Director of Aviation Maintenance Operations, East

About You and The Role 

As Director of Maintenance Operations for the East Region, you will own end-to-end maintenance performance across Zipline’s Regional operations. This is a senior execution role responsible for regional fleet readiness, maintenance systems, staffing, and compliance across multiple distribution hubs and launch sites.

You are not running a single shop. You are building, scaling, and enforcing a maintenance operating model across states, sites, and regulatory contexts. You will set standards, hold leaders accountable, and personally intervene where reliability, safety, or capacity are at risk. Your success is measured in sustained fleet uptime, audit-ready systems, and the ability to scale without surprises.

This role sits at the center of Zipline’s next phase of operational maturity in the US.

What You'll Do

• Own Regional Maintenance Performance. You are accountable for maintenance outcomes across your region, including organizational financial performance, fleet asset allocations, system uptime and capacity, deferred maintenance risk, parts availability, and recovery from incidents or systemic issues.
• Lead and Develop Site-Level Leaders. Build, manage, and coach Heads of Maintenance or equivalent leads at each site. Set clear expectations, review performance rigorously, promote ownership and drive accountability, and upgrade talent when needed.
• Design and Enforce Maintenance Systems. Own regional maintenance systems including preventive and corrective maintenance programs, tooling standards, documentation, training programs, scheduling, and escalation paths. Ensure consistency without slowing local execution. 
• Drive Reliability at Scale. Anticipate failure modes before they impact operations. 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.
• Ensure Safety and Regulatory Excellence. Maintain audit-ready compliance across all states and regulatory environments. Own traceability, record quality, and adherence to internal and external requirements. Step in personally for audits, findings, or serious incidents. 
• Partner Cross-Functionally at the Regional Level. Work closely with Flight Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Business Operations to resolve systemic issues, influence design and policy, and align capacity to demand.
• Support Launches and Expansion. Lead maintenance readiness for new site launches and expansions in the region, including staffing models, tooling, spares strategy, and early-life reliability. 

What You'll Bring

• 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, not just a single operation.
• Strong systems thinker who can balance standardization with local execution realities.
• Demonstrated ability to build leaders, not just teams, and hold them accountable to measurable results.
• Comfortable operating in high-tempo, ambiguous environments where judgment matters more than process purity.
• Technical background in mechanical, electrical, or aerospace systems strongly preferred. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required.
• Willingness to travel frequently across your region with hands-on presence at critical moments.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $160,00.00 - $180,000,00. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!