Autonomy Lead

🏢 Skyways · 📍 Austin, TX · 💼 onsite · ⏰ Full-time

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Position Summary & Responsibilities

Skyways designs, builds, and operates fully autonomous long-range cargo aircraft. Founded in 2017, the company has spent the last eight years 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 operate across three continents in controlled national airspace under FAA oversight and in support of U.S. military operations. We are transitioning from prototype development to full-rate production and scaling toward large autonomous cargo fleets.

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

This role owns how autonomy works in real-world flight, and it owns the small team that builds it.

You will define how perception, state estimation, planning, and flight behaviors come together into a system that actually completes missions reliably. This is not about building isolated components. It is about making the full stack work under real constraints, and about leading a team of autonomy engineers to do the same.

You will shape how our ML systems improve with real-world data and ensure they perform outside of ideal conditions. You will lead technical direction for autonomy while remaining deeply hands-on in architecture, implementation, testing, and flight debugging. Your work directly impacts mission success, aircraft reliability, and operational deployment at fleet scale.

We are looking for someone who has already built and deployed autonomy systems on real-world robotic or UAV platforms, and who wants to grow a team while staying close to the code.

🎯 Candidate Preparation Guide For Skyways Applicants

Key Role Competencies & Evaluation Highlights

Key Role Focus:

Evaluates aerospace safety standards, autonomous systems engineering, and the rigorous discipline required to scale unmanned aviation hardware and software.

📋 Preparation Priorities (Key Areas to Clarify):

1. Dismissive attitude toward flight safety protocols, redundancy checks, or regulatory compliance.
2. Lack of structured failure analysis methodology when hardware or software tests go wrong.
3. Working in silos without coordinating closely between aerodynamic, avionics, and software teams.

✨ Recommended Role Alignment Hook:

I engineer reliable, safety-certified autonomous aviation systems that bridge cutting-edge robotics with strict aerospace compliance.

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