Reliability Engineering Lead

Pyka is looking for a Reliability Engineer Lead to join our growing engineering team. You will have the opportunity to develop our reliability program and team from the ground up. In this role you will play a critical role in forming the reliability standards and the test infrastructure needed to support our expanding fleet of autonomous aircraft. You will contribute your reliability expertise to all phases of the project from functional requirement creation and conceptual design to flight testing and certification of the production aircraft. This role will report to the CEO. Your work will be instrumental in Pyka’s growth.

Some of the ways you will contribute in your first weeks include:

• Lead our bi-weekly reliability and bug tracking meeting
• Develop infrastructure for accelerated life testing of our custom agricultural spray system
• Analyze existing reliability data to pinpoint high failure components and generate mitigation strategies
• Refine the environmental conditions that we use to test mechanical and electrical subsystems based on operating locations across the globe
  

Responsibilities

• Develop and own company wide reliability tracking metrics (failure rate, MTBF, MTTR, etc.)
  
  
• Define environmental, durability, and reliability objectives to drive system and component design
  
  
• Develop and own test infrastructure for in-house environmental, accelerated life, and stress testing
  
  
• Develop and execute on test plans to verify system requirements
  
  
• Standardize and present best practices with regards to reliability and environmental considerations
  
  
• Participate in design reviews and perform DFMEA on mechanical and electrical subsystems
  
  
• Hire and manage a team of reliability engineers (two to three engineers in 2023, growing from there)
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Engineering background with experience in testing and analysis, ideally in an aerospace, automotive, industrial machinery, or related industry
  
  
• 5+ years of experience in a reliability focused role with knowledge of mechanical, electrical, environmental, and vibrational design considerations
  
  
• Intimate familiarity with physics of common failure modes associated with electric vehicles, aviation products, and products that use common low-rate manufacturing techniques (3D printed SLS parts, hand laid up composite parts, etc.)
  
  
• Experience designing test infrastructure and developing test cards
  
  
• Highly organized and skilled at creating clear, concise, and functional documentation
  
  
• Willingness to travel to test sites to gain understanding of the products use and operational environment  (<10% of time) 
  
  
• Passion for people management; prior experience is a plus, though not required
  
  
• Extreme thoroughness and attention to detail
  
  

Company Perks

• $160,000–$200,000 per year base salary + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
  Salary ranges are subject to change.
  
  
• Employer-sponsored health, dental and vision insurance, FSA with employer matching, and 401(k)
  
  
• Paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave
  
  
• Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks at the Oakland office
  
  

Export Control Requirements

This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls.  Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items. 

Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.

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We do not work with external recruiters; if you are an external recruiter, please do not reach out.