Integration and Flight Test Engineer (Founding Team)

About usZephyrs X is an early-stage company in Pasadena building a new positioning sensor that lets a drone find, approach and land precisely on a ground station with no GNSS and no camera. The sensor exists and works on the bench; the next six months are about putting it on a real aircraft, flying it, and proving it works. We are a small team. Everyone here builds things with their own hands.

The jobYou are the person who turns a working sensor into a working landing. You will work every day with our integration lead, who owns the software chain from the sensor to the autopilot to the ground station. Your half of that partnership is the aircraft, the field, and the test: build and fly the test drones, wire the sensor into the autopilot, run the flight-test program, capture the data, find what broke, fix what you can on the spot, and hand the rest back with a clean report.

This is not a technician role. You will read and change code in the field, write test tooling, and be trusted to decide whether the next flight is safe.

What you will actually do:

• Build, maintain and repair our test multirotors (PX4 or ArduPilot on Pixhawk-class controllers), including the companion computer, telemetry radios and sensor mounting.
• Integrate our sensor's MAVLink output into the autopilot as a precision-landing target and external position source, and configure the estimator to fly the terminal phase with GNSS switched out.
• Run the flight-test ladder: plan each sortie, fly it or act as pilot in command for it, log the flight and the sensor, review the data the same day, and file the issues.
• Debug on site: Linux on the sensor node, serial and Ethernet links, MAVLink traffic, autopilot parameters, power and wiring. Patch scripts and small code changes in the field, then reproduce them properly back at the bench.
• Build the test tooling: log parsers, plotting, replay, truth-measurement fixtures for the bench (marked grids, laser rangefinder, mast tests).
• Own field safety and compliance: airspace authorizations, site permissions, pre-flight checklists, crash procedures, spares.
• Run our formal validation campaign at an FAA-designated UAS test site in early 2027 and write the report.

What we need from you• You build, tune and maintain PX4 or ArduPilot multirotors on Pixhawk-class controllers: frame setup, ESC and motor calibration, PID tuning, EKF configuration and position-source selection, failsafes, precision-landing setup. Real flight hours you can show us in a log.

• You are fluent in MAVLink: landing-target and external-position messages, custom messages, rates, coordinate frames, timestamps and latency. You have set up a companion computer (Raspberry Pi or Jetson class) as a bridge between a sensor and an autopilot over serial or Ethernet.
• You can keep a test day moving without the software lead beside you: change a sensor's parameter set, switch between test profiles, read link quality and lock state from the log, and tell a sensor problem from a vehicle problem from a wiring problem before anyone else does.
• Python is your working language (pymavlink or MAVSDK, log parsing with pandas, plotting, small tools). You read C and C++ well enough to trace a parameter into the code and make a small, careful change, then reproduce it properly on the bench. Bash and Linux every day. Git for everything.
• You are comfortable on a headless embedded Linux node: ssh, systemd, serial ports, networking, logs, building from source, flashing and recovering a board.
• Test discipline: you write the plan and the checklist, run a flight-test ladder without skipping rungs, build simple truth fixtures, keep a same-day data pipeline, and file issues a developer can reproduce.
• Hands-on hardware: soldering, crimping, harnesses, reading a schematic, multimeter and oscilloscope, clean sensor mounting with vibration isolation.
• You write a short, precise status at the end of every test day.
• FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, or the ability to obtain one within 60 days of start.
• Based in the Los Angeles area and able to be on site in Pasadena and at outdoor test sites most days. This job does not work remotely.
• Authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship, now or in the future. Because of export-control requirements the position is limited to U.S. persons as defined in 22 CFR 120.62.

Nice to have• Wireless test or validation background: you have tuned a radio's parameter set and read its link KPIs, in a lab or in the field.

• GNSS-denied or precision-landing integration experience on PX4 or ArduPilot (visual markers, UWB, or other landing aids).
• ArduPilot Lua scripting or PX4 module work.
• Spectrum analyzer or SDR experience.
• MATLAB or Python signal analysis beyond plotting.
• Sensor-fusion basics (EKF, IMU, GNSS/INS).
• Experience with LAANC, Part 107 waivers, or an FAA UAS test site.
• Drone-in-a-box, tethered or delivery-drone operations.
• You have crashed a drone, figured out why, and flown it again.

What we offer• Founding-team equity with standard four-year vesting.

• Base salary, full-time, benefits.
• A sensor nobody else has, a clear four-month goal, and the chance to be the person who made it land.

How to applySend a resume and, if you have it, a short flight log summary or a link to a project you built and flew. A few sentences about the hardest field problem you have solved is worth more to us than a cover letter.

Zephyrs X is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Suggested screening questions (LinkedIn)• Do you hold an FAA Part 107 certificate, or can you obtain one within 60 days of starting? (Yes / No)

• Approximately how many logged flight hours do you have on PX4 or ArduPilot multirotors? (number)
• Have you integrated an external position or landing-target source into an autopilot over MAVLink? (Yes / No)
• Are you authorized to work in the U.S. for any employer without current or future sponsorship? (Yes / No)

• • Are you able to work on site in Pasadena and at outdoor test sites in the Los Angeles area most days? (Yes / No)