Test Data Engineer

Merlin Labs•Boston, MA

8d•Onsite

About The Position

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges. About you: You will be the primary interface between our internal data customers and various vendors (e.g., Marpin Labs, Epsilon3), ensuring the external products can be used by Merlin engineers by any combination of training Merlin employees or helping to develop external services to suit company needs. This mission-critical role combines engineering process leadership, systems-engineering, technical domain experience, understanding test data workflows, and configuration control and change management.

Requirements

Bachelor degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or related technical discipline.
5+ years of experience in aerospace, aviation, defense, transportation, or other complex engineering environments.
Experience with engineering systems, test operations, telemetry systems, data platforms, or digital engineering initiatives.
Experience with FTI management, telemetry systems, aero integration and test operations.
Experience managing enterprise software implementations and deployments.
Experience working across multiple technical disciplines and organizational levels.
Technical Knowledge Data acquisition systems typical of aircraft
Telemetry systems
Instrumentation systems
Engineering data management
Systems engineering
Configuration management
Data analytics platforms
Cloud-based engineering systems
Digital engineering frameworks

Nice To Haves

Authoritative voice on test engineering information systems and data management.
Understand both the technical details of test operations and information systems, as well as the organizational challenges of enterprise transformation.
Can discuss avionics and telemetry architecture with engineers, data platform strategy with executives, and operational / security details with IT administrators.
Vision to establish (CloudTS and Epsilon3.io) test data platforms as strategic enterprise capability rather than a low-priority software application maintenance side-project.

Responsibilities

Own Merlin's Test Data Platform Strategy
Own the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle for Merlin's engineering test data platforms.
Drive adoption of scalable data platforms supporting laboratory, simulation, ground test, and flight test activities.
Establish platform standards, governance, and best practices across Engineering.
Manage strategic vendor relationships, roadmap alignment, and platform performance.
Evaluate emerging technologies and lead continuous platform improvement and deployment.
Ensure vendor solutions meet Merlin's technical, operational, and long-term business requirements.
Drive Engineering Data Strategy
Define the long-term vision for engineering test data management across Merlin.
Standardize data workflows, governance, and engineering processes across programs.
Lead the transition from legacy workflows to modern digital engineering platforms.
Advise executive leadership on investments, capabilities, and future data strategy.
Identify opportunities to improve engineering efficiency through automation and data-driven decision making.
Partner Across Engineering
Serve as the primary partner to Systems Engineering, Flight Test, Instrumentation, Software, and Program Management teams.
Gather and prioritize platform requirements while balancing competing stakeholder needs.
Drive integration between engineering platforms and enterprise systems.
Ensure platform security, availability, access controls, and operational excellence.
Establish Enterprise Data Standards
Define enterprise standards for telemetry, instrumentation, metadata, data quality, retention, permissions, and knowledge management.
Ensure traceability, consistency, and data integrity across all engineering and test programs.
Enable cross-program data reuse and scalable collaboration.
Advance Analytics & Digital Engineering
Champion analytics, reporting, AI/ML, and digital engineering capabilities across the organization.
Develop common metrics, dashboards, and automated data processing pipelines.
Enable reusable analysis workflows that accelerate engineering insight and decision making.