Airworthiness Engineer

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA seeks an Airworthiness Engineer to develop and author certification plans for developmental and production aircraft, supporting FAA/DoD processes and flight releases. You will collaborate across disciplines to translate requirements into airworthiness criteria and maintain plans throughout the product lifecycle.

The role emphasizes building relationships with DoD/FAA authorities, applying MIL-HDBK-516 standards, and guiding teams through certifications, COA

Qualifications

• Aerospace/aviation engineering degree is required.
• 8+ years airworthiness engineering experience.
• Experience with DoD/FAA airworthiness processes and MIL-HDBK-516.
• Experience with DoD/FAA authorities and COA processes.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret clearance.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and author Airworthiness certification and conformance plans.
• Support Flight Releases, Type Certification and airspace integration.
• Guide reviews across total system design and test processes.
• Translate customer requirements into airworthiness criteria and plans.
• Lead certification activities and risk assessments with DoD/FAA authorities.

Skills

Airworthiness

DoD FAA relations

MIL-HDBK-516

Manned/UAS aircraft

MATLAB

JIRA

DOORS

CATIA

3DX

Top Secret clearance

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's in Aerospace/Systems Eng

Master's (preferred)

Tools

MATLAB

JIRA

DOORS

MS Office

CATIA

3DX

Job description

• You will work as an Airworthiness Engineer to develop and author Airworthiness certification and conformance plans for developmental and production aircraft, supporting Flight Releases, Type Certification, tailored airworthiness, and FAA general use airspace integration.
• You and your team will perform technical airworthiness (AW) planning, tracking and verification support within a digital environment. This includes the development and negotiation of airworthiness bases of certification, means of compliance, and other certification activities. You will be responsible for cultivating total-system Airworthiness relationships between engineers and other technical authorities, including our customer partners.
• Airworthiness engineering duties include guiding technical reviews with your airworthiness engineers and engineering disciplines across the total system design, development and test processes.
• You are expected to perform functional and process analyses, requirements allocation and definition studies with program engineers and customer representatives. You will facilitate all interactions which translate customer requirements into criteria and derived requirements.
• You will ensure the logical and systematic realization of customer airworthiness certification objectives, to include the tailoring of traditional Airworthiness processes, and continuously evaluate and update Airworthiness plans with new realized solutions to meet program needs throughout the product lifecycle.
• Faced with numerous Airworthiness assessments you will proactively support and guide all design development towards Airworthiness compliance and support all processes leading to a successful issuance of a Military Flight Release (MFR). Subsequent to this you will actively solicit all engineering and systems data required to support iterative and on-going Airworthiness Boards, technical interchange meetings, and risk assessments.
• You will develop, author and maintain all Airworthiness activities in a digital environment which is interconnected with system requirements, program schedules, flight test point matrix, and also risk assessments. Using this digital infrastructure you will demonstrate the ability to perform statistical analysis or program performance and leverage your digital tools to provide input to the flight test program execution schedule.
• Faced with technical and execution challenges, you will be expected to develop creative solutions to unique problems. You will be biased for action — you are empowered to engage your team to solve and fix any problem you encounter.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• A bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering or aviation related engineering degree.
• 8+ years airworthiness engineering experience.
• Experience establishing and maintaining relationships with DoD and FAA airworthiness authorities.
• Experience with DoD Airworthiness Policy Directives, Instructions, and Airworthiness Bulletins
• Proven experience working DoD and FAA Airworthiness processes, including MIL-HDBK-516 series documents, throughout the life cycle of a developmental aircraft to achieve successful program completion.
• Experience developing and managing Airworthiness plans, tracking of Airworthiness criterions, and similar activities.
• Must have experience with manned or UAS developmental Military aircraft.
• Ability to develop and execute Airworthiness Certification process improvement initiatives.
• Must have strong communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, with emphasis on technical subjects.
• Strong computer and technical software experience (MATLAB, JIRA, DOORS, MS Office, CATIA, 3DX)
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Masters in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering or aviation related technical discipline
• 15+ years airworthiness engineering experience.
• Systems engineering and Airworthiness experience with large UAS airworthiness authorizations.
• Experience authoring and submitting FAA Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COA)
• Previously held a position as Airworthiness Engineering Lead or Airworthiness Engineer
• Airworthiness experience on a team that executed first flight on a manned or large UAS developmental aircraft.
• Experience working with the Department of Defense (DoD) as a contractor.