About Urban Sky

Urban Sky is a venture-backed aerospace startup on a mission to pioneer humanity’s routine, easy access to the stratosphere and the value locked within it. We design, build, operate, and sell stratospheric balloon systems. The data we collect supports a wide range of applications, from real-time wildfire monitoring to urban mapping. Our technology is also employed by government customers including the Department of War (DoW), NASA, and others. Urban Sky sends flight vehicles to the stratosphere on a weekly basis.

Our team consists of engineers, makers, developers, and doers who believe in the power of human potential when passion meets utility within a small, supportive team. At Urban Sky we strive to create a team culture grounded in candor, inclusion, respect and empowerment.

We aim to build the next chapter of stratospheric history in Denver and Texas and are seeking self-starting, open-minded, and hard-working team members.

Position Overview

Onsite / Full-time / Salary

The Flight Operations Technician is a field-based operational role responsible for the execution of Urban Sky's stratospheric balloon missions, from mission preparation and launch through tracking, recovery, and return of flight hardware.

Flight Operations is the final operational handoff of work performed across Urban Sky. Our team is responsible for translating that work into successful missions in the real world, often far from headquarters and without immediate support. Mission focus, sound field judgment, adaptability, personal accountability, and a strong drive toward mission success are fundamental to this role.

This is not a conventional 9-to-5 position. Flight Operations Technicians may travel extensively throughout the United States and internationally, deploy with limited notice, work consecutive days, weekends, and irregular schedules, and spend long days driving or operating in the field. Mission days of 12-16 hours can occur. Deployments may range from several days to several weeks.

We are looking for people who find that environment motivating rather than burdensome.

What You Will Do:

• Support the team wherever needed. Flight Operations is a small team. Successful operators take ownership beyond their individual assignment, communicate early, help teammates, and remain focused on the success of the overall mission.
• Own mission execution. Help plan, prepare, launch, track, recover, and close out stratospheric balloon missions with a strong sense of personal responsibility for mission success.
• Operate effectively in the field. Work independently and within a small team across remote, rural, austere, and unfamiliar environments where immediate organizational support may not always be available.
• Exercise independent field judgment. Continuously evaluate terrain, weather, roads, waterways, power lines, livestock, vehicle limitations, fatigue, public safety, and other changing conditions. Know when to continue, modify, relocate, delay, or discontinue an operation.
• Prepare beyond the checklist. Anticipate communications limitations, weather, vehicle and fuel requirements, food and water, equipment needs, access routes, recovery contingencies, and other logistical requirements before deployment.
• Launch and recover flight systems. Safely execute balloon and payload preparation, launch, chase, recovery, documentation, and return of flight hardware in accordance with procedures and mission-specific engineering direction.
• Solve problems with limited support. Develop the technical knowledge and operational judgment necessary to troubleshoot flight systems, vehicles, equipment, logistics, and changing mission conditions without depending on someone at headquarters to solve every problem.
• Operate vehicles extensively. Safely operate full-size and heavy-duty pickup trucks and other mission vehicles during long-distance deployments, off-highway access, launch operations, and balloon chase and recovery.
• Represent Urban Sky professionally. Interact appropriately with customers, military and government partners, law enforcement, landowners, and members of the public while protecting sensitive customer and company information.
• Communicate and document clearly. Maintain reliable communication during operations and accurately document mission activity, flight hardware, recovery conditions, anomalies, and field observations through written reports, photographs, video, and operational systems.
  
  

What You Will Do:

We will teach you Urban Sky's balloon systems and mission planning. We need you to arrive with the field experience, maturity, judgment, and mission-success mindset required to operate effectively from the start.

• Mission-first mindset. A genuine drive toward mission success and customer success, with the initiative and determination to help move a mission forward when plans change, conditions become difficult, or additional effort is required.
• Proven field experience. Meaningful experience operating in remote, rural, austere, expeditionary, military, wildland, backcountry, aviation, emergency-response, or similarly independent environments. Field acumen should already be part of what you bring to the team, not something you are learning for the first time.
• Strong situational awareness and judgment. Demonstrated ability to assess ambiguous or changing conditions, identify hazards, make sound decisions, and recognize when an original plan needs to change.
• Independent problem-solving. Ability to navigate unfamiliar environments, evaluate access routes and terrain, anticipate logistical requirements, develop contingencies, and solve problems without requiring constant direction.
• Team orientation. Ability to operate independently while contributing actively to a small, highly collaborative team where everyone is expected to pitch in beyond narrowly defined responsibilities.
• Operational resilience. Comfort with extensive travel, long driving days, irregular schedules, consecutive workdays, weekends, rapidly changing plans, and deployments lasting days to weeks.
• Fatigue and risk awareness. Ability to recognize and appropriately manage fatigue, stress, schedule pressure, weather, terrain, vehicle limitations, and other human and environmental factors that can degrade decision-making.
• Professional field presence. Ability to represent Urban Sky appropriately with customers, military and government partners, law enforcement, landowners, and the public.
• Valid driver's license with an insurable driving record and comfort operating full-size and heavy-duty pickup trucks for extended periods.
• Valid U.S. passport and comfort traveling and operating internationally.
• Basic first-aid competency and an understanding of operating where emergency response or organizational support may be delayed.
• Technical aptitude, basic hand and power-tool proficiency, computer literacy, attention to detail, and clear written and verbal communication.
• Ability to safely work outdoors for extended periods in varied terrain and weather and lift and handle mission equipment and compressed-gas cylinders up to approximately 50-80 pounds.

What Success Looks Like: Day 1 Through Day 90:

This role is designed for someone who arrives with substantial field experience already established. The first 90 days are about learning Urban Sky, not learning how to operate in the field.

Day One: Ready to Operate

From the beginning, we expect a new Flight Operations Technician to:

• Arrive with a positive yet humble, mission-first attitude and an immediate willingness to contribute.
• Bring established field acumen, situational awareness, self-sufficiency, and sound judgment to the team.
• Jump directly into the operational cadence of Flight Operations, including travel, long days, irregular schedules, changing plans, and field deployments.
• Be ready to deploy on missions and learn through both traditional onboarding and non-traditional onboarding conducted on the road, at launch sites, during recoveries, and alongside experienced operators in the field.
• Ask good questions, absorb information quickly, contribute where capable, and recognize when additional guidance is required.

By 30 Days: Operationally Proficient

At the 30-day mark, the ideal new hire should demonstrate:

• Strong familiarity with Urban Sky's balloon, payload, tracking, communication, and operational systems.
• Proficiency with standard mission preparation, launch, chase, recovery, documentation, and hardware return processes.
• Understanding of Flight Operations procedures, standards, communication practices, team expectations, and professional decorum.
• Increasing ability to anticipate mission requirements rather than waiting for individual tasks to be assigned.
• The ability to contribute meaningfully to missions with decreasing levels of direct supervision.

By 60 Days: Operating With Confidence

By approximately 60 days, the fundamentals of Urban Sky Flight Operations should be becoming second nature.

The ideal technician should:

• Execute routine mission preparation, launch, tracking, chase, recovery, and closeout responsibilities confidently and consistently.
• Navigate Urban Sky's systems, procedures, equipment, and operational expectations without requiring routine instruction.
• Demonstrate independent field judgment while knowing when conditions or decisions warrant escalation.
• Anticipate logistical and operational requirements ahead of the immediate task.
• Function as a dependable member of a deployed Flight Operations team who can be trusted to independently own significant portions of mission execution.

By 90 Days: Seeing the Entire Mission

By approximately 90 days, the ideal Flight Operations Technician should be looking beyond their individual assignment and beginning to understand the broader operational picture.

They should:

• Recognize how their work connects to Engineering, Manufacturing, customers, mission planning, logistics, regulatory requirements, and other operational stakeholders.
• Anticipate what the mission and the team will need next, not simply what needs to happen immediately.
• Identify operational gaps, emerging risks, inefficiencies, or opportunities and proactively contribute solutions.
• Step into work outside their immediate assignment when doing so helps the team or mission.
• Understand customer objectives and recognize how individual operational decisions affect overall mission success.
• Demonstrate the judgment, technical competence, initiative, and situational awareness expected of an increasingly autonomous Flight Operations operator.

Requirements:

• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Must be located near Denver, CO
• This position requires travel up to 100% of the time, including extended stays at remote field and launch sites, often on short notice and including weekends and holidays.
• Willingness and eagerness to work with the DoW
• Valid driver's license with an insurable driving record and comfort operating full-size and heavy-duty pickup trucks for extended periods.
• Valid U.S. passport and comfort traveling and operating internationally.
• Basic first-aid competency and an understanding of operating where emergency response or organizational support may be delayed.
• Technical aptitude, basic hand and power-tool proficiency, computer literacy, attention to detail, and clear written and verbal communication.
• Ability to safely work outdoors for extended periods in varied terrain and weather and lift and handle mission equipment and compressed-gas cylinders up to approximately 50-80 pounds.

Benefits:

• Stock Options
• Medical, Vision and Dental
• Unlimited / Flexible Vacation Policy
• Cell Phone Bill Stipend

Urban Sky is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.