Flight Test Engineer

Title: Flight Test Engineer Company: Heven AeroTech Location: Bingen, WA FLSA: Exempt Reports To: Director of Engineering About Our Company: At Heven AeroTech (Heven), we don’t just believe in the power of people—we build our success on it. As a recognized leader in hydrogen-powered drones, we’ve earned recognition for creating a workplace where innovation thrives, collaboration is second nature, and every employee feels valued. Our culture is anchored in trust and a shared commitment to excellence. We believe great teams are built on individuals who are humble, hungry, and smart—those who put team success first, take initiative to continuously improve, and demonstrate strong interpersonal awareness. At Heven, your voice matters, your ideas are heard, and your contributions make a tangible impact as you grow through hands-on experience and collaboration across the team. Role Summary: The Flight Test Engineer plans, executes, and analyzes ground and flight tests for prototype and pre-production vehicles and their subsystems. This role also contributes to broader engineering analysis by linking vehicle and configuration changes to updated performance and dynamics predictions, modeling and simulation outputs, and verification evidence. This is an experienced individual-contributor position that works closely with Flight Test Engineering and cross-functional Engineering teams. The Flight Test Engineer independently owns discrete test events end to end, exercises sound engineering judgment in the field, and produces test documentation and analysis that withstands technical and safety review. Success in this role requires a hungry mindset—proactively seeking the next step, anticipating needs in test execution and analysis, and continuously improving technical contributions. It also requires humility, with a focus on team success, sharing credit, and learning from others. Strong interpersonal awareness is essential to collaborate effectively across disciplines, communicate clearly, and operate in dynamic test environments. In addition to flight test responsibilities, this role supports broader engineering efforts including performance and stability assessments, modeling and simulation, and translating configuration changes into testable predictions and Essential Responsibilities: • Develop flight and ground test plans, test cards, and test procedures; identify gaps, dependencies, and next steps ahead of the schedule rather than in reaction to it • Define test objectives, success criteria, and data requirements in collaboration with cross-functional teams, emphasizing shared ownership and team success • Lead test readiness activities, including configuration verification, instrumentation checks, test article conformity, and pre-brief and debrief documentation • Own traceability between requirements, test procedures, and test results, maintaining disciplined and organized documentation • Serve as a test conductor or test engineer for on-site operations (field site and/or control room), including checklists, configuration checks, coordination with operators and maintainers, and disciplined test logging, while demonstrating strong situational awareness and sound judgment • Plan and execute envelope build-up and expansion activities, approaching work with diligence and a safety-first mindset • Execute ground and bench testing to retire risk prior to flight, consistently looking for opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness • Specify, set up, and validate instrumentation, sensors, data acquisition, and telemetry, ensuring data quality and completeness • Perform post-test data reduction and analysis using MATLAB and/or Python, producing clear, accurate, and actionable results • Author test reports and presentations documenting setup, procedures, results, anomalies, and follow-up actions, while appropriately recognizing team contributions • Update analysis and prediction models when vehicle or system configurations change • Perform or coordinate performance, stability, and control analysis using the modeling and simulation tools appropriate to the vehicle and test objectives • Support weight, center of gravity, and static stability analysis • Use modeling and simulation outputs to inform performance predictions, stability and control expectations, and pre-test planning • Correlate predictions to test data and clearly communicate discrepancies, root causes, and recommended actions for engineering review • Plan and execute integration testing of avionics, control systems, sensors, data links, and payload interfaces, leading structured troubleshooting efforts • Drive verification and validation activities by collecting test evidence and maintaining organized, auditable artifacts • Own discrepancy tracking and resolution in collaboration with Engineering, Quality, and Manufacturing teams, demonstrating humility, accountability, and strong teamwork • Contribute to test safety reviews, hazard analyses, and risk mitigation planning for test events • Mentor junior engineers and technicians on test discipline, data quality, and documentation standards • Other duties as assigned. Qualifications & Experience: Required: • Bachelor's degree in engineering (mechanical, electrical, systems, aerospace, or a closely related technical discipline), or equivalent demonstrated experience • 3–7 years of relevant experience in flight test, ground test, or complex systems test engineering, including test card development, hands-on test execution, post-test analysis • Demonstrated ability to plan, execute, and report on test events with limited supervision • Working understanding of vehicle performance, stability and control, and flight mechanics, or an equivalent depth of test engineering fundamentals in a related dynamic-systems domain • Proficiency performing engineering analysis and data processing using MATLAB and/or Python • Working knowledge of instrumentation, data acquisition, and measurement quality, including calibration, sample rates, and sources of measurement error • Strong attention to detail and commitment to high-quality documentation • Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams and brief results to technical and non-technical audiences • Professional working proficiency in English (spoken and written) is required to perform the responsibilities of this role. • This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship, now or in the future. • If this role requires access to information controlled under U.S. export control laws (ITAR/EAR), applicants must also qualify as a "U.S. person" under 22 CFR §120.62 (U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee). Preferred: • Familiarity with autopilot and ground control station ecosystems (Applied Navigation Quattro/QET, ArduPilot, PX4, or similar) • Experience serving as test conductor or safety officer for field test operations • Exposure to GNSS performance evaluation, including degraded or contested environments • Exposure to automated or vision-based landing evaluation • Experience with modeling and simulation tools relevant to vehicle performance and dynamics (six-degree-of-freedom simulation, vortex lattice methods, CFD, FEA, or equivalent) • Familiarity with requirements traceability and verification and validation practices • Familiarity with ADS-B, detect-and-avoid, and airspace integration considerations for uncrewed systems testing • Experience with test instrumentation design and integration on space- and weight-constrained platforms • FAA Part 107 certification or equivalent operational credentials • Experience working in multidisciplinary engineering teams in a rapid development environment Physical Requirements: • Organized, proactive, an