Senior UAV Flight Test Engineer

Senior UAS Flight Test & Assurance Engineer - Yorkshire (Permanent)

Salary: £62,000 | Start: Aug-Sep 2026 | Onsite / Hybrid
No visa sponsorship is available. Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK.

We're hiring a senior, hands-on flight test and assurance engineer to plan and deliver UAS test campaigns and produce the evidence needed for operational approvals. This role blends practical flight-test execution with strong test discipline (plans, readiness, reporting) and the ability to translate assurance / safety / regulatory expectations into usable, traceable test evidence. Longer term, there's scope to grow into V&V leadership as the programme scales.

What you'll do

• Plan and deliver ground, integration and flight-test campaigns
• Write and maintain test plans, test cards, procedures, readiness reviews, risk controls and post-test reports
• Turn safety, assurance and operational approval requirements into practical test evidence
• Support regulator-facing technical discussions alongside internal regulatory/airspace leads
• Coordinate deployments: sites, equipment, logistics, test asset readiness and operational planning
• Drive credible evidence for software-enabled functions (e.g., autonomy-related claims, detect-and-avoid mitigations)
• Identify pragmatic tools / COTS systems that reduce test and assurance risk, time and cost
• Help build scalable validation and verification practices for future programme maturity

What we're looking for

• Strong background in flight test, test engineering, UAS operations, aviation assurance, airworthiness, or safety-critical systems testing
• Practical experience planning and executing tests in the field (not just office-based planning)
• Confident running readiness reviews, hazard controls and evidence generation / reporting
• Able to read, interpret and apply aviation regulatory / operational approval material
• Strong judgement, high ownership, and clear written communication

Nice to have

• UAS / novel aircraft / autonomous aircraft test programme experience
• Familiarity with SORA / SAIL and CAA/EASA-style approval environments
• Experience with autonomy assurance, collision-risk modelling, simulation, safety cases, or software-enabled safety functions
• Experience building a test / flight-test / V&V function as a programme grows