Airbound jobs, judged for you, free

What they do

Airbound builds small autonomous delivery aircraft and flies them for clients. Its TRT aircraft takes off vertically and then flies on a blended wing body. It weighs about 1.5 kg and carries about 1 kg for about 40 km. Airbound designs, builds, and tests the aircraft in India. The missions range from rural healthcare to e-commerce.

What they value

• Start from fundamentals: ask what is physically possible.
• Count every gram, because weight sets the cost of a flight.
• Build from scratch when no solution exists.
• Decide with metrics, not gut instinct.
• Keep speed and ownership as the company grows.

Where they hire

All open roles are in India. Most are at the headquarters in Hoskote, Bangalore. Two flight operations roles are in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and pilots also work at client sites. The public policy role is in Bangalore or Delhi. Roles are in the office, with work on alternate Saturdays. Airbound offers relocation assistance.

Teams and roles

Most open roles are in hardware, flight operations, and the teams that support them. The board lists one full-stack software role.

• Hardware engineering: mechanical engineers at all levels and a mechanical intern, each strong in mechanism design or in composites and structures. There is also an engineer who designs test equipment, and one who writes test automation in Python.
• Flight systems: an avionics hardware engineer who owns the boards from architecture to volume manufacturing. A software engineering lead builds the ground control station and fleet dashboards with React and NestJS.
• Manufacturing: an engineer who takes production from prototype scale to a high-volume facility.
• Supply chain: a technical buyer who runs procurement and inventory, and a global supply manager who owns supplier selection and cost.
• Flight operations: UAV pilots who fly delivery missions and test flights under DGCA rules. Field operations assistants swap batteries, load payloads of 1 to 5 kg, and set up field sites. The assistant posting for Hoskote is open to women only.
• People: an HR and people operations lead, a talent acquisition manager, and an HR business partner. The last two are first hires in their functions.
• Marketing: a communication manager, a communication designer, and a content creator who shoots and edits video.
• Public policy: a manager who works with government and regulators on flight approvals, such as flights beyond visual line of sight.

Pilot postings state pay of 3 to 4.5 lakh rupees a year for freshers and 4.5 to 5.5 lakh for experienced pilots. Field assistants get a stipend of 18,000 to 22,000 rupees a month. The other postings state no pay.

What they look for

Airbound wants people who built real things with their own hands. The mechanical and manufacturing roles ask for a product taken through one full development lifecycle. The manufacturing role also asks for a part in the launch of a production facility. Many postings ask you to scope, plan, and run your own projects with little oversight. They also ask for clear communication with internal teams and outside vendors.

HR, supply chain, and marketing roles prefer experience in hardware, manufacturing, or aerospace companies. The HR roles ask for experience building processes from scratch.

Some roles are open to people early in a career. Pilot roles take freshers with an engineering degree. The intern role needs no professional experience, but it needs hands-on projects such as BAJA, FSAE, or a robotics team. Field assistants need no degree.

The mechanical engineer posting sets your level from your background and your interviews. The communication manager role needs a portfolio with the application. The postings do not describe the interview steps.