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Poseidon Aerospace is building and operating full-size autonomous cargo aircraft capable of carrying two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. The company is reimagining air freight logistics with runway-independent platforms, serving remote communities and contested logistics operations.
As Director of Certification, you will own Poseidon's aircraft certification and airworthiness strategy as the company matures its unmanned logistics platforms. You will define and execute the regulatory pathway that aligns engineering, flight test, and operational decisions with a credible approval strategy. This role sits at the center of how Poseidon interfaces with regulators, structures flight test campaigns, and de-risks future operational approvals.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop and maintain Poseidon's Certification Master Plan, including certification basis, means of compliance, evidence strategy, and phased approval pathways.
- Define scope for near-term certification versus deferred or alternative approval paths, establishing assumptions, risks, and decision gates tied to configuration freeze and test milestones.
- Serve as Poseidon's primary point of contact with the FAA and other relevant authorities, leading preparation for regulator engagements, technical briefings, and formal submissions.
- Translate regulatory expectations into clear, actionable engineering requirements across structures, propulsion, avionics, autonomy, command and control, and operations.
- Ensure certification considerations are incorporated early into system architecture and design decisions, establishing lightweight but effective compliance tracking and configuration control.
- Partner with flight test and engineering teams to align test planning with certification evidence needs, distinguishing between engineering learning tests and certification-relevant tests.
- Define data collection, analysis, and reporting standards for certification use.
- Select and manage external certification resources including DERs, consultants, test labs, and conformity support.
- Help define the long-term structure of Poseidon's certification and airworthiness organization and mentor internal certification capability as the program scales.
Success looks like a clear, executable certification strategy that guides engineering and test decisions; predictable, constructive engagement with regulators and external partners; flight test activities that produce usable certification evidence; and reduced program risk through early identification and management of certification issues.
REQUIREMENTS:
Required:
- 10+ years of experience in aircraft certification, airworthiness, or regulatory compliance leadership
- Demonstrated ownership of certification programs involving regulator engagement, certification basis definition, and means of compliance
- Experience aligning engineering development and flight test programs with certification objectives
- Ability to operate independently in ambiguous, first-of-type or novel aircraft environments
- Strong communication skills with the ability to explain certification risk and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Preferred:
- Experience with unmanned aircraft, novel configurations, or autonomy-enabled systems
- Prior experience negotiating special conditions or non-standard certification pathways
- Background working with DERs, ODAs, or equivalent certification partners
- Experience bridging military airworthiness and civil certification expectations
