Flight Test Lead - Clearance Eligible - Near Eglin AFB

Are you ready to take the helm in shaping the future of tactical mission autonomy, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with trailblazers who are turning cutting-edge dreams into tangible reality? As a vital member of the growing EpiSci team, your influence will be immediate and transformative as we propel towards a future where security and autonomy unite in unprecedented ways.
EpiSci isn't just another company; we're a rapidly ascending force of innovation, forging ahead with next-gen tactical mission autonomy technologies that span defense, aerospace, and commercial domains. At our core, we wield the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, autonomy algorithms, wireless communications, and digital signal processing to surmount the most formidable national security challenges. Our Tactical AI prowess is nothing short of extraordinary, offering robustness, dependability, and a rapid adaptability that thrives on the frontlines of emerging missions and obstacles. Picture developing AI aviators for cutting-edge aircraft like the F-22 and F-16, revolutionizing wireless tactical communication systems, and fueling the skies with swarms of autonomous UAVs supercharged by sensor fusion.
As an Flight Test Lead at EpiSci, your role is pivitol. You'll lead flight test efforts for tactical autonomy development​, author test plans, test cards, and test reports​, participate in weekly live flight test​, reduce and analyze flight test data​, and establish and refine evaluation metrics​.
We understand and cherish the richness that diverse perspectives and backgrounds bring to the table. At EpiSci, we wholeheartedly invite every exceptional individual, regardless of their journey, to join our ranks and become a driving force behind the secure and autonomous world of tomorrow. Your future at EpiSci awaits—ignite your potential and let's redefine what's possible, together.
Don't meet every single requirement? At EpiSci, we're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workforce, so if you're excited about this role but your previous experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway! You may be the perfect candidate for this or another role at EpiSci.

Responsibilities

• Lead flight test effort for tactical autonomy development​.
• Author test plans, test cards, and test reports​.
• Participate in weekly live flight test​.
• Reduce and analyze flight test data.
• Establish and refine evaluation metrics​.
• Leverage test results to support the development of autonomy software that enables unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that to perform tactical military missions using common autonomy loops:
• Autonomy loops such as: “Sense, Make Sense, Decide, Act (SMDA)”, “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA)” loops., “Perceive, Decide, Act’ (PDA)” loops.
• Sense: Environment sensing and modeling, computer vision, sensor processing, classification, anomaly detection.
• Make Sense: Environment mapping, data interpretation, 3D voxel grids, GeoGrids, WGS84, aerospace coordinate systems and reference frames (north east down (NED), Geocentri & Geodetic latitudes, Earth-centered-inertial (ECI), earth centered earth fixed (ECEF)), no fly zones, keep-in/keep-out zones. Sensor fusion and target tracking, etc. Find, fix, track, target (F2T2).
• Decide: State machines, behavior trees, optimization algorithms, constraint solving, classic algorithms (A*, RRT*, DFS, BFS, Branch & Bound, Random Forests), heuristics, optimization, Kalman filters, particle filters, etc. Artificial intelligence techniques such as deep reinforcement learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, neural networks, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, generic algorithms, Bayesian networks, fuzzy logic, etc.
• Act: Autonomous 2D & 3D UAS trajectory/motion planning, route planning, SLAM. Classical controls systems, optimal control systems, adaptive control systems, model predictive control systems, especially for integration of 3rd party UAS autopilots. Guidance, navigation, and controls (GNC)
• Collaborate with autonomy engineers on the implementation of software for autonomous UASs.
• Support the development of robotic autonomy software architectures that can be deployed on real systems to accomplish military missions (including publish/subscribe architectures).
• Support the development of robotic autonomy software in collaboration with autonomy engineers that supports full integration with aircraft autopilots, datalinks, sensors, PNT/GPS/INS, ground control stations, etc.
• Support live flight test of autonomy software on F16s, group 1-5 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
• Collaborate with 3rd party UAS vehicle vendors on the integration of EpiSci autonomy software onto OEM UAS hardware.
• Collaborate with domain experts and prior DoD warfighters (ex. DoD fighter pilots)