Commercial Programs Lead

Metrea; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 145,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical plan options

HSA/FSA accounts

Dental and vision coverage

6% employer 401(k) match

Fully paid parental leave

Generous PTO

Life and disability insurance

Long-term and Short-term disability

AD&D Coverage

Pet Insurance

Employee Assistance Program

Subsidized gym membership

Job summary

Metrea is seeking a Commercial Operations Lead to head the external-facing business for STC and ODA programs. You will own the commercial lifecycle from opportunity through contract, pricing, and revenue forecasting, and align customer commitments with ASD engineering capacity.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in aviation/aerospace commercial operations, a Bachelor's in Aviation Management or related field, and excellent communication, collaboration, and judgment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management, Business Administration or a related field.
• 8+ years in aviation/aerospace commercial operations, business development, program management, or related customer-facing leadership roles.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative, multi-function environment.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary business interface for external customers engaging STC development, ODA services, parts purchases, and STC license agreements.
• Own the full commercial lifecycle from opportunity qualification, proposal development, contracting, pricing, to revenue forecasting.
• Develop and maintain strong customer relationships with clear scoping, expectations, deliverables, and terms.
• Structure customer agreements for new programs and ensure alignment with internal capacity and schedules.
• Oversee commercial aspects of external STC programs under ODA and monitor performance, risk, and reporting.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Organizational skills

Emotional intelligence

Fast-paced environment

Cross-functional collaboration

Results oriented

Verbal and written communication

English language

Judgment and maturity

Autonomous leadership

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management or related

Job description

Company Overview

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Company Overview

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Our operating model is built around three interlocking pillars. The Support Groups provide a global shared-service – spanning people, finance, platform, operations, legal, and engagement. This frees up our Core Groups, who develop and own mission capabilities end-to-end, to focus entirely on delivery. The Market Groups apply a regional lens, ensuring that our agile and adaptable capabilities remain aligned to the wicked problems that matter most to our partners across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

At the heart of our model is a simple but powerful idea: be a true partner with skin in the game. Our partners need effects, not just equipment. By owning the full stack – from the lab to the field – we are able to drive a continuous cycle of innovation that keeps our partners ahead. It's a fast-moving, intellectually demanding environment where talented people are given real responsibility, work on problems that matter, and contribute to an enterprise that is growing quickly and deliberately.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, with facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Group Overview

Aerospace Engineering Group (AERO) provides an integrated, end-to-end capability for the rapid modification and fielding of mission-specific aircraft. The Airborne Asset Adaptation (A3) Cell acts as the central command and coordination hub, managing requirements and external interfaces from inception to operational delivery. Specialized technical execution is delivered by the Aircraft Integration Centre (AIC), a Part 145 facility focused on airframe modification, and Aerospace Design (ASD), which provides organic design engineering and FAA-authorized certification. Collectively, these elements bridge the gap between initial requirements and the deployment of flight-certified, mission-ready assets.

Position Summary

The Commercial Operations Lead is responsible for all external-facing business activities supporting ASD and aligned with Metrea’s overall strategic vision, including STC program commercial management, ODA customer coordination, aircraft parts sales, and STC license agreements. This individual owns the commercial lifecycle from opportunity through contract execution, ensuring alignment between customer commitments and internal engineering and certification capacity. This role builds scalable commercial processes, drives revenue growth, and serves as the primary commercial interface for external aviation customers. This role supports ODA customer coordination but does not hold delegated authority or perform ODA-approved functions. This role works closely with ASD engineering, certification, and ODA leadership to ensure commercial commitments align with technical and regulatory realities.

The Aerospace Design Capability Area offers comprehensive design, engineering and certification solutions to external customers. ASD holds Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) from the FAA that enables the organization to process engineering approvals on a streamlined, expedited basis. These solutions include STC certification projects for business jet operators, equipment manufacturers, MROs, and special missions customers.

The equipment being certified includes flight and navigational displays, aircraft power systems, connectivity solutions, flight management systems, and engine instrumentation upgrades. ASD manages a portfolio of over 80 STCs across multiple aircraft platforms and has completed certifications with agencies worldwide. ASD has the capacity to manage numerous concurrent ODA STC development efforts. ASD also provides STC licensing, PMA fabrication work, R&D development, and subsequent certification of instruments and equipment to address obsolescence and supply chain issues.

What You'll Do

External Customer & Commercial Leadership

• Serve as the primary business interface for external customers engaging the company for STC development, ODA services, parts purchases, and STC license agreements
• Establish commercial strategy strongly aligned with Metrea’s strategic vision and own the full commercial lifecycle for external programs — opportunity qualification, proposal development, contracting, pricing, and revenue forecasting
• Develop and maintain strong customer relationships, ensuring clarity of scope, expectations, deliverables, and commercial terms throughout each engagement
• Structure customer agreements for new programs
  
  

STC & ODA Customer Program Business Management

• Oversee the commercial aspects of external STC programs supported under the company’s ODA, ensuring alignment between customer commitments and internal certification capacity
• Partner with ASD engineering and certification leadership to ensure customer program schedules, deliverables, and resource plans are commercially viable and aligned with internal capacity
• Monitor program performance, cost, schedule, and risk from a business perspective
• Ensure customer-facing status reports are accurate, timely, and consistent with program realities
  
  

Parts Sales & STC License Management

• Lead commercial operations for aircraft parts sales, including pricing strategy, quoting, order management, and customer support
• Manage the commercial process for STC license sales, including license agreements and royalty structures
• Develop and maintain a structured catalog of parts, STCs, and licensing offerings with clear pricing and lead times
  
  

Business Operations

• Maintain business processes for developing proposals, reporting status, and transmitting invoices related to external commercial activities
• Develop annual commercial operating plans, revenue targets, and external business growth strategies
• Manage reporting dashboards for commercial activities
• Oversee commercial project pipeline and financial projections
• Identify new external business opportunities aligned with the company’s ODA capabilities, STC portfolio, and parts manufacturing capability
• Ensure commercial operations comply with ODA procedures, FAA regulations, export controls, and internal quality systems
  
  

What You Bring

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management, Business Administration or a related field
  
  

Experience

• 8+ years of experience in aviation/aerospace commercial operations, business development, program management, or related customer-facing leadership roles
  
  

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong organizational skills and discipline, with strong attention to detail
• Demonstrated intellectual humility, high levels of emotional intelligence, and an innate ability to challenge one's own thinking and adjust to others
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
• Demonstrate success working in a highly collaborative multi-function environment
• Must be results-oriented and demonstrate flexibility in dealing with changing and ambiguous situations
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships with staff
• Must possess excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Highly developed sense of judgment and maturity
• Demonstrated ability to operate autonomously and lead cross-functional initiatives
• Must have good command of the English language, oral and written
  
  

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical plan options
• HSA/FSA accounts
• Dental and vision coverage
• 6% employer 401(k) match
• Fully paid parental leave for all new parents
• Generous PTO
• Life and disability insurance
• Long-term and Short-term disability coverage
• AD&D Coverage
• Pet Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Subsidized gym membership / plans throughWellhub
  
  

Work Authorization / Security Clearance

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

AAP/EEO Statement

This Companyis an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race,color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteranstatusor other characteristics protected by law.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time exempt position with typical working hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Hours and work shifts may changein accordance withdepartment and business needs.

Work Environment

This joboperatesin an office setting

Travel

Travel is required at times and may be approximately 20%.Domestic travel; occasional international travel possible

Base Pay RangeThe compensation range shown below is a good faith estimate and reflects the expected base pay for this position upon hire. This is just one component of Metrea's overall approach to total rewards and final compensation decisions, including the ultimate salary or hourly rate agreed upon, may vary depending on factors such as job location, job-specific knowledge, skills, experience, and the overall negotiated compensation package. Eligible full-time employees also receive a comprehensive benefits package designed to support their health, wellbeing, and long-term success.

Pay Range: $145,000 USD - $160,000 USD

Our Firmware

At Metrea, our single core value is Rooted in Humility, and our four cornerstone attributes are Entrepreneurial, Systematic, Discerning, and Over-Deliver. These form what we call our Teammate Firmware. Just like technical firmware connects software and hardware, our Firmware is the constant interface between our mission and our people. It defines how we show up, how we work together, and how we solve complex problems.

Our team Firmware creates a web-like, hyper-collaborative, dynamically hierarchical way of working that helps us adapt quickly, communicate openly, and distribute decision-making to where expertise actually lives. It enables groups to self-organize around hard problems, shift fluidly as priorities evolve, and operate with the trust, curiosity, and discipline required in a complex mission space. This foundation allows us to deliver elegant, effective solutions and uphold our purpose: protecting our precious inheritance.