Opportunities at Our New Atlanta Office

January 22, 2019

Learn more about opportunities at our fast growing Avionics Software Verification and Validation office in Atlanta with team lead, Nate Fisher.

What originally drew you to Wisk?

For an aerospace nerd like me, joining the Wisk team was a simple decision. It wasn’t about the perks — which are great, by the way. What it boiled down to was getting an opportunity to be in the room.

We have the chance to bring the freedom of flight into our everyday lives and reclaim the millions of hours we all waste in traffic every day. How amazing would it be to avoid the morning commute on GA-400, Spaghetti Junction or the I-78/I-85 Connector with a short hop in the sky? And by having an electric battery and an electric motor, we can do it while helping lead the way to a clean, sustainable future.

Obviously, designing a self-flying air taxi is a complex challenge. At Wisk, we have a hybrid expertise of transportation, aerospace, manufacturing, software and a whole host of other fields. There is no playbook. There’s no path to follow for designing and certifying an aircraft of this nature. For me, that’s why coming to work every day is so exciting and inspiring.

Why is Wisk opening a new office? What specifically are you going to be doing there?

2018 was a big year for us: We unveiled Cora to the world, opened a new hangar in lovely New Zealand, reached over 700 test flights, and grew our family of Coras. We also just signed an agreement with Air New Zealand to collaborate on designing an air taxi experience that rivals the best airlines in the world.

This year, we’re embarking on a new phase of progress. We want Wisk to eventually be a part of all our lives, so now we need to develop and execute the testing strategies to make certain Cora is the best aircraft it can be. That’s what we’re doing in Atlanta: Avionics Software Verification and Validation. We are inventing the strategies to test things like path planning, flight management and ground control stations. We are working with world-class regulatory bodies like New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority –- who maintains some of the highest certification standards in the world.

 

 

What do you look for when you’re hiring a team of engineers?

At our heart, Wisk is about a new approach to moving people around their lives. We take that responsibility seriously. Avionics industry experience is helpful, but we are also not a typical aerospace company and are more interested in people with the curiosity, energy and ambition to work on something challenging and new.

Like I mentioned earlier, we are testing path planning and flight management for a future where there are potentially thousands of self-flying aircraft all navigating the same airspace. This is uncharted and critical work that demands the utmost care, focus and ingenuity.

So why choose Atlanta?

We knew that we needed a place with a huge pool of software talent. ATL quickly came up as the only choice. It attracts developer talent from around the country, so we knew we’d have access to the best in the business. There’s already a built-in aerospace industry, so we knew we’d find great engineers with the perfect skill set.

Better yet, we are the only people in Atlanta doing this kind of work. So if you’re an engineer who wants to work on a civil aircraft certification project with the resources of a major aerospace firm and the vision of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest, Wisk is the first and last place to look. There is simply no precedent for what our Atlanta office is doing.

And our HR team does an amazing job of supporting us so we can focus on what matters. From world-class benefits to even helping pay for flight lessons, Wisk really cultivates a creative environment where you can do your best work.

So if you’re in Atlanta and bringing the freedom of flight to all our lives piques your interest, check out our careers page. We are expanding rapidly and there are a ton of exciting opportunities.