SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 145,000 - 257,000 / annual
Skydio, the leading US autonomous drone company, is seeking an Advanced / NPI Quality Engineer to own product quality end-to-end from concept through production ramp for a single product line. This role uniquely combines advanced quality engineering (design-phase prevention) with NPI (new product introduction) execution—the engineer who writes the DFMEA will be accountable when failure modes appear in production.
You will set quality targets (yield, DPMO, AFR), write quality plans, and classify the BOM by risk with PPAP levels. During design and EVT phases, you'll facilitate DFMEA to verified closure, contribute to design reviews and DFM, and run EVT build quality including first article inspection and failure analysis. In the process and DVT phases, you'll build linked PFMEA and control plans, complete MSA on key gauges, and review supplier PPAP submissions. During validation and PVT, you'll run capability studies and run-at-rate testing with production operators, approve internal PPAP, and establish SPC with real reaction plans. At launch, you'll design the safe-launch plan with exit criteria, run daily quality reviews, drive 8D on escapes, and monitor field AFR. Finally, you'll transfer complete record sets to sustaining quality and feed learnings back into FMEA libraries and supplier requirements.
Skydio's drones serve utility inspectors, first responders, soldiers in tactical scenarios, and enterprise customers. The company combines deep AI expertise, best-in-class hardware and software development, operational excellence, and customer obsession.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline, or equivalent experience
- 5+ years in quality engineering on physical products, including one product personally carried from design through mass production
- Hands-on DFMEA/PFMEA facilitation, control plans actually used on a production line, and MSA/gauge R&R/capability studies you can run yourself
- Working knowledge of PPAP and root cause methods (8D, 5-why, fault tree) with verified closure
- Equally comfortable on the factory floor and in design reviews
PREFERRED:
- Consumer electronics manufacturing experience (SMT, final assembly, RF test, cosmetic standards) and experience working through a CM/ODM
- Supplier quality (audits, sub-tier risk, PCN), IPC-A-610/J-STD-001/ESD S20.20, and reliability testing (HALT, AFR modeling)
- Data fluency in SPC/yield analysis (JMP, Minitab, Python, SQL) and ability to pull your own data from the MES
NICE TO HAVE:
- CQE or Six Sigma Black Belt; APQP under IATF 16949 or ISO 13485
- FCC/CE, UN 38.3, or IP ingress compliance exposure
- FAA Part 107 certification (strongly encouraged within first 60 days; required for certain positions)
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
