Director of Flight Operations - Altius

Area-I, an Anduril Company, is a  Metro-Atlanta  based company dedicated to the development of state-of-the-art unmanned aircraft systems designed for use by the United States Armed Forces. We specialize in the development of unmanned aircraft systems that eject from host platforms or modular launch systems. These platforms are designed to meet the specific needs of our customers, where we design, build, test, and ultimately deliver unique solutions to the customer. Area-I’s customers include the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and NASA.
We are seeking a senior level organization leader to coordinate all of our flight operations across a wide variety of objectives and locations. The Flight Operations Director owns short to mid-term (1-3 years) strategic development and execution, operational direction, career pathing, and vision for the department. Top level charter will be to provide consistent, flawless testing execution for all product and S&T programs. 

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Manage team of 30+ related to tech ops (air vehicle operators, launcher specialists, crew chiefs), flight test engineers, training, standardization, field operations, and deployment operations personnel
• Monitor and chart future demand for testing personnel across entire portfolio of programs
• Mature and execute internal training and ongoing certification for all flight team
• Manage and grow external customer facing training program development and execution
• Oversee process and content of all checklists used in flight testing or training
• Develop and maintain appropriate portfolio of test locations and optionality
• Coordinate management of facility and vehicle maintenance for all flight operations locations
• Handle all flight testing inventory as well as shipping/receiving of appropriate equipment
• Standardize all flight operations site- reps and status emails
• Standardize all critical incident processes and training
• Oversee all flight test planning, scheduling, TRR/FRR execution, and maintain library of flight test cards
• Track and report metrics on all flight testing operations and provide full cycle error/issue management
• Provide and supervise standardization activities to support all government regulations (Flight Safety and Standardization, etc.)
• This position will be part of the Anduril Atlanta leadership team and reports to executive management

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• BS or MS degree in aerospace or related field
• 10+ years of relevant aerospace flight testing to include field operations
• 10+ years of people management experience
• Outstanding leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated success in people management / development
• Strong process development and organizational skills
• Ability to manage competing time requirements
• Travel as required to remote sites
• Ability to obtain and maintain a US Top Secret Security clearance 

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience organizing and leading teams of 40+ employees
• Experience working on Military Applications
• Prior experience in drone development programs

Area-I is an equal-opportunity employer, and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. If you are someone passionate to work on problems that matter, we’d love to hear from you! #LI-TR1