Senior Flight Physics Engineer

Location:

Farnborough Contract Type:
Full Time, Permanent

Hours:

37 – HybridAALTO, a global leader in Stratospace. Based in Farnborough, AALTO is an Airbus subsidiary that manufactures, operates, and delivers services with its solar-powered, stratospheric platform:
Zephyr.

Zephyr’s persistence enables continuous flight for months at a time. Its current flight-time record of over 67 days in the stratosphere. From above 60,000+ft, or 20km above ground, AALTO can deliver several applications including direct-to-device connectivity and high-resolution Earth observation.

AALTO operates in a new operational layer between most of air traffic and low-Earth orbit, Stratospace. This is where high-altitude platforms led by Zephyr deliver services to commercial and government partners. We can help monitor environments, observe borders, track natural disasters and connect unconnected communities.

Join us as we create a new domain of aerospace:
Stratospace. You’ll be part of a highly-skilled, innovative and passionate group of people – Team AALTO. Together, we can Unlock Stratospace.

About

The Role As a Senior Flight Physics Engineer, you will take a leading role in shaping the performance, stability, cont rollability and safe operation of the Zephyr HAPS platform. Working across aerodynamics, flight dynamics, flight control laws, flight loads and simulation, you will turn complex engineering challenges into robust, certifiable solutions that support the continued evolution of an innovative, high-altitude autonomous aircraft.

This is a senior opportunity for an experienced aerospace engineer who is confident operating at the interface of analysis, design, software, flight test and certification. You will support the development and validation of flight physics capability for Zephyr, with particular focus on stability and control, flight control systems, guidance, navigation and control, flight dynamics modelling and flight test evidence.

You will work closely with software, avionics, systems, test and wider engineering teams to define requirements, mature architectures, assess performance and support safe flight test progression. The role suits someone who enjoys technical ownership, thrives in a fast-moving environment and can bring both deep subject matter expertise and practical engineering judgement to a highly collaborative team.

Responsibilities to include:

As part of the Flight Physics team, you will be expected to provide senior-level technical contribution and practical engineering support across activities including:
· Lead the derivation, review and management of flight physics, flight control and system-level requirements, ensuring clear traceability from stakeholder needs through to verification evidence.
· Define, develop and refine flight control laws, automation algorithms and GNC architectures for autonomous high-altitude flight operations.
· Identify failure modes, assess handling qualities and develop robust contingency strategies that protect aircraft safety and mission continuity.
· Translate complex engineering intent into high-quality software and system requirements that are precise, testable and suitable for implementation by software and avionics teams.
· Manage interface and allocation requirements across onboard systems, ensuring flight physics assumptions and constraints are clearly understood across disciplines.
· Plan, support and analyse flight tests required for envelope expansion, stability and control validation, performance assessment and safe progression of test campaigns.
· Build, maintain and run flight dynamics simulation models, including MATLAB and Simulink-based analysis, to support design decisions, verification activity and flight test readiness.
· Analyse flight test telemetry and simulation outputs to identify trends, validate models, resolve anomalies and recommend practical engineering actions.
· Provide technical leadership within defined work packages, actively driving deliverables, managing technical risk and supporting delivery to agreed quality, cost and schedule targets.
· Collaborate with internal subject matter experts and wider engineering stakeholders, and support…