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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Airworthiness and Engineering Manager

💰 $ - $

AerospaceAviationEngineeringComplianceAirworthiness

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking an experienced Airworthiness and Engineering Manager to lead airworthiness strategy, certification and continued airworthiness activities across fleet and product lines. The successful candidate will combine deep regulatory knowledge (EASA/FAA/ICAO), hands-on engineering experience, and proven leadership to drive compliance, design changes, reliability improvement, and safety assurance. This position is ideal for someone who can translate complex regulatory requirements into pragmatic engineering solutions, manage cross-functional certification projects, and represent the organization to civil aviation authorities.

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📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Airworthiness Engineer / Certification Engineer with 4–8 years of experience.
  • Continuing Airworthiness Engineer or Reliability Engineer from an airline, MRO or OEM.
  • Lead Systems Engineer or Structures Lead with exposure to regulatory compliance and certification activities.

Advancement To:

  • Head of Airworthiness / Head of Certification
  • Director of Engineering or Director of Safety & Airworthiness
  • Vice President of Engineering, Technical Authority, or Chief Engineering Officer

Lateral Moves:

  • Safety Management System (SMS) Manager / Head of Safety
  • Reliability & Fleet Technical Manager
  • Maintenance Programme Manager or Technical Compliance Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead and manage the airworthiness strategy for assigned product lines or fleet, ensuring full compliance with applicable regulations (EASA, FAA, ICAO and local CAA requirements) while aligning engineering deliverables to corporate objectives.
  • Own and coordinate Type Certificate (TC), Supplemental Type Certificate (STC), and amended type approval activities, preparing and submitting compliance evidence and technical documentation to certification authorities.
  • Direct the development, approval and maintenance of continued airworthiness programs, including Continuing Airworthiness Management Exposition (CAME), maintenance program documentation, Airworthiness Limitations, and Reliability Improvement Plans.
  • Manage certification and validation projects from concept through approval, defining technical plans, schedules, resource requirements, risk registers, and regulatory interfaces to achieve on-time, compliant certification outcomes.
  • Serve as the organization's primary technical liaison with civil aviation authorities, delegated organizations, and external certification bodies during audits, reviews and conformity assessments.
  • Provide authoritative airworthiness decisions and engineering technical authority for design changes, repairs, service bulletins, and field modifications, ensuring configuration control and traceability.
  • Lead a multi-disciplinary engineering team (structures, systems, propulsion, avionics) to produce certification plans, compliance matrices, test protocols, flight-test instrumentation requirements and certification reports.
  • Establish and enforce engineering and airworthiness processes (DER/DOA workflows, change management, non-conformance handling) to maintain regulatory compliance and support audit readiness.
  • Oversee development and approval of Engineering Orders, Modification Design Packages, Service Bulletins and Engineering Bulletins, ensuring robust substantiation, analysis and compliance rationale.
  • Drive continuous airworthiness initiatives including fleet health monitoring, in-service safety analysis, reliability centered maintenance (RCM) reviews and corrective action plans to reduce safety events and unscheduled removals.
  • Manage and coach technical staff, set performance objectives, lead training on regulatory updates (EASA Part-21/Part-M, FAA FARs), and foster a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence.
  • Authorize and sign-off airworthiness statements, compliance reports, and technical memoranda where organizational privileges permit, and coordinate sign-offs with delegated/approved staff when required.
  • Lead and participate in safety investigations, root cause analyses and corrective/preventive action implementation to mitigate risk and improve product safety and reliability.
  • Oversee Supplier and Vendor engineering oversight programs for outsourced modifications, ensuring supplier compliance to design standards, airworthiness data, and procurement quality agreements.
  • Manage budgets and resource allocation for airworthiness and certification activities, including forecasting external consultancy, test campaign and authority interactions.
  • Coordinate and approve flight test programs, ground test campaigns and structural substantiation activities, ensuring adequate instrumentation, safety cases and regulatory acceptability.
  • Implement and maintain an effective Safety Management System (SMS) interface with airworthiness processes, ensuring hazards are managed and safety performance indicators are monitored and reported.
  • Develop and maintain the Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM), Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC), Minimum Equipment List (MEL) inputs and other continuing airworthiness documentation in coordination with maintenance and operations teams.
  • Lead cross-functional reviews for Major Changes, Repairs and Special Flight Permits, ensuring compliance to certification basis and operational approval constraints.
  • Ensure robust configuration management of airworthiness documentation and engineering records (Design Data, SCCs, compliance matrices) to support audits and continued certification.
  • Provide technical support to commercial and operational stakeholders on airworthiness implications of engineering changes, aftermarket modifications and product support strategies.
  • Keep abreast of regulatory changes, airworthiness directives (ADs), and industry best practices; translate regulatory updates into implementable organizational requirements and training.
  • Develop and deliver executive-level reporting on airworthiness status, certification progress, risk exposure and compliance performance to senior leadership and boards.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Support internal and external audits by compiling demonstration of compliance packages, corrective action plans and closure evidence.
  • Mentor junior engineers on certification processes, technical writing for regulatory submissions, and best-practice engineering methodologies.
  • Represent the company at industry working groups, regulatory forums, and standards committees to influence and stay current with airworthiness policy.
  • Facilitate cross-organizational workshops to align maintenance, operations and supply chain stakeholders on engineering changes and airworthiness impacts.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep regulatory expertise in EASA (Part-21, Part-M, Part-145) and/or FAA (FARs, DER experience) certification and continued airworthiness frameworks.
  • Demonstrated experience leading Type Certification, STC and supplemental approval programs, including creation of compliance matrices and certification plans.
  • Strong background in aircraft structures, systems, avionics or propulsion engineering with the ability to lead multi-disciplinary technical reviews.
  • Proven ability to prepare and manage test campaigns (flight, ground, structural, environmental) and interpret test data for certification substantiation.
  • Experience with configuration management systems, PLM tools and engineering change control processes to maintain design integrity.
  • Competence in reliability engineering methods, fleet health monitoring, RCM, and corrective/preventive action programs.
  • Ability to author and review technical documentation: compliance reports, AC/DC analyses, airworthiness limitation sections, maintenance manuals and service documentation.
  • Knowledge of Safety Management Systems (SMS) integration with airworthiness and engineering processes.
  • Familiarity with supplier oversight, quality assurance audits, and management of delegated design organizations or accredited suppliers.
  • Practical experience with tools and standards such as DOORS/Jama (requirements management), CATIA/NX/Creo (CAD), MATLAB/Simulink, and engineering analysis software.
  • Experience interacting with civil aviation authorities, submitting regulatory applications, and managing certification liaison activities.
  • Financial acumen for budgeting certification programs, cost estimating and managing external test/consultant resources.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management skills with the ability to motivate and coach engineers and cross-functional teams.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills for regulatory submissions, executive reporting and negotiations with authorities.
  • Excellent stakeholder management and interpersonal skills to align maintenance, operations, supply chain and airworthiness objectives.
  • Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills to prioritize certification activities and manage technical risk under tight schedules.
  • High attention to detail and quality orientation, ensuring technical accuracy and audit readiness of airworthiness documentation.
  • Resilience and adaptability to manage changing regulatory landscapes and shifting program priorities.
  • Conflict resolution and negotiation skills for resolving technical differences with suppliers, authorities and internal stakeholders.
  • Project management capability, including planning, scheduling, risk management and escalation of critical compliance issues.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Avionics, or equivalent technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or MBA for candidates targeting senior leadership roles.
  • Professional certifications or regulatory qualifications (e.g., recognized DOA/Part-21/DER experience, EASA/FAA training certificates) are highly desirable.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Aeronautical / Aerospace Engineering
  • Mechanical or Structural Engineering
  • Avionics / Electrical Engineering
  • Systems Engineering
  • Safety, Reliability or Maintenance Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8–15+ years of progressive experience in aviation engineering, with at least 3–5 years leading airworthiness, certification or continuing airworthiness functions.

Preferred:

  • Prior experience in an OEM, major airline, MRO, or certification authority environment with demonstrable success delivering Type Certification or large-scale modification/repair approval programs.
  • Experience managing teams, budgets and cross-functional programs, and a track record of successful interaction with EASA/FAA/regulatory bodies.
  • Proven leadership in continuous airworthiness, safety investigations, and lifecycle sustainment of aircraft systems.
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