Director of Certification

The role

The Director of Certification will own the aircraft certification and airworthiness strategy for unmanned, runway-independent logistics platforms. This person will define regulatory pathways and ensure engineering and flight test efforts generate certification evidence.

What you will do

• Develop and maintain the Certification Master Plan.
• Define elements in scope for near-term certification versus deferred or alternative paths.
• Establish assumptions, risks, and decision gates.
• Serve as the primary point of contact with the FAA and other authorities.
• Lead preparation for regulator engagements, technical briefings, and formal submissions.
• Translate regulatory expectations into engineering requirements.
• Partner with flight test and engineering teams to align test planning with certification needs.
• Select and manage external certification resources including DERs, consultants, and test labs.
• Coordinate conformity planning and compliance expectations with suppliers and partners.
• Help define the long-term structure of the certification and airworthiness organization.

Required qualifications

• 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 to explain certification risk and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to have

• 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.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Meaningful early-stage equity
• Relocation support if applicable
• Employee Health Benefit Plans
• 6% Retirement matching
• Flexible PTO
• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices
• AI tools and subscriptions

About the company

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine.