Drone Pilot – Reality Capture - Mission Critical

Alston Construction•Harlingen, TX

About The Position

The Drone Pilot plans, executes, and documents daily drone flights on a hyperscale data center project using Skydio autonomous drone platforms. Working within the Mission Critical division, the role captures progress imagery, site documentation, and reality-capture data to support project controls, scheduling, quality, safety, and owner reporting. The Drone Pilot manages the full flight-to-data workflow, ensuring scheduled missions are flown safely and in compliance with FAA regulations, and that captured data is processed, uploaded, organized, and delivered to the project team on time. The role requires a current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and experience with commercial drone operations, construction sites, and data management.

Requirements

Current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, with recurrent training maintained throughout employment.
High school diploma or equivalent.
At least 2 years of commercial drone operations experience.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams in a deadline-driven environment.

Nice To Haves

Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Surveying, Geomatics, Engineering, or a related field.
Experience on large commercial, industrial, or mission-critical construction sites.
Hands-on experience with Skydio drones, such as the Skydio X10 or Skydio Dock, and Skydio Cloud.
Familiarity with photogrammetry and reality-capture software such as DroneDeploy, Pix4D, or Autodesk ReCap.
Familiarity with construction management platforms such as Procore or Autodesk Construction Cloud.
Experience obtaining LAANC authorizations and working under FAA waivers, such as BVLOS or operations over people.

Responsibilities

Plan and execute daily drone flights using Skydio drones, including autonomous and scheduled missions, to capture site progress, aerial photography, video, and reality-capture data.
Ensure scheduled flights are completed each day, track completion against the flight plan, and promptly communicate and reschedule missed or weather-delayed missions.
Upload, process, and organize flight data daily to Skydio Cloud and designated project platforms, verifying data integrity, completeness, file naming, and folder structure.
Develop and maintain repeatable flight paths and capture locations to ensure progress imagery is consistent and comparable over the project’s duration.
Perform pre-flight and post-flight inspections, maintain detailed flight logs, and manage batteries, firmware updates, docking stations, and routine equipment maintenance.
Monitor weather, airspace, NOTAMs, and site conditions before each flight; obtain LAANC or other FAA airspace authorizations and waivers as required.
Coordinate flight activities with superintendents, the site safety team, crane operators, and other trades to avoid conflicts with lifts, overhead work, and people on the ground.
Follow owner and client site security, confidentiality, and imagery-handling requirements, and ensure sensitive areas are captured, stored, and shared only as authorized.
Provide progress imagery and data for schedule updates, earned value reporting, monthly owner reports, and progress meetings.
Assist the VDC/BIM team with photogrammetry, orthomosaics, point clouds, and as-built comparisons against design models as required.
Support quality control, safety, and site logistics teams with on-demand flights for inspections, incident documentation, stockpile and earthwork tracking, and roof and envelope reviews.
Maintain an organized flight-data archive and produce periodic flight activity and data-delivery reports for project leadership.