Flight R&D Engineer

ABOUT AIRBOUND Our mission is to make a world where everyone has access to delivery. Where goods move as freely as information moves today. This is possible. Today the cost of moving on a scooter is ₹2/km. That’s the cost of moving a 150kg mass from point A to B. We’re bringing that mass down to less than 5kgs, concurrently bringing the cost down to 10 paise/km. This is how we make deliveries a reality. This is how we create a world where we’re doing billions of deliveries per day. The tech is not there. The current cost of drone delivery is ₹100/km. We need to completely redefine the way things are done here. We’re building the world’s most efficient aircraft from the ground-up, and scaling that up to beyond anything the aerospace sector has ever seen. This cannot be an iterative process. We have to tear down all conventions and build everything up from scratch. To do this, we need nothing less than the best engineers. The ones who care about building something fundamentally different, who are deeply curious about understanding the fundamentals of everything they’re working on, who are dreamers that believe in the impossible. ABOUT FLIGHT SYSTEMS The hardware on the drone is only half of what keeps it up in the air. The rest is the software both on the craft and on our ground station. Our unique dual motor thrust vectored tail sitter with blended wing body design has to fly in almost all weather-including heavy winds and light rains autonomously. We're targeting 1000s of flights per day across all locations, requiring us to rethink everything from firmware, controls, state estimation to even ground control and fleet management software. We've achieved an industry-leading payload-to-weight ratio of ~2kg drone for 1kg payload and we're pushing this even further. Every gram matter when you're revolutionizing logistics. This is where cutting-edge aerospace engineering meets software scalability meets real-world impact. If you get excited about solving problems that span multiple disciplines that don't have textbook solutions, this is your playground. ABOUT YOUR ROLE In this hands-on engineering role, you will be at the front line of understanding how our aircraft behaves in the real world and ensuring it keeps getting safer, smarter, and more reliable. You will dig deep into flight data, work closely with hardware, and help define how the aircraft responds when things go wrong. This is a role for someone who thinks in first principles, is energized by anomalies, and finds satisfaction in turning raw logs and physical evidence into clear, actionable understanding. Flight Log Analysis & Root Cause Investigation: Own the post-flight analysis pipeline - parse, visualize, and interpret flight logs using tools like UAV Log viewer and ArduPilot Web Tools to identify anomalies, failure signatures, and off-nominal behaviour. Produce structured Root Cause Analysis (RCA) reports that trace failures to their physical origin with supporting evidence and quantitative data. Craft Inspection & Physical Failure Analysis: Conduct systematic post-incident inspections of airframe, propulsion, and avionics hardware. Correlate physical findings with log data to build a complete picture of failure events. Maintain inspection checklists and contribute to evolving airworthiness standards for our thrust-vectored tail sitter platform. Failsafe Definition & Safety Behaviour: Assist in defining, reviewing, and validating the aircraft's failsafe logic - covering stability loss as well as scenarios such as communication loss, sensor degradation, battery faults, and actuator failures. Translate operational risk understanding into concrete parameter recommendations and behavioural specifications in collaboration with software and systems teams. Peripheral Integration Support: Support the integration of new sensors and peripheral hardware onto the flight stack - including bench characterisation, ground testing, and in-flight data quality evaluation. Help validate that new hardware performs within bounds required for safe flight operations. REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE - Experience: 0-2 years in aerospace, UAV, robotics, or a related technical field. Strong academic background or project experience in aeronautics, mechanical engineering, physics, or a closely related discipline. - Fundamentals: Solid grasp of flight mechanics, rigid body dynamics, and aerodynamic principles. Comfort reasoning from first principles about why a vehicle behaves the way it does - or why it stopped. - Analytical Rigour: Structured, evidence-driven approach to problem-solving. Ability to form and test hypotheses against data, identify root causes under ambiguity, and communicate findings in well-organised written reports. - Hands-on experience: Building, flying, or repairing multirotors or fixed-wing UAVs with exposure to ArduPilot/PX4 or GCS tools (Mission Planner, QGroundControl) - Documentation: Strong technical writing habits with the ability to produce clear RCA reports and inspection records for both engineering and cross-functional audiences. GOOD TO HAVE - Exposure to control theory - PID loops, stability margins, step response characterisation - even in an academic or simulation context - Familiarity with MAVLink, dataflash logs, or telemetry formats - Experience with SITL environments or hardware-in-the-loop testing - Working knowledge of Python for data processing and visualisation. Comfort with time-series flight data analysis. WHAT WE OFFER - Comprehensive health insurance to keep you and your loved ones covered - Relocation assistance and a daily travel stipend to ease your commute - Advanced salary credit to support you when you need it “A driven, passionate team where you’ll have room to grow and thrive - this is more than just a job, it’s a rare opportunity to build something meaningful from the ground up” WORK SCHEDULE: - In-office role, working alternate Saturdays. READY TO TAKE OFF? 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