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Shield AI, a venture-backed defense-tech company, is seeking an FAA Program Coordinator to establish and manage enterprise FAA regulatory operations. You will own the end-to-end coordination of FAA authorizations, including DroneZone submissions, aircraft registrations, Certificates of Airworthiness (COAs), waivers, and airspace authorizations across Shield AI's autonomous aircraft platforms (V-BAT, X-BAT, Hivemind).
Key responsibilities include:
• Building and maintaining a centralized tracker for all active FAA authorizations, pending applications, operating limitations, expiration dates, and renewal schedules across multiple programs.
• Coordinating intake, prioritization, and submission of FAA regulatory packages; collecting subject matter expert inputs and ensuring completeness and approval before submission.
• Managing procedural correspondence, records, and administrative coordination with the FAA, UAS test sites, and other stakeholders; routing technical questions appropriately.
• Leading recurring cross-program regulatory status reviews, documenting decisions, and escalating schedule risks and dependencies.
• Supporting emerging authorization pathways including Section 927 waivers, experimental certification, BVLOS, higher-altitude, and one-to-many operations.
• Developing standardized submission workflows, templates, checklists, and role definitions; identifying automation opportunities for tracking and reporting.
• Creating dashboards and status reports on application volume, cycle time, aging actions, and approval risks.
• Maintaining a forward-looking FAA authorization roadmap aligned with planned tests, demonstrations, and new aircraft; monitoring FAA process changes.
Requirements:
• Bachelor's degree in aviation management, business, public administration, regulatory affairs, project/program management, engineering, or related discipline (equivalent relevant experience may be considered).
• 3–5+ years of experience in aviation regulatory operations, project/program coordination, flight operations administration, airworthiness/certification support, UAS operations, or related regulated environments.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating regulatory applications, authorizations, certifications, or comparable controlled-submission processes.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent workstreams using integrated schedules, action logs, dependency tracking, controlled records, and status reporting.
• Working knowledge of FAA aviation or UAS authorization processes and judgment to distinguish administrative coordination from technical/regulatory decision authority.
• Strong professional and technical writing skills; ability to organize complex inputs into review-ready packages.
• Strong cross-functional communication, organization, attention to detail, and proficiency in Microsoft Office, Teams, SharePoint, and project-tracking tools.
Preferred qualifications include direct FAA DroneZone, aircraft registration, COA, Part 107 waiver, or experimental certification experience; UAS, autonomous aircraft, or defense aviation program support; FAA or DoD interaction; familiarity with Section 927, 44807, SAC-EC waivers, BVLOS, or large-UAS pathways; FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, CAPM, or PMP certification; and experience building scalable workflows and dashboards in regulated environments.
