Leader in writing data reduction, storage, and retrieval scripts, as well as mentoring others to do the same.
• Maintain flight test data at the appropriate levels of classification, including Secret and above.
• Implement and enforce a data-at-rest, network attached storage solution for flight test data, and help design other aspects of ground and airborne data services.
• Write software algorithms that make flight test data available sooner than standard industry solutions.
• Develop, implement, and optimize creative approaches to UAS data infrastructure, including the creation and management of software tools, data catalogs, and robust data pipelines.
• Spearhead technical investigations to diagnose data storage and transfer issues and support technical forensic investigations.
• Provide leadership in the handling of flight test data including solutions to improve system reliability and efficiency.
• Design and implement analytics-driven customer-facing products that showcase system performance metrics, provide trend analysis, and enhance user understanding and experience with our semi-autonomous UAS.
• Travel from Anduril HQ to establish FTI and RF telemetry solutions in the high desert of California, Nevada, Texas, and Oregon up to 50% of the time.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Math, Electrical, Mechanical, or Mechatronics Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years notable experience with designing and developing flight test instrumentation systems and processing and storing data from embedded acquisition systems in manned or unmanned aircraft.
• Exceptional data visualization skills, with proficiency in using analytical tools (e.g., MATLAB, LabVIEW, Simulink).
• Demonstrated expertise in reducing data from high channel count (e.g. 100-400 measurands) mechanical measurement systems.
• A strong commitment to applying data science to solve real-world problems, with the ability to translate technical findings into actionable recommendations.
• Current US Person status (U.S. citizen or permanent resident) with the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Secret Clearance or higher.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Nice-to-haves

• Master of Science or B.S. plus 10 years experience designing and developing flight test instrumentation systems and writing data reduction scripts for flight test data management on Group 5 UAS.
• 5+ years experience setting up test data retrieval and playback with the Interactive Analysis and Display System (IADS).
• Knowledge of best practices for architecting data storage and retrieval systems.
• Leadership experience, with the ability to mentor less experienced discipline engineers and lead project teams.

Benefits

• Platinum Healthcare Benefits: 100% covered for you and 90% for dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D and long-term disability insurance 100% covered.
• Generous company holiday calendar and highly competitive PTO plans.
• 16 weeks of paid Caregiver & Wellness Leave.
• Family Planning & Parenting Support including fertility and adoption coverage.
• Free mental health resources 24/7.
• Professional development stipend available to all employees.
• Daily Meals and Provisions in many offices.
• Company-funded commuter benefits based on your region.
• Relocation assistance depending on role eligibility.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan.