Senior Manager, Flight Operations

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Own the strategy, capacity, operating model, and continued development of PDW Flight Operations in support of production, research and development, qualification, regression, performance, demonstration, and…
• Lead, develop, and scale the Flight Operations organization through workforce planning, clear accountability, performance management, succession planning, and development of pilots, supervisors, and support personnel.
• Establish and govern flight-safety policy, operational-risk controls, emergency procedures, stop-work authority, and compliance with applicable FAA, FCC, range, export-control, customer, and company requirements.
• Develop and govern pilot qualification, aircraft-specific authorization, recurrent training, competency evaluation, and flight-currency programs, including authority to approve, restrict, or suspend operational…
• Direct flight-test planning, readiness reviews, prioritization, scheduling, and execution against approved test plans, procedures, test cards, configurations, and acceptance criteria.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Product Management, and Program Management to resolve readiness constraints, communicate operational risk, and convert flight results and anomalies into accountable…
• Ensure the operational fleet is maintained, configured, registered, tracked, and released for flight with complete maintenance, configuration, software, battery, and flight records.
• Manage flight facilities, airspace authorizations and waivers, range coordination, external service providers, field deployments, and other resources required to support PDW flight activities.

Job requirements

• 8+ years of progressive experience in UAS, aviation flight operations, flight testing, or a comparable aerospace operational environment, including production and developmental flight activities.
• 5+ years leading a flight-operations or flight-test organization, with demonstrated success developing leaders, scaling teams, managing budgets and resources, and improving operational performance
• Bachelor’s degree in aviation, engineering, business, safety, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
• FAA Remote Pilot Certificate with a small UAS rating.
• Demonstrated experience with FAA operating requirements, airspace authorizations, waivers, LAANC, Remote ID, and applicable FCC or range requirements.
• Demonstrated success establishing or managing flight-safety programs, operational-risk assessments, emergency-response procedures, incident investigations, and corrective actions.
• Ability to travel and support off-site operations, field deployments, and nonstandard flight schedules as operational needs require.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance.