Drone Data Engineer

Cloudious•Houston, TX

About The Position

The Drone Data Execution Engineer will execute and optimize drone missions for inspection, surveillance, mapping, and monitoring use cases. This role involves ensuring the reliable collection of high-quality video, image, LiDAR, and telemetry data, and overseeing mission execution across multiple sites and operational environments. A key aspect of the role is designing and implementing integrations using Skydio APIs for mission planning automation, flight data retrieval, media ingestion, and telemetry/metadata extraction. The engineer will also integrate Skydio drone data with enterprise data platforms, asset management systems, GIS systems, and AI/ML analytics pipelines, managing authentication, access control, rate limits, and API lifecycle. Additionally, the role involves building and managing drone data ingestion pipelines (batch and near-realtime), normalizing and enriching drone datasets, and enabling downstream processing for computer vision models, defect detection, asset condition monitoring, and digital twin platforms. Collaboration with data science teams to operationalize AI models on drone data and integrating drone data with cloud platforms (Azure) are also core responsibilities.

Requirements

8-10 years of experience in drone systems, robotics, or aerial data platforms.
Strong hands-on experience with Skydio API integration.
Proficiency in Python (mandatory).
Experience with REST APIs, JSON, OAuth, and webhooks.
Strong understanding of drone telemetry, flight logs, sensor data (RGB, thermal, LiDAR).
Experience handling large-scale video and image datasets.
Familiarity with computer vision workflows and AI model integration.
Knowledge of GIS tools, spatial data formats, and mapping systems.
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Knowledge of object storage, streaming, and data pipelines.
Understanding of edge-to-cloud architectures.
Mandatory Skills: Skydio, IOT - PYTHON, O&G Upstream.

Nice To Haves

JavaScript/Java is a plus.
Oil & Gas domain experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

Execute and optimize drone missions for inspection, surveillance, mapping, and monitoring use cases.
Ensure reliable collection of high-quality video, image, LiDAR, and telemetry data.
Oversee mission execution across multiple sites and operational environments.
Design and implement integrations using Skydio APIs for mission planning automation, flight data retrieval, media ingestion, and telemetry/metadata extraction.
Integrate Skydio drone data with Enterprise data platforms, asset management systems, GIS systems, and AIML analytics pipelines.
Handle authentication, access control, rate limits, and API lifecycle management.
Build and manage drone data ingestion pipelines (batch, near-realtime).
Normalize and enrich drone datasets with spatial, temporal, and asset metadata.
Enable downstream processing for Computer vision models, defect detection, asset condition monitoring, and digital twin platforms.
Work closely with data science teams to operationalize AI models on drone data.
Integrate drone data with cloud platforms (Azure).