Hardware Test and Prototype Engineer

Hardware Test & Prototype Engineer

SiFly Aviation · Santa Clara, CA · Onsite · Full-time

At SiFly, we're building a new category of aircraft: vertical-takeoff, long-endurance drones that deliver helicopter-level performance at drone economics. After thousands of flight tests and years of engineering, our NDAA-compliant platform flies more than 2 hours in hover or 3 hours in forward flight on a single charge — matching the capability of traditional helicopters at a fraction of their cost and operational burden. We merge aerial robotics, perception, and onboard intelligence to cut complexity and minimize human intervention, and our unique approach to communications and networking unlocks remote operations from day one. It's an ambitious mission, and we're a small team that moves fast.

The role

We're building aircraft and ground infrastructure at the same time, and both need someone who turns concepts into working hardware and produces the evidence engineers use to improve them.

You'll design and assemble prototypes, modify hardware, build test fixtures, instrument systems, run tests, document failures, and keep test assets working and trustworthy. Some of the work will be well defined by drawings and procedures. When there are no drawings yet, you can look at problems and work out the best way to build or test something.

What you'll do

● Assemble, integrate, rework, and maintain prototypes and test articles — structures, mechanisms, motors, transmissions, sensors, PCBAs, harnesses, connectors, and seals.

● Fabricate and modify prototype components, brackets, fixtures, guards, and test equipment using shop tools and processes.

● Build, route, terminate, and troubleshoot wiring harnesses and electromechanical connections.

● Instrument test articles — load cells, force and torque sensors, thermocouples, displacement sensors, cameras, current sensors, and data acquisition.

● Build and maintain automated cycle testers, environmental setups, and abuse-test fixtures.

● Execute component, subsystem, and system-level tests to approved procedures and safety requirements — functional, lifetime, environmental, ingress, wear, misuse, obstruction, and fault-recovery.

● Monitor tests, identify abnormal behavior, stop testing when conditions are unsafe or invalid, and escalate promptly.

● Record test configuration, serial numbers, firmware versions, conditions, observations, and results accurately — and capture the photographs, video, measurements, and logs a failure investigation will need.

● Distinguish a product failure from a fixture, instrumentation, setup, software, or operator problem.

● Reproduce field failures in the lab and verify that corrective actions prevent recurrence.

● Give practical feedback when drawings, tolerances, fastener access, cable routing, or assembly sequences are unclear or hard to execute.

● Support engineering builds, design-validation builds, pilot production, and manufacturing troubleshooting — and prepare hardware, tools, and spares for work at remote test and deployment sites.

● Find, build, and share AI-assisted approaches to this work — test data reduction, procedure drafting, build documentation — and bring the team along with what works.

What we're looking for

● Hands-on electromechanical build experience: mechanisms, harnesses, sensors, fasteners, adhesives, torque tools, bearings, seals, and alignment.

● You read and work from engineering drawings, CAD views, BOMs, wiring diagrams, assembly instructions, and test procedures.

● Instrumentation and data acquisition: you can set up a measurement and trust the result.

● Shop fabrication capability for fixtures and brackets.

● Judgment. You can interpret an engineer's intent, identify the practical problem, and work out how to build or test something when the procedure doesn't cover it.

● Disciplined record-keeping — serial numbers, firmware versions, configuration, and conditions captured every time, without being chased.

● Safe and comfortable around heavy assemblies, powered mechanisms, and outdoor test environments.

● You use AI as a real tool, not a talking point. We want to hear one specific example of something you did with AI that surprised you — a workflow you rebuilt, a problem you came at sideways, an analysis that wouldn't have been worth doing by hand. We care less about which tools you use than about what you've changed about how you work. We're enthusiastic about the leverage and unforgiving about errors.

Nice to have

● UAV, robotics, industrial automation, or aerospace ground equipment background.

● Harness build and termination to a standard; field deployment and commissioning experience.

● You've trained other technicians.

Details

● Onsite in Santa Clara, CA.