Senior Autonomous Drones Engineer

About HyLight

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HyLight’s mission is to help society become more resilient to climate change by improving the observation and inspection of infrastructure.

About HyLight

HyLight’s mission is to help society become more resilient to climate change by improving the observation and inspection of infrastructure.

We build HyLighters, airships that collect data across vast distances with zero emissions.

Our activities include:

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• Detecting methane leaks from gas infrastructures (4% of global GHG emissions)
  
• Inspecting power lines to prevent outages and wildfires
  

By 2030, we aim to become the global leader in aerial monitoring.

In just 3 years, we have pushed the realm of possibilities: as we have:

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• Developed 8 iterations of the HyLighter
  
• Logged over 300 flight hours
  
• Secured our first inspection contracts with Europe’s largest infrastructure operators
  
• Joined the world’s top startup accelerator, Y Combinator
  
• Raised €6 millions
  

HyLight is aiming for a diverse and included team, if your profile doesn't fit all the description but you can bring a diverse point of view, push it forward, it will be highly appreciated.

We’re well-funded and backed by top investors, providing the resources you wish you had when building your own business. We don’t care about traditional roles or titles—just that you’re smart, proactive, and bring the same founder-level ownership and drive to help us build something massive.

Job Summary:

This role encompasses all subjects related to the Guidance, Navigation, and Control of our autonomous airship, the HyLighter. GNC is paramount to guaranteeing the perfect execution of our flights. Your mission is to enable HyLight to operate pilotless airships in diverse conditions while proving their robustness to regulatory authorities. This is a high-responsibility position that will involve close collaboration with the entire Technical and Regulatory teams.

A Note from Amine (GNC Lead)

We have a massive challenge ahead of us: building from scratch the reliable control systems for a completely new type of aircraft, an airship. This role requires a rare balance. You need the analytical, mathematical, and scientific depth to develop complex control laws and implement them in code, alongside a natural intuition for flight dynamics and aerodynamics. At the same time, you must remain incredibly pragmatic, with the ability to be on the ground, testing rapidly, and debugging driver or electronic issues in the field.

The Mission:

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• Modeling & Control: Understand and model airship dynamics to design and implement control and guidance laws for mission execution.
  
• Robustness & Safety: Develop flight strategies for difficult conditions and design risk mitigation strategies for degraded modes.
  
• Hardware Integration: Debug embedded systems and implement flight computers, actuators, and various types of sensors.
  
• Testing & Documentation: Define and participate in flight tests and simulations, ensuring thorough documentation of implemented models and control laws.
  
• Future Innovation: Improve the performance of existing airships while actively participating in the design of future flight solutions.
  

Profile Sought:
Education:

Master’s degree or equivalent in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering (a PhD is a plus).

Experience:

At least +6 years of professional experience in GNC within the drone, aerospace, or automotive industries.

Heritage:

You have been part of a GNC or Flight Dynamics team that successfully brought a drone or aerospace product to market.

The following list of skills is exhaustive, while you may not perfectly fit with the profile, we highly value personal growth and development. We see our interns as potential future team leads at HyLight.

Technical Skills:

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• Systems Mastery: Strong experience in modeling and control with demonstrated mastery of Simulink and theoretical knowledge in dynamics and automation.
  
• Programming: Excellent skills in Python and C/C++, with experience in MATLAB/Simulink and autocoding practices.
  
• Embedded Software: Strong understanding of microcontrollers, actuators, drivers, and the implementation/verification of software on flight computers.
  
• Tools (Plus): Knowledge of PX4, MAVLINK, and QGroundControl (QGC) is a significant advantage.
  
• Data analysis, able to extract insights from flight data.
  

Soft Skills:

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• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Methodical but enterpris