DIRECTOR, STRUCTURES AND FLIGHT SCIENCES

AeroTEC is an aerospace engineering company providing a wide array of high-end services and turnkey solutions ranging from aircraft level analysis and design engineering, all the way to prototype flight testing and complete airworthiness certification. Our highly experienced aerospace engineering, testing, and program management teams work closely with customers to address their unique needs in a safe and cost-effective manner, utilizing proven in-house development methodologies and tools.

About the Team

AeroTEC's Engineering Department provides comprehensive, full-service aerospace engineering across the full aircraft development lifecycle — design, analysis, integration, test, and certification. Spanning Structures and Flight Sciences, Design and Stress, Mechanical Systems, Aircraft Systems, Systems Engineering and Certification, Test and Evaluation, and Product Innovation, the Department delivers the technical capability behind AeroTEC's customer programs and its own products, and is central to the company's mission to pioneer the future of sustainable aerospace. It is within this technically diverse and high-performing environment that the Director of Structures and Flight Sciences plays a defining role. 

About the Role

As Director of Structures and Flight Sciences, you will provide strategic and technical leadership across three closely related functions: structural design and stress analysis (Design & Stress), flight sciences, and product innovation. You are responsible for the structural integrity, analytical rigor, aerodynamic insight, and innovative thinking that underpin every aircraft program AeroTEC touches. This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of deep technical authority and organizational vision — owning the direction, capability, and performance of some of the Department's most technically demanding disciplines. If you thrive building world-class teams, influencing complex programs, and operating at the boundary of what aerospace engineering demands, this role was built for you. 

In This Role You Will:

Team Leadership & Organizational Development 

• Lead an integrated, multi-disciplinary organization spanning structural design, stress analysis, flight sciences, and product innovation — building a group defined by technical excellence, accountability, and mutual respect.  
• Provide direct line leadership to the Managers and Leads within the team, including: Design & Stress; Flight Sciences; and Product Innovation — establishing clear expectations, aligned priorities, and coherent ways of working across all three functions. 
• Establish clear structures of delegation so that managers, group leads, and senior engineers can own daily execution, freeing you to operate strategically; hold direct reports accountable to those expectations.  
• Conduct timely, constructive performance reviews and develop individualized technical and leadership growth plans for each direct report, including succession planning for key roles within the group.  
• Identify capability gaps proactively across Design & Stress, Flight Sciences, and Product Innovation; recruit, develop, or partner to close them before they constrain program delivery.  
• Cultivate a culture of engineering rigor across all functions — one where assumptions are challenged, analyses are defensible, innovation is encouraged, and quality is non-negotiable. 

Resource Deployment & Financial Management 

• Deploy resources across Design & Stress, Flight Sciences, and Product Innovation appropriately, optimized for experience level, billing structure, and timeliness; ensure blended rates meet program proposal assumptions and objectives.  
• Build team capacity or partner with external entities to ensure resources match workload across all three functions, keeping the cost basis competitive while maintaining required levels of expertise.  
• Develop and manage partnerships with external structural engineering, aerodynamics, and product development firms to provide surge capacity and cost-competitive support.  
• Oversee Earned Value Management (EVM) discipline within the group — ensuring managers apply EVM principles to plan, baseline, measure, forecast, and recover work; review variance analyses and corrective action plans.  
• Support and adhere to fiscal controls; contribute to proposal development as a Subject Matter Expert across structural, flight sciences, and product innovation scope as appropriate.  
• Continuously monitor utilization rates across all three functions; smooth resource loading across programs and departments to maximize revenue capture. 

Technical Leadership & Program Oversight 

• Set the technical and methodological direction for structural design and stress analysis, including adoption of modern tools, FEA methods, damage tolerance and fatigue approaches, composite analysis techniques, and certification strategies.  
• Set the technical direction for the flight sciences discipline: aerodynamics and performance, stability and control / handling qualities, flight and ground loads development, aeroelasticity and flutter, and mass properties / weight and balance.  
• Set the technical direction for product innovation: mechanical design, wind tunnel model development, prototype-to-delivery workflows, and design-for-certification approaches for novel aerospace products.  
• Ensure work products across all three functions are developed to plan; intervene and course-correct at a leadership level — not by becoming the individual analyst or designer.  
• Serve as a senior technical authority for customer interactions, regulatory discussions, and program technical reviews spanning structures, flight sciences, and product domains.  
• Drive consistency and quality in certification deliverables across the group: structural substantiation reports, DER-signed packages, compliance matrices, loads reports, and flight test plans.  
• Provide design milestone oversight through CoDR, PDR, CDR, and Final Release — ensuring independent technical review of deliverables at each gate across all functions.  
• Oversee Material Review Board (MRB) support for Design & Stress, ensuring stress and design dispositions for non-conforming hardware are technically sound and timely.  
• Champion innovation within the Product Innovation function — fostering concept ideation, creative problem-solving, and lean continuous improvement as a deliberate organizational capability. 

Cross-Functional & Strategic Leadership 

• Operate as a senior leader within the Engineering Department, collaborating with Mechanical Systems, Aircraft Systems, Systems Engineering & Certification, Test & Evaluation, and Program Management to deliver integrated solutions.  
• Act as solution architect for customer proposals — shaping the technical approach and orchestrating inputs from discipline leads and partner teams (effort estimates, technical risks, resourcing) into integrated, defensible engineering responses.  
• Ensure Design & Stress, Flight Sciences, and Product Innovation are effective cross-functional partners: flowing structural and aerodynamic requirements correctly, integrating loads and installation considerations across disciplines, and supporting manufacturing and liaison engineering on producibility and in-process issues.  
• Develop appropriate systems of governance and control across the three functions to allow you to operate at a higher level; build scalable processes, standards, and delegation frameworks that grow with the organization.  
• Insist upon outstanding levels of service from direct reports, freeing your time for proposals, strategy definition, process optimization, budgeting, people development, customer engagement, and SIOP planning.  
• Contribute to strategy definition, resource planning, and Department-level initiatives that position AeroTEC as a preferred partner for structures, flight sciences, and product development work.  
• Report critical program status, risk, and resource needs clearly and proactively to the Head of Engineering. 
• Represent AeroTEC externally with customers, regulatory authorities, and industry partners — credibly and confidently — across the full technical breadth of the group. 

The Skills You Will Bring (Minimum):

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline. 
• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in structures, aerodynamics, solid mechanics, or aerospace engineering is advantageous. 

Experience

• 15+ years of progressive aerospace engineering experience across structures, stress analysis, and/or flight sciences, with a minimum of 5 years in a leadership role managing engineering teams or functions — including experience managing other managers or group leads. 
• Extensive direct experience in structural design and/or stress analysis on transport-category aircraft programs; FAR/CS Part 25 experience required. Flight sciences experience highly valued. 
• Demonstrated experience leading structural and/or flight sciences certification efforts: working with DERs, managing compliance plans, and delivering substantiation packages to regulatory authorities (FAA, EASA, Transport Canada). 
• STC and/or TC program experience strongly preferred; experience with both metallic and composite structure required. 
• Experience with structural test planning and test support — static, fatigue, and/or damage tolerance testing — is highly valued; flight test exposure preferred. 
• Experience with or exposure to product innovation, wind tunnel model programs, prototype development, or experimental aircraft is a plus. 
• Familiarity with Part 23, rotorcraft, military, or autonomous air vehicle programs is a plus. 
• Experience managing external engineering partnerships and subcontract resources preferred. 

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job:

• Regularly required to communicate verbally and in writing; frequently required to sit, stand, walk, and use hands for computer-based work. Must have the ability to sit for extended periods.  
• Occasionally required to climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Must be able to lift and/or move up to 10 pounds frequently and up to 25 pounds occasionally. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus. 
• Travel of approximately 25% — domestic and international — to customer sites, regulatory meetings, and AeroTEC facilities including the Moses Lake Flight Test Center. Frequent travel to Moses Lake during scheduled flight test operations may be required.  
• Occasional local travel between facilities may require use of a personal vehicle. Valid state driver's license and clean driving record required. 

AeroTEC Ways of Working and Benefits:

At AeroTEC, we are on a mission to Accelerate the Evolution of Aerospace. We lead the market in the integration and testing of sustainable propulsion technologies, pioneering the future of sustainable aerospace.  

AeroTEC is building a culture where personal and professional growth are just as important as business growth. We invest in our people, supporting their career development by offering customized career development plans, in-house learning, mentorship, and up to $5,250.00/year in education reimbursement.

We are committed to our employee’s well-being, providing Unlimited Time-Off (for salaried employees), employer paid premiums for our employees’ Health coverage (PPO/HDHP plans), Dental, $40,000 Life Insurance Policy, and complementary access to our Employee Assistance and Health Advocate Program’s.

Additional Benefits include (but not limited to): 401(k) and Employer Match for the Employee, Vision, Additional Life Insurance Options, Critical Illness, Accident, Hospital Indemnity, Cell Phone Cost Reimbursement, Pet Insurance, ID Watchdog, Legal Shield, and Perk Spot Discounts.

Hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, at AeroTEC we reward outstanding performance with quarterly bonus schemes (for salaried employees), manager’s bonuses (for management roles), and SIP (for sales positions).  Positions may or may not qualify for sign-on bonus or relocation assistance. 

But we are more than just a team; we’re a family that works hard and plays hard! From AeroTEC AeroTEC’s own Flying Club, Softball League, Seattle Mariners Tickets, to Team Bike Rides, Karting, Golf Scrambles and more. We’re committed to creating a workplace where fun and work are not mutually exclusive!

AeroTEC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.