Director of Aviation Maintenance Operations, East

Zipline•Tampa, FL

6d•$160,000 - $180,000

About The Position

The Director of Maintenance Operations for the East Region owns end-to-end maintenance performance across Zipline’s regional operations. This senior execution role is responsible for regional fleet readiness, maintenance systems, staffing, and compliance across multiple distribution hubs and launch sites. The director builds, scales, and enforces a maintenance operating model across states, sites, and regulatory contexts; sets standards; holds leaders accountable; and intervenes when reliability, safety, or capacity is at risk. Success is measured by sustained fleet uptime, audit-ready systems, and the ability to scale reliably. The role is central to Zipline’s next phase of operational maturity in the United States. It oversees regional maintenance outcomes, including organizational financial performance, fleet asset allocation, system uptime and capacity, deferred maintenance risk, parts availability, and recovery from incidents or systemic issues. The director develops site-level maintenance leaders, establishes regional maintenance systems, drives reliability improvements, ensures safety and regulatory compliance, partners with regional functions, and leads maintenance readiness for launches and expansions. The role requires frequent travel across the region and hands-on presence at critical moments. A technical background in mechanical, electrical, or aerospace systems is strongly preferred; a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is required. The target starting cash range is listed as $160,00.00–$180,000,00, with final pay depending on factors including experience, qualifications, skills, location, and projected impact. Total compensation may also include equity, overtime pay, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives, medical, dental and vision insurance, paid time off, and other benefits.

Requirements

10+ years leading maintenance or technical operations in aerospace, aviation, robotics, or other high-reliability hardware environments.
Proven experience owning outcomes across multiple sites or regions, rather than only a single operation.
Strong systems-thinking ability and the capacity to balance standardization with local execution realities.
Demonstrated ability to build leaders and hold them accountable to measurable results.
Comfort operating in high-tempo, ambiguous environments where judgment matters more than process purity.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required.
Willingness to travel frequently across the region.

Nice To Haves

Technical background in mechanical, electrical, or aerospace systems.

Responsibilities

Own regional maintenance outcomes, including organizational financial performance, fleet asset allocations, system uptime and capacity, deferred maintenance risk, parts availability, and recovery from incidents or systemic issues.
Build, manage, and coach Heads of Maintenance or equivalent site-level leads; set expectations, review performance, promote ownership, drive accountability, and upgrade talent when needed.
Own regional preventive and corrective maintenance programs, tooling standards, documentation, training programs, scheduling, and escalation paths.
Anticipate failure modes and use data, trend analysis, and field insight to prioritize fixes, allocate resources, and prevent repeat issues across sites.
Create and execute fleet upgrade and retrofit plans while balancing uptime and resource utilization.
Maintain audit-ready compliance across states and regulatory environments, including traceability, record quality, and adherence to internal and external requirements.
Personally support audits, findings, or serious incidents.
Partner with Flight Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Business Operations to resolve systemic issues, influence design and policy, and align capacity to demand.
Lead maintenance readiness for new site launches and regional expansions, including staffing models, tooling, spares strategy, and early-life reliability.
Travel frequently across the region and provide hands-on presence at critical moments.