Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
Flight Controls Engineer Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective flight controls engineer job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included flight controls engineer job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Flight Controls Engineer Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Flight Controls Engineer
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: FAA, RTCA, DO-254, DO-178, DO-160, SAE, AWM, TCCA, ARP4761, ARP4754
Education for Flight Controls Engineer
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the flight controls engineer job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Engineering, Science, Physics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Education, Computer Engineering
Skills for Flight Controls Engineer
Desired skills for flight controls engineer include:
Desired experience for flight controls engineer includes:
Flight Controls Engineer Examples
Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
- Perform hardware/software integration & testing on flight simulator devices, including subjective pilot acceptance testing
- Work closely with engineers of varying disciplines and aircraft Subject Matter Experts to meet flight simulator regulatory and customer training requirements
- Create, maintain, and conduct aircraft flight control data collection plans
- Provide engineering staff with recommendations for software/hardware enhancements
- Assist in customer acceptance and regulatory qualifications of flight training devices
- Keep current on future technologies and products to determine where and how
- Analyze navigation system performance in simulation, laboratory and flight testing, and resolve navigation system anomalies observed in simulation, lab, van and flight test
- Perform sensor trade studies and sensor selection, implementation of INS aiding and alignment methods, defining requirements and interface description, hardware characterization and testing, development of navigation algorithms and software, and characterization of navigation sensors for simulation models incorporating dynamics and environmental effects
- Actively lead full lifecycle projects to (1) analyze and translate requirements into system architecture, hardware and software designs and interface specifications
- Participate in full lifecycle projects to develop functional and interface requirements
- For Eng II labor grade, requires minimum 2+ years experience in subject matter technical areas
- Familiarity with commercial and military qualification and certification of aircraft systems is preferred
- Bachelor’s degree required in Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or Computer Science
- At least 4 years specific Embedded Software Design and Test experience in a professional Engineering role – additional experience is preferred
- Experience with DO-178 Level A software or other embedded software development and testing is required
- Familiarity with RTCA DO-178, RTCA DO-254, SAE ARP4754A, SAE ARP4761, 14 CFR Part 27 and Part 29 for commercial and military qualification and certification of aircraft systems
Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
- Working closely with suppliers to ensure requirements implemented in software meet system requirements
- Analyzing higher level requirements and defining impact to design requirements
- Revising and executing detail test procedures using simulation tools and system components
- Investigating and resolving functional non-compliance/anomalies in the lab and on airplane
- Implementing design changes for problem resolution and product improvements
- Collaborating with stakeholders and the airplane maintenance organization, ensuring timely development of maintenance documents
- Supporting flight test and airplane production
- Development of an integrated FCS’s systems architecture, redundancy management, electronic hardware design and integration, and actuator design and integration
- Requirements capture and review
- Analog and digital schematic design and oversight of circuit card layouts
- Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, Computer Science, Aerospace, or Mechanical Engineering will be considered
- At least 4 years experience directly related to the responsibilities of this position
- Experience with flight controls, software, avionics, or electrical systems integration, development, and testing
- For Eng II labor grade, requires minimum 2+ years experience in subject matter technical area
- Experience on multiple engineering projects with flight controls, software, avionics, or electrical systems integration, development, and testing is required - with DO-178 Level A software or other embedded software development and testing
- Bachelor of Science Degree in Software, Systems or Aerospace Engineering
Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
- Oversight of DO-160 (or similar) EMI and environmental testing
- Verification of requirements
- Creation of certification artifacts
- Perform limited project engineering tasks such as providing project status to engineering management
- Contribute to the engineering estimates for moderate to large scope electrical designs
- Individual job duties may vary
- Serve as the primary engineering focal point to the OEM customers and LCVSM’s point of contact for product development
- Generate program bids and estimates for new change request to existing products
- Mentor other engineers in the requirements development process, safety aspects of commercial aircraft fly-by-wire systems, and systems engineering processes
- Creation and validation of design requirements then decomposing requirements into an integrated verification plan for compliance / certification
- Basic knowledge of ARP4754A and working knowledge of ARP4761
- Experience with Configuration Management tools (such as DOORS, Subversion)
- Knowledge on how to prepare and present technical information to peers, to all levels of internal management, and to external customers
- Knowledge on how to coordinate several projects and complex engineering activities while balancing priorities and schedules
- Engaging in effective time management, working with a great deal of independence
- Experience developing or modifying Matlab, SIMULINK and C
Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
- Support the review of production planning and procedures to ensure compliance with design requirements
- Contribute to the creation of test plans in order to verify design intent, requirements and functionality
- Should be capable of interpreting engineering schematics to drive detail designs
- Should be capable of amending engineering definition of aircraft system architectures based on records from a prototype program
- Software design, requirements management, systems specifications, interface management, system safety assessment, verification and validation testing in desktop simulation environment and systems integration labs, aircraft flight test, and aircraft/system qualification and certification
- Participation in development of subsystems architecture, redundancy management, electronic hardware design and integration, and actuator design and integration
- Development of air vehicle flight control laws, actuation controls, device controllers and other aircraft control logic implementations
- Analysis of in-service and production problems, determination of root causes for problems, developing design requirements changes and additions to address those causes, and processing those changes through the necessary analyses and coordination to implement and validate the revised requirements
- Working with airplane programs and customers to put effective solutions in place
- Current projects include participation in oversight for a supplier design update to the 737 Spoiler Control Electronics software for a new derivative of that airplane and implementation of integrated throttle control assembly in the 737 cockpit
- GPS and GPS augmentation methods
- Experience using GPS both as a navigation aiding source and standalone
- Experience in the ways in which GPS can be compromised, degraded or jammed, and mitigation methods for these cases
- Experience in development of modeling and simulation tools, especially Covariance Analysis and Monte Carlo simulation
- Experience working as part of a GNC team and understanding of the role navigation plays
- A Professional Engineering License, original work(s) published in professional engineering journals, invited to present original works to an engineering symposium, and invited and/or participated on an engineering review panel are desirable
Flight Controls Engineer Job Description
- Understanding basic airplane input signal processing, redundancy management, system monitoring and control
- Working with a variety of airplane analog sensors (LVDTs, pressure sensors, proximity sensors)
- Leadership of small cross-functional team
- Design ownership as Lead Systems Engineer for projects of moderate to high complexity
- Understanding and promoting requirements capture and review
- Extensive experience with analog and digital schematic design and oversight of circuit card layouts
- Optimization for production efficiency and Design to Cost
- Lead proposals and engineering estimates for moderate to large scope electrical designs
- Managing cost and schedule of assigned tasks
- Reporting cost and schedule to program leadership
- Experience in navigation design and performance analysis related to aerospace vehicles
- Previous work experience with companies and organizations in a professional engineering capacity
- Bachelor's Degree with at least 4 years experience with Flight Controls Hardware Integration on military fighter aircraft
- Strong organizational skills – ability to oversee multiple tasks simultaneously
- Exposure to validation and verification of system and software requirements is preferred
- Exposure to development of test cases and associated test procedures for fly-by-wire flight control system functions is preferred