Avionics Lead (2-week contract, NYC area, on-site)
at Buoyant Aero — Bringing back blimps
What the role involves
We’re looking for a hands-on RC aircraft builder/pilot to help us get a custom shaped blimp inflatable (LTA + tilt-rotor VTOL) flying outdoors.
This is a 2-4 week, full-time, on-site contract focused on real flight and simulation. You’ll be working directly on a non-standard aircraft with custom control mixing, thrust vectoring, and field testing.
What you’ll be doing
ArduPilot Plane on Pixhawk Cube Orange
Custom mixer logic, and programming (tilt rotors, nonstandard geometry)
Full avionics integration (GPS, telemetry, power, ESCs, servos)
Failsafes (RC/GPS/telemetry loss, etc.)
Hands-on wiring (crimping, soldering, looms)
Managing physics simulations to tune with hardware in the loop
Outdoor flight testing + piloting
You should have
Built, wired, programmed, and flown your own RC aircraft
Strong ArduPilot / Pixhawk experience
Experience with unusual configs (VTOL, vectored thrust, etc.)
Comfort debugging hardware + control issues in the field
To apply
Send links/photos of 3+ aircraft you’ve personally built and flown
What they ask for
About Buoyant Aero
Buoyant Aero builds zero-emissions autonomous drone blimps to break free from existing advertising paradigms and reach new audiences in new places. Whether it’s on the beach, outside the convention center, or through the window of your target executive’s office, Buoyant’s blimps amplify your message to create measurable brand benefits.
Full Buoyant Aero profile