Director of Sustainment Engineering

RED CAT HOLDINGS•Torrance, CA

2d•$158,240 - $247,250•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Sustainment Engineering leads the engineering discipline responsible for the reliability, maintainability, availability, and lifecycle support of fielded drone platforms. The role owns the technical strategy for sustaining engineering, obsolescence management, reliability and failure analysis, field support, and engineering change management, connecting design engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and operations/customer support. The Director builds and leads a team of sustainment, reliability, and field support engineers and serves as the primary engineering authority for in-service issues. The position is based at Flightwave in Torrance, California. The stated salary range is $158,240–$247,250, plus an annual equity package and potential bonuses. The role requires U.S. Person status because of ITAR/EAR restrictions. It involves regular exposure to facility operations and may require off-hours or weekend work for emergency facility responses or projects. A post-offer background check is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 10 years of engineering experience in aerospace, defense, or unmanned systems, including at least 5 years in sustainment, reliability, product support, or in-service engineering.
At least 3 years of people leadership experience managing engineers and cross-functional teams.
Demonstrated experience with root-cause analysis methodologies such as 8D, Fishbone/Ishikawa, FRACAS, or FMEA.
Working knowledge of reliability engineering principles, RM&A metrics, and lifecycle sustainment planning.
Experience with configuration management and engineering change processes in a regulated manufacturing environment.
Familiarity with unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, or small-UAS platforms.
Strong communication skills and ability to represent engineering to customers, program management, and executive leadership.
U.S. Person status required due to ITAR; candidates must provide proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residence and must not require sponsorship for export-restricted work authorization.
Ability to walk, stand, and navigate large indoor and outdoor facilities for extended periods.
Ability to regularly lift, carry, and move materials and equipment weighing up to 25 pounds.
Ability to use required personal protective equipment in designated areas or when performing specific tasks.
Ability to climb ladders, stoop, kneel, or crouch as needed during inspections, maintenance walk-throughs, or emergency responses.
Ability to work with regular exposure to facility operations, including noise, dust, temperature fluctuations, and industrial equipment.
Frequent use of a computer and standard office equipment for documentation, communication, and coordination tasks.
Successfully complete a post-offer background check.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in an engineering discipline.
Experience supporting fielded military or government UAS/drone programs through their full lifecycle.
Familiarity with MIL-STD reliability/maintainability standards, such as MIL-STD-1629A or MIL-HDBK-217, and airworthiness sustainment requirements.
Experience establishing or scaling a sustainment/product support engineering function.
Six Sigma/Lean or reliability engineering certification (CRE).

Responsibilities

Own the engineering strategy and roadmap for sustaining fielded drone systems, including airframes, propulsion, avionics, payloads, and ground control systems.
Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary sustainment engineering team covering reliability, field/product support, obsolescence, and configuration engineering.
Lead root-cause and corrective action investigations for field failures, anomalies, and in-service issues, and drive closed-loop corrective and preventive actions.
Partner with Design Engineering to use field data and lessons learned for design improvements, engineering change orders, and product upgrades.
Establish and maintain reliability, maintainability, and availability metrics and use data to guide fleet health and readiness decisions.
Own obsolescence management and diminishing manufacturing sources planning for electronic and mechanical components.
Direct development of technical manuals, maintenance procedures, repair schemes, and training materials for fielded systems.
Manage engineering support for depot-level and field-level repair, overhaul, and modification programs.
Serve as the senior engineering point of contact for customer sustainment reviews, technical interchange meetings, and program reviews.
Collaborate with Supply Chain and Manufacturing on spares provisioning, repair vendor qualification, and lifecycle cost reduction.
Ensure sustainment engineering activities comply with applicable FAA, DoD, and customer airworthiness and configuration management requirements.
Own the sustainment engineering budget, staffing plan, and departmental goals; report fleet health and program status to executive leadership.
Support proposals and new program capture with sustainment engineering scope, staffing, and cost estimates.