Senior UAS Pilot & Field Training Lead

WingXpand; Illinois; On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401(k) retirement plan

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

WingXpand in Schaumburg, IL seeks a Lead UAS Pilot and Trainer to own how our drones are operated and how the team learns to operate them. You will be the senior operator across air, ground vehicle, and surface vessel domains, conducting demonstrations at military installations and leading training.

The role combines hands-on flight work with customer-facing responsibilities, including briefings, proposals, and field exercises.

Qualifications

• 5+ years operating unmanned aircraft in a defense/government role.
• Experience as an instructor or trainer and in standardization.
• Proven ability to develop and deliver training programs.
• Customer-facing experience at events, demonstrations, and briefs.
• Willingness to travel up to ~40% and work in field environments.

Responsibilities

• Pilot in command during demonstrations, flight test, training, and customer events.
• Instruct on unmanned ground vehicle and unmanned surface vessel alongside the aircraft.
• Own the operations program across standardization, currency requirements, crew qualification standards, and the operations manual.
• Build and deliver operator training across classroom, simulator, and hands-on flight instruction.
• Write and maintain training documentation, SOPs, and instructional materials.
• Train military, government, and commercial operators on platforms and payloads.
• Manage airspace authorizations and regulatory compliance for company flight operations.
• Run internal flight test sorties for product validation and capture structured data.
• Own flight safety, risk management, and lessons learned.

Skills

Flight operations

Instructor experience

Customer engagement

Regulatory compliance

Education

FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate

Tools

Group 1/2 UAS

Job description

WingXpand in Schaumburg, IL seeks a Lead UAS Pilot and Trainer to own how our drones are operated and how the team learns to operate them. You will be the senior operator across air, ground vehicle, and surface vessel domains, conducting demonstrations at military installations and leading training.

The role combines hands-on flight work with customer-facing responsibilities, including briefings, proposals, and field exercises.