Head of Safety and Airworthiness

KrateoSky; Denton (TX); On-site; USD 132,000 - 198,000; Full time

Job summary

KrateoSky is seeking a Head of Safety and Airworthiness to lead the design, implementation, and scaling of the company’s Safety Management System and airworthiness governance for high-velocity UAS programs.

You will solve complex safety challenges hands-on while building people, processes, and disciplined operating procedures that enable BVLOS and safe deployments. Applicants must have DoD clearance eligibility and a track record shipping safe, regulatory-compliant systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in aviation safety, airworthiness engineering, systems safety, or flight-test safety leadership.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or a related technical field.
• Proven track record shipping real UAS or aircraft systems and governing flight safety for operational products.
• Deep expertise in MIL-STD-882E, 14 CFR Part 5, and ICAO Annex 19.
• Strong knowledge of safety integration across autonomy, avionics, flight controls, and flight-test operations.
• Experience building safety processes in fast-moving engineering environments.
• Experience leading safety investigations and corrective actions.
• AI-native proficiency with measurable productivity gains in safety contexts.
• Eligible to obtain US DoD Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own the Safety Management System (SMS), safety policy, risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion.
• Serve as the independent safety authority for UAS development, flight-test governance, and operational release decisions.
• Establish rigorous, audit-ready safety and airworthiness governance frameworks compatible with startup velocity.
• Define safety and airworthiness criteria for test readiness, flight readiness, and return-to-flight decisions.
• Provide independent assessment of hazards, mitigations, and residual risks for test or deployment.
• Build safety processes using MIL-STD-882E and 14 CFR Part 5 with scalable templates.
• Define hazard tracking, risk registers, safety review processes, and corrective-action governance.
• Exercise stop-test and no-fly authority when risk is not understood or controlled.
• Lead anomaly, incident, and mishap review boards with escalation to CTO/CEO.
• Review engineering changes and waivers for safety impact with cross-functional teams.
• Define evidence required for flight release and safety case claims and assess sufficiency.
• Ensure investigations of safety-significant events with verified corrective actions.
• Establish safety reporting, escalation, and lessons-learned mechanisms across orgs.
• Partner with engineering, certification, quality, and legal/regulatory to embed safety into development.
• Support FAA/EASA/DoD approvals and airworthiness evidence development as needed.

Skills

Aviation safety

Airworthiness engineering

Safety frameworks MIL-STD-882E

14 CFR Part 5

AI tooling proficiency

Security clearance eligible

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering/science

Tools

AI tools proficiency

Job description

Position Summary

KrateoSky is hiring a Head of Safety and Airworthiness to serve as the company’s independent safety-of-flight authority. Your mission is to design, implement, and scale the company’s Safety Management System (SMS), airworthiness governance, and operational safety architecture so our UAS platforms can be developed, tested, approved, and deployed safely at high velocity—including BVLOS and other higher-risk operations.

This is a hands‑on player‑coach role for a leader who can solve technical problems directly while also building the people, processes, and operating discipline required to scale across a growing organization.

As an AI‑native and automation‑first leader, the default instinct is to eliminate manual tasks. This leader will use AI and automation as productivity multipliers to reduce manual work, improve engineering throughput, and help teams focus on the highest‑value technical problems. The leader embodies our values: deliver precision, challenge assumptions, break problems into fundamentals, and execute hands‑on without ego to ensure product lines seamlessly pull from—and contribute to—shared, robust capability assets.

Responsibilities

• Own KrateoSky’s Safety Management System (SMS), including safety policy, risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion.
• Serve as the independent safety authority for UAS development, integration, flight‑test governance, operational release, and return‑to‑flight decisions.
• Establish safety and airworthiness governance frameworks that are rigorous, practical, audit‑ready, and compatible with startup velocity, including training standards, approval artifacts, operating limitations, objective evidence expectations, and decision gates for flight release and operational approval.
• Define safety and airworthiness criteria for test readiness, flight readiness, operational release, and return‑to‑flight decisions.
• Provide independent assessment of whether hazards, mitigations, operational limitations, and residual risks are sufficiently understood and controlled to proceed with test or deployment.
• Build safety processes from the ground up using frameworks such as MIL-STD-882E and 14 CFR Part 5, with enough rigor and clarity to be replicated across future acquisitions.
• Define and maintain hazard tracking, safety risk registers, safety review processes, mishap review structures, and safety‑significant corrective‑action governance.
• Exercise stop‑test and no‑fly authority when risk is not adequately understood or controlled.
• Convene and lead anomaly, incident, and mishap review boards, with direct escalation paths to the CTO and CEO.
• Review engineering changes, waivers, deviations, and operational exceptions for safety and airworthiness impact in coordination with SEIT, Quality, Certification, and product leadership.
• Define the minimum objective evidence required to support flight release, waiver and approval packages, operational approval, and safety case claims, and assess whether that evidence is sufficient from a safety and airworthiness standpoint.
• Ensure safety‑significant anomalies, incidents, and mishaps are investigated to sufficient depth, with verified corrective actions, documented operational restrictions as needed, and clear return‑to‑flight criteria.
• Establish safety reporting, escalation, and lessons‑learned mechanisms that strengthen organizational learning across engineering, test, and field operations.
• Partner closely with engineering, flight operations, certification, systems engineering, quality, and legal/regulatory teams to embed safety into development and operations rather than bolt it on afterward.
• Support FAA, EASA, DoD, and customer‑facing approvals, waivers, certification efforts, and airworthiness/safety evidence development as needed, in coordination with Certification, Legal/Regulatory, Quality, and product leadership.
• Assess acquisition targets for safety maturity, SMS readiness, safety culture, waiver/approval posture, flight‑operations discipline, and airworthiness readiness, and lead post‑acquisition harmonization into the KrateoSky operating model.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in aviation safety, airworthiness engineering, systems safety, or flight‑test safety leadership.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or a related technical field.
• Proven track record shipping real UAS or aircraft systems and governing flight safety for operational products.
• Deep expertise in safety frameworks such as MIL-STD-882E, 14 CFR Part 5, and ICAO Annex 19.
• Strong working knowledge of safety integration across autonomy, avionics, flight controls, and flight‑test operations.
• Demonstrated ability to build and operationalize safety processes in fast‑moving engineering environments.
• Experience evaluating the safety impact of design changes, waivers, deviations, and operational restrictions.
• Experience leading or governing safety‑significant incident, anomaly, or mishap investigations through corrective‑action closure.
• AI‑native proficiency: ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or similar tools are part of your default workflow, and you can point to measurable productivity gains from AI‑augmented work in safety or engineering contexts.
• Security Clearance: Eligible to obtain US DoD Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience supporting FAA/EASA approvals, waivers, certification efforts, or equivalent operational airworthiness pathways for UAS or other advanced aircraft systems.
• Experience spanning UAS design, development, integration, test, operations, and maintenance.
• Advanced degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Safety, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience at high‑velocity startups or companies that have shipped hardware at scale.
• Prior involvement in M&A technical due diligence or post‑acquisition architecture harmonization.
• Experience with Blue UAS compliance, AS9100, or safety‑critical flight hardware standards.
• Experience working directly with regulators, customers, or industry bodies on UAS operating approvals, airspace integration, or scalable commercial flight operations.

Reports To: Chief Technology Officer

Travel: ~25%

Base Salary Range: $132,000 - $198,000

Security Clearance: Due to the nature of this role and the work performed, candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance, as required for the position.

Export Control Requirements

This position must meet U.S. export control compliance requirements. To meet U.S. export control compliance requirements, a “U.S. Person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. §120.62 is required. “U.S. Person” includes U.S. Citizen, U.S. National, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee.

Equal Opportunity

KrateoSky is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions based on lawful, job‑related qualifications, merit, and business need, and do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic under applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace where employees with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can contribute and succeed. KrateoSky is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and to applicants who require accommodation during the recruiting, application, or interview process, consistent with applicable law. If you need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know.

Compensation & Benefits

The total compensation package for this role includes base salary and may also include eligibility for annual bonus, incentive compensation, and/or equity, depending on role level, experience, skills, qualifications, and work location. In addition, KrateoSky offers a competitive benefits package, which may include medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement benefits, paid time off, and other employee benefit programs, subject to plan terms and eligibility requirements. Any posted compensation range reflects the good‑faith estimate of base salary for this role at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, skills, education, certifications, internal equity, market data, and geographic location. KrateoSky reserves the right to modify compensation, benefits, and other terms of employment in accordance with applicable law.