Head of Aerospace Engineering & R&D

Head of Aerospace Engineering & R&DBuoyant Aero, Inc. · New York office (NewLab, Brooklyn Navy Yard) · Full-timeAbout usBuoyant Aero builds autonomous lighter-than-air aircraft — unmanned blimps that fly live commercial advertising deployments for real customers. YC-backed, with a six-month flagship deployment underway soon to be underway in the Bay Area. We're building the engineering team that takes this from one airship + one deployment to a real platform company. The current aircraft is a ~25 m³ non-rigid airship with custom thrust-vectoring propulsion, active pressure management, ArduPlane on a Cube Orange, and custom Lua mixers.The roleYou'll be Buoyant's senior aerospace engineering authority and the R&D lead based in our New York office. You own the technical depth across aerodynamics, controls, avionics, flight software, and electronics integration — the cross-discipline engineering that makes our airships fly well and reliably, today and at scale. You report directly to the CEO and the call on system architecture, control-system design, and the R&D roadmap is yours.This is the right role for someone who:Has done real aerospace systems engineering on novel platforms — not just spec'd partsWants to lead R&D at a small, fast hardware company where every decision shipsIs willing to do the deep technical work themselves and build a team out over timeYou'll start as the senior technical lead, grow into a player-coach as the team scales, and partner directly with the CEO on company-level technical strategy.What you'll ownSystems engineering & architecture — set the technical architecture across mechanical, electrical/avionics, and flight software; resolve cross-discipline tradeoffs; own the integrated system performance budgetAerodynamics & flight performance — sizing, drag, stability, gust response, fin design, control authority; from analysis through wind/flight validationControl systems & tuning — control law design, mode definitions, gain tuning across regimes (manual, stabilized, autonomous); take flight logs and turn them into corrected behaviorAvionics & flight software — Cube Orange / ArduPlane stack, custom Lua mixers for thrust vectoring, telemetry (MAVLink, CRSF, ELRS, RFD900), failsafes, Remote ID; comfortable down to ChibiOS / STM32H7 internals when neededElectronics & integration — power, sensors, payload, harnessing; schematic-level fluency and hands-on prototype buildReliability & test instrumentation — flight test campaigns, instrumentation, log analysis, anomaly investigationR&D roadmap — what we prototype next, what we defer, what we outsource; convert customer and ops feedback into engineering prioritiesPeople — manage the avionics team (going part-time in September) and grow the NY R&D team over timeWhat we need10+ years aerospace systems engineering, ideally on novel/experimental aircraft, drones, eVTOL, LTA, missile systems, or comparableReal depth in at least three of: aerodynamics, controls, avionics / flight software, electronics, structural integrationDeep ArduPilot or PX4 experience — custom mixers, control allocation, parameter tuning, reading and modifying sourceControl law design and tuning fluency — frequency domain, state-space, gain scheduling; comfortable defining and validating control modes for a novel platformHands-on — you've built, instrumented, and flown test articles, not just managed contractors who didField-debug instinct — comfortable spending days at a remote site chasing intermittent failuresComfortable down to firmware / HAL / RTOS when the problem demands it (ChibiOS, STM32H7, etc.)Python plus at least one of C / C++Direct communicator, no fluffBig plusesNon-traditional UAS experience (LTA, VTOL, tilt-rotor, helicopters)ArduPilot Lua scripting (or fast learner)Part 107 certifiedBoard-level hardware design experiencePrior founding or early-team engineer at a hardware startupExperience with reliability engineering for daily commercial operations, not only R&D demosGraduate-level aerospace education (MS/PhD) in controls, aerodynamics, or systemsWhy this is unusualYou'd be Buoyant's senior engineering authority at a small hardware company building something most people have never seen fly. Daily commercial operations in real wind for real customers. Novel-enough platform to be genuinely interesting. The tradeoff: small team, multiple hats, no political cover, no engineering management layer between you and the CTO. You make calls, they ship, they fly, and we all learn.LocationNew York office at NewLab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with regular travel to our LA facility and to SF for deployments.CompSenior leadership band — base + meaningful equity. Open to discussion on structure.How to applyEmail jobs@buoyant.aero with a few lines on what you've shipped and a CV or LinkedIn. We move fast.