Hardware Test and Reliability Engineer, Skydio

$119-169k

Offers equity in the form of options

Python
Junior and Mid level
San Francisco Bay Area

More information about location

Office located in San Mateo, CA

Skydio

Drone manufacturer

Be an early applicant

Skydio

Drone manufacturer

501-1000 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceManufacturingDrones

Be an early applicant

$119-169k

Offers equity in the form of options

Python
Junior and Mid level
San Francisco Bay Area

More information about location

Office located in San Mateo, CA

501-1000 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceManufacturingDrones

Company mission

To make the world more productive, creative, and safe with autonomous flight.

Role

Who you are

  • Deep curiosity with 1-4 years experience hands-on development, testing, and delivery of highly reliable complex systems
  • Familiarity with testing equipment, best practices and methodologies for stress testing, environmental testing, and accelerated life testing to assess product durability and reliability under various conditions
  • A systems-engineering approach to problem solving, and a knack for rapidly identifying issues within mechanical, electrical, and software domains as well as the gray areas between them on tightly integrated systems; strong desire to drive failure analyses to true root cause
  • Enthusiastic tendencies toward diving into hands-on testing, characterization, and failure analysis, applying first principles to engineer creative solutions to complex problems
  • Experience with Python or other programming languages for test automation, data analysis, and visualization
  • Strong desire to learn and contribute across multiple domains within a dynamic and growing organization
  • Excellent project management, written & verbal communication, and cross-functional teamwork skills

What the job involves

  • We are seeking a driven and versatile engineer to help drive safety and reliability initiatives, develop and execute test plans that enable rapid design iteration and robust product validation for state-of-the-art autonomous flying machines servicing a broad range of enterprise, public safety, and defense applications
  • Work with product development, embedded software, quality, manufacturing, and suppliers to define and execute comprehensive test strategies beginning in early prototyping stages through volume production, enabling earliest possible discovery of failure modes for complex electro-mechanical autonomous systems
  • Develop the test hardware and software systems required to efficiently execute performance and reliability validation within fast development schedules
  • Analyze data, calculate statistics, and carefully document test results to support enterprise customers and regulatory certification efforts
  • Perform failure analysis to identify root cause and help develop process/design mitigations collaborating with mechanical, electrical and software engineering teams to rapidly implement corrective actions and resolve system issues
  • Participate in design reviews and provide key design for reliability inputs to mitigate risks from first prototypes to first customer shipment and beyond

Our take

A leader in autonomous flight, Skydio builds drones that can track and film targets while avoiding obstacles. Its products have a wide range of applications, most notably for businesses that need to undertake inspections in unsafe places. The drones are also valuable to search and rescue efforts, police forces, and the US army.

Backed by a range of top investors and strategic partners (including Andreesen Horowitz, Levitate Capital, and Next 47) Skydio sets itself apart from its competitors by marketing its products predominantly to businesses. With technology such as 3D scanning and a 360-degree superzoom mode, its drones have a wide range of applications and functionality.

The company raised funding in 2023, which has boosted its valuation to over $2 billion. It has since focussed on R&D, developing and launching the X10 model which is designed for first responders and the military, as well as enhancing its remote control and thermal imaging capabilities. As the largest American drone company, there is no reason Skydio shouldn't remain a key industry actor for years to come.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

24% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)

Feb 2023

$230m

SERIES E

Feb 2021

$171m

SERIES D

Total funding: $571m

Company benefits

  • Work from home opportunities

Company values

  • We consider the holistic impact our products have on communities and countries
  • We use our role as a leader in autonomous flight technology to promote the responsible development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • We proactively promote best practices on the responsible use of our products with our customers
  • We engage in policy and regulatory efforts to support laws, policies, and standards aligned with our values
  • We engage in a responsible way with public sector customers in the United States and other free societies
  • We will not sell our products to repressive regimes
  • We will not put weapons on our drones and will oppose fully autonomous lethal weapons systems
  • We seek to create connections between our employees and the customers we serve beyond simply providing products and services
  • We seek to provide flexibility and freedom for people to choose what they work on

Company HQ

Western Hills, San Mateo, CA

Leadership

Having studied at MIT, they spent a year and a half at Google as a Software Engineer. They left this position in February 2014 to co-found Skydio.

Earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and was a Software Engineer for Google's Project Wing.

Previously a Research Assistant at MIT Media Lab and a Mobile Engineer at Pocket Gems.

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