UAS Pilot/Flight Test & Mission Operator

<p>CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. </p> <p>CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, and London. For more information, please visit <a href="https://www.chaosinc.com">www.chaosinc.com</a>.</p> <p><strong>Role Overview:</strong></p> <p>The UAS Pilot/Flight Test & Mission Operator is based in El Segundo, California, and supports the full lifecycle of unmanned aircraft operations at CHAOS — from development, verification, validation, and production acceptance testing through fielded customer missions, demonstrations, and operational deployments. This role suits someone who thrives in dynamic, hands-on environments, is equally comfortable in a structured test-range setting and an unpredictable field deployment, and can move fluidly between rigorous test-card execution and customer-facing mission support. The role requires the ability to fly Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 UAS platforms across a range of airframe types and propulsion systems — including fixed-wing, VTOL, multirotor, turbine, and electric ducted fan (EDF) aircraft, among others.</p> <p>Depending on qualification and assignment, the operator may serve as Remote Pilot in Command, Pilot at the Controls, Ground Control Station Operator, Visual Observer, Test Conductor, Payload/Sensor Operator, Range Safety Observer, Mission Coordinator, or Test Technician. You'll be embedded with customers and engineering teams alike, integrating CHAOS systems into existing infrastructure and ensuring reliability under real-world conditions.</p> <p>Beyond flying and mission support, this role carries direct ownership of the aircraft itself — building, maintaining, and repairing UAS airframes and subsystems, including composite structural repair, so platforms stay mission-ready in the field and at the range.</p> <p><strong>Responsibilities:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Review flight-test plans, test cards, mission objectives, engineering requirements, aircraft limitations, risk assessments, airspace/site conditions, and success, abort, and go/no-go criteria.</li> <li>Participate in test-readiness reviews, safety reviews, preflight briefings, post-mission debriefs, and lessons-learned activities.</li> <li>Coordinate with flight-test engineers, software and mechanical engineers, avionics personnel, maintainers, range personnel, program managers, and customer stakeholders.</li> <li>Prepare and inspect aircraft, payloads, batteries, propulsion components, ground control stations, communications equipment, and support systems; verify configuration against approved test or mission documentation.</li> <li>Perform preflight functional checks of flight controls, navigation, propulsion, power, command-and-control links, payloads, sensors, contingency modes, and data-acquisition systems.</li> <li>Operate across Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 UAS platforms as assigned — including fixed-wing, VTOL, multirotor, turbine, EDF, and other propulsion systems — adapting procedures, checklists, and risk controls to the size, weight, speed, and complexity of each class of aircraft.</li> <li>Execute test cards or mission plans within approved operating limitations, making clear callouts for aircraft state, test-point or mission status, hazards, anomalies, and abort conditions.</li> <li>Maintain situational awareness of aircraft position, airspeed, altitude, heading, telemetry, battery condition, airspace, personnel, obstacles, and environmental conditions throughout flight.</li> <li>Initiate hold, abort, contingency, or emergency actions whenever unexpected behavior, configuration discrepancies, or uncontrolled hazards occur.</li> <li>Operate electro-optical, infrared, mapping, or other mission and inspection payloads when qualified, and verify collected data meets test or mission requirements.</li> <li>Record test-point completion, mission results, operator observations, aircraft behavior, timing, and deviations from expected performance; preserve and annotate telemetry, video, flight logs, and instrumentation data.</li> <li>Prepare discrepancy reports, anomaly reports, test summaries, flight logs, maintenance notifications, and production-acceptance or mission-deliverable records.</li> <li>Support troubleshooting, fault isolation, regression testing, and hardware/software-in-the-loop testing, and provide operator feedback on handling qualities, human-machine interfaces, and procedures.</li> <li>Protect customer information and maintain data integrity during collection, transfer, storage, and delivery.</li> <li>Maintain accountability for aircraft, tools, batteries, spares, vehicles, and field-support equipment.</li> <li>Build, assemble, and configure UAS airframes and subsystems from component and kit-level parts, including structural, propulsion, avionics, and payload integration.</li> <li>Perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair of UAS airframes, propulsion systems, control surfaces, wiring harnesses, and payload mounts.</li> <li>Inspect, repair, and fabricate composite structures (carbon fiber, fiberglass, and sandwich-core panels) using lay-up, bonding, patch-repair, and