About Electra:

At Electra, we're pioneering sustainable aviation by developing hybrid-electric Ultra Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft designed to transform regional air mobility, by making air travel more efficient, quieter, and environmentally friendly. Able to operate from soccer field-sized spaces, our Ultra Short unlocks a new era of aviation through what we call Direct Aviation - the next level of connectivity bringing air travel closer to where we live, work, and play. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, with additional locations in Switzerland, we're building a diverse team of global professionals passionate about redefining the future of aviation.

Position Overview:

Electra is actively recruiting a Flight Physics Engineer to support the design, development and testing of our hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft.  As a startup company, Electra is at an early stage, so this position requires a versatile person who is not afraid to work hard and move fast. As the company will evolve and grow with time, so will this job.  

Key Responsibilities & Essential Functions:

• Analyze data from different sources; flight, wind tunnel, CFD.
• Design or support the design of various test or prototype systems.
• Carry out sensitivity studies to aircraft performance metrics.
• Support system integration, ground and flight test, and data analysis activities for the aircraft.  Utilize ground and flight test data to improve the fidelity of the simulation environment and aircraft control laws.
• Prepare and present at gated design reviews to demonstrate the adequacy of the designs and procedures.
• Assist with sourcing suppliers and providing technical inputs (mass, performance, risk) to the program team to support selection.
• Understand program objectives and requirements to conduct trade studies and define architectures, requirements, and interfaces between systems.
• Work collaboratively to gather and analyze data to drive multi-disciplinary design decisions.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace or a related field and
• 2+ years of experience in relevant discipline areas or an equivalent combination of education, skills, and experience

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Experience with MATLAB, Python or C.
• Knowledge of flight vehicle dynamics.
• Competent usage of VLM tools (i.e. xRotor, AVL, ...).
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work collaboratively within a startup environment.
• Ability to write and maintain clean documentation for your design process.
• Track record of working in a team through an aircraft development program.
• Strong program background, work ethic, and interdisciplinary/system thinking to independently meet and lead the areas described by the responsibilities and essential functions.

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• Master's or PhD degree in relevant engineering discipline strongly desired.
• Experience with flight test system identification.
• Familiarity with software development in Python or Matlab and using gitlab.
• Experience with the aircraft development process and familiarity with aircraft systems.
• US Person (Citizen or Green Card) Preferred

Location: Headquarters in Manassas, VA. To encourage close collaboration this position is 3-4 days in the office, with some virtual work allowed.

Travel: <25%

Salary: Electra's salary range for this position is: $90,000.00 - 130,000.00 Our salary ranges reflect the minimum and maximum range for the Company level overall across all locations & projects and does not necessarily reflect the budgeted amount for this position. Individual pay is based on additional factors, including project budgets, job-related skills, experience, relevant education and/or training, role, level, location, and project.