FlightDataEngineer

The work

Every test generates far more data than anyone can read. Flight data engineers build the pipelines, tooling and analysis that get from raw channels to the one plot that settles the argument.

A typical day

• 01Build ingestion and processing pipelines for test data
• 02Write analysis tools engineers actually use
• 03Validate data quality and flag bad channels
• 04Present findings to people who were not in the control room

How people get in

• Engineering or computing degree

  Broad entry, and one of the easiest fields to demonstrate with a portfolio.

How it unfolds

1. DegreeComputer science, engineering or physics, with a genuine interest in the domain.
2. Years 1-3Pipelines and tooling. Getting telemetry from a vehicle into something usable.
3. Years 4-8Owning the data platform an engineering organisation runs on.
4. LaterPlatform architect, or into analysis and decision support.

Is there a job in it

The hard parts

The data is messy in ways that are specific to the vehicle and nobody has documented. You will spend more time on ingestion and reconciliation than on anything interesting, and the value of the work is only visible when it is missing.

What you would need

• Python
• Signal processing
• Databases
• Visualisation