Lead Reliability Engineer

Job description

Skyways designs, builds, and operates fully autonomous long range cargo aircraft. Founded in 2017, the company has spent nearly a decade developing and deploying autonomous logistics systems for real world operations. Our V2 aircraft carries 30 lbs up to 500 miles, and V3 has a maximum range of well over 1,000 miles, a maximum useful load of 100 lbs, and a maximum endurance of nearly 20 hours. Both use a hybrid electric architecture that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like a plane, enabling long range autonomous delivery without traditional runway infrastructure. Today, Skyways aircraft fly revenue missions for commercial customers across three continents. We are scaling full rate production and building toward large fleets of autonomous cargo aircraft. Backed by Y Combinator and a $37M AFWERX STRATFI award from the U.S. Air Force, Skyways is creating a new form of transportation to advance our civilization from Austin, Texas. **The Opportunity** Skyways is hiring a Lead Reliability Engineer to own the reliability of our V2 and V3 fleets. As we scale production, every aircraft we build has to fly more often, fail less, and come back to service faster. This person makes that happen. You will own reliability at Skyways through our Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) process. You will set the standard for how we investigate and close issues, and personally drive the hardest ones to a permanent fix. Most of your time, especially in your first six months, goes to hands on technical work: digging through flight data, troubleshooting aircraft, and building solutions across software, electrical, mechanical, and controls. You will work with everyone who touches the aircraft: engineers, technicians, flight crews, and leadership. When you find the answer, they will understand it and act on it. ### What You'll Do: - **Lead RCCA:** Own every fleet reliability issue from intake through root cause, corrective action, validation, and permanent closure. - **Follow the Scientific Method:** Form hypotheses, design tests to prove or disprove them, and let evidence decide the root cause. - **Solve the Hardest Problems Yourself:** Troubleshoot failures across avionics, propulsion, power, EMI, software, and flight controls, and build the fix when that is the fastest path. - **Find Problems Before They Fly:** Analyze flight logs, telemetry, manufacturing, and maintenance data to spot systemic failure modes and trends early. - **Track Fleet Health:** Own reliability metrics and reliability growth across V2 and V3, and make the numbers visible to the whole company. - **Close the Loop:** Feed what you learn into design, manufacturing, maintenance, and flight operations so each new aircraft is more reliable than the last. ### What You'll Bring: - Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline. - 10+ years of engineering experience, including 5+ years of hands on reliability engineering on UAV or aviation programs. 15+ years is preferred. - A clear record of measurably improving reliability on aircraft you worked on. - A strongly analytical mindset and a disciplined, evidence driven approach to root cause. - Experience leading RCCA or similar root cause and corrective action work on aircraft. - Hands on troubleshooting range across software, electrical, mechanical, and controls. - Deep command of methods like FMEA, fault tree analysis, 8D, and Weibull analysis. - Proficiency with Python or similar tools for data analysis. - Clear, direct communication with the whole organization: engineering, technicians, flight crews, and leadership. ### Bonus Points: - Experience with EMI and EMC investigation and mitigation. - Experience with ArduPilot, PX4, MAVLink, DroneCAN, or comparable flight control ecosystems. - Experience with hybrid electric propulsion, engines, batteries, or power systems.