Maintenance Controller

Dawn Aerospace; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Dawn Aerospace is seeking a Maintenance Controller to lead the maintenance systems, procedures, and staff authorisation framework for the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane. This leadership role sits within Flight Operations, coordinating maintenance planning, execution, documentation, and control in line with regulatory requirements and company standards.

You will drive the development and implementation of the maintenance programme, working with design engineers, and ensuring staff training and

Qualifications

• Strong leadership and ownership in maintenance operations.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills to coordinate across teams and with stakeholders.
• Experience with R&D and/or flight test environments is preferred.
• Prior experience with CAA Part 102 or equivalent uncrewed aircraft maintenance standards.

Responsibilities

• Oversee maintenance of the Mk-II, scheduled and unscheduled, ensuring defects are investigated and rectified before flight release.
• Develop, enforce, and monitor maintenance standards and programme
• Coordinate ground operation activities during flight testing and maintenance tasks.
• Provide on-the-job training to maintenance staff and issue authorisations.
• Ensure records and tooling are maintained and that staff are trained, authorised, and competent.

Skills

Leadership

Organisational skills

Communication skills

Problem solving

Regulatory awareness

Stakeholder engagement

Flight test experience

Aerospace maintenance

Job description

At Dawn Aerospace, we are building the Mk-II Aurora, a reusable rocket-powered spaceplane designed to make access to space as routine as aviation. As we progress toward increasingly frequent flight operations, we are seeking a Maintenance Controller with leadership skills to establish, lead, and continuously improve the maintenance systems, procedures, and processes that will underpin safe, reliable, and scalable spaceplane operations.

This is a leadership role within the Flight Operations team, responsible for ensuring maintenance activities are planned, performed, documented, and controlled in accordance with approved procedures, regulatory requirements, and company standards.

Working at the intersection of flight test, engineering, maintenance, quality, and certification, you will lead the development and implementation of the spaceplane maintenance programme, maintenance procedures, and maintenance staff authorisation framework. You will ensure that all staff conducting maintenance activities are appropriately trained, authorised, and competent, while providing oversight of maintenance planning, execution, configuration control, defect management, and continuing airworthiness activities.

Reporting to the Flight Operations Team Lead, this role interfaces extensively across the spaceplane programme and the wider organisation. You will be heavily involved with coordinating ground operation activities during flight testing, through to playing a key role in shaping maintenance strategy as Dawn Aerospace transitions from the flight test programme toward routine, high-frequency reusable spaceflight operations.

Success in this role requires strong technical judgement, leadership capability, and a practical approach to problem solving. You will be comfortable developing systems and processes from first principles, making decisions in a dynamic operational environment, and providing clear technical leadership to maintenance personnel, engineers, and operators. You will be expected to drive a culture of accountability, professionalism, and continuous improvement while ensuring the aircraft remains safe, compliant, and ready to fly.

If you want a narrow, heavily structured role, this is probably not for you. We are looking for someone practical, organised, and capable of taking ownership in a fast-moving environment. You will be building the maintenance capability that supports an entirely new class of aerospace vehicle, helping define the standards, processes, and culture that enable routine, reusable spaceflight. If you are excited by the challenge of leading maintenance operations at the forefront of aerospace innovation, we'd love to hear from you.

What you'll do

Flight Operations

• Conduct, monitor progress and resolve issues relating to pre- and post-flight spaceplane activities, ensuring minimal disruption to operations.
• Coordinate the activities during all ground operations and movements, ensuring tasks are completed safely, effectively, and efficiently.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for ground operations.
• Assign tasks and duties to ground crew members according to priorities and skill sets.
• Ensure that the ground crew follow directions, follow all required checklists and provides updates on their progress.
• Report problems and escalates issues as necessary to flight crew, primarily Flight Director.
• Identify and recommend to the Flight Crew and Design Engineers on improvements to procedures, equipment, and human factors.
• Provide on-the-job training to crew members when and where required.
• Ensure ground crew are maintaining records relating to ground operations and work progress.
• Ensure all equipment and tools are available and in good working condition.

Maintenance Management

• Overseeing all maintenance of the Mk-II, either scheduled or unscheduled.
• Ensuring defects are investigated and rectified before the aircraft is released for flight.
• After maintenance on the aircraft, conducting a release to service.
• Developing, enforcing, and monitoring uncrewed aircraft maintenance standards.
• Implementation of the aircraft Maintenance Programme and ensuring maintenance is conducted in accordance with the procedures of the Maintenance Programme.
• Working closely with design engineers to establish the maintenance programme based on design data and other inputs.
• Ensuring the facilities, environment, and tooling are in a condition that
• Developing payload maintenance procedures alongside commercial customers.

Maintenance Training

• Develop training material for maintenance staff.
• Ensure maintenance staff are competent and trained.
• Issue maintenance staff authorisations
• Monitor quality of maintenance performed by maintenance staff.

What We're Looking For

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills and ability to coordinate resources across all teams
• Ability to uncrewed aircraft maintenance practices and standards for the spaceplane team.
• Practical mindset with the ability to improve processes while keeping day-to-day operations moving.
• Experience in an R&D and/or flight test environment is preferred.
• Strong interest in aerospace, flight test, and/or novel technology is highly beneficial.
• Prior experience with CAA Part 102 or equivalent uncrewed aircraft maintenance standards.
• Prior experience interacting with and engaging external stakeholders (aerodrome owners, regulators, contractors, customers, operators)

Diversity & Inclusion

At Dawn Aerospace, we believe that diverse teams build better solutions. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences are valued and supported to do their best work.

About Dawn Aerospace

Dawn Aerospace is a space transportation company with a purpose.

Our Mission Is To Enable The Next Generation Of Space Users By Providing More Sustainable And Scalable Ways To Access And Move Around In Space. We Believe This Access, In The Form Of a Transportation Network, Will Fundamentally Change What’s Possible From Space. We Currently Focus On Three Areas Of Space Transportation

• In-space propulsion We're a leading supplier of turnkey green propulsion systems for various classes of satellites. Our systems utilise safe, accessible propellants and we have over 170 of these propulsion units on more than 40 operational satellites already. A further 200 units are in production.
• In-space servicing Coupled with our propulsion expertise, we are ensuring that our customers' satellites are refuellable. In the coming years, Dawn will offer a refueling service to enable life extension of customer satellites. This new market is aligned with our sustainability goal to ensue a clean and safe space for everyone!
• Spaceplane We are developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space.

Our international teams are distributed across four locations: the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.

Important!

If you think you have what it takes but are unsure that you check every box, we still want to hear from you.