Director of Certification at Poseidon Aerospace – San Francisco, California

Director of Certification
Location: San Francisco Bay Area (hybrid) with travel to test sitesReports to: CEO and Chief EngineerLevel: Director (senior individual contributor with authority to build the function)
Role Overview
We are seeking a Director of Certification who will own Poseidon’s aircraft certification and airworthiness strategy as we mature our unmanned, runway-independent logistics platforms. You will define and execute the regulatory pathway that aligns engineering, flight test, and operational decisions with a credible approval strategy, ensuring that development and testing efforts generate meaningful certification evidence. This role sits at the center of how Poseidon interfaces with regulators, structures flight test campaigns, and de-risks future operational approvals. Your center of gravity is building a clear, executable certification plan and ensuring the aircraft is designed, tested, and documented in a way that preserves program velocity while maintaining regulatory credibility.
Key Responsibilities
Certification Strategy and Planning

• Develop and maintain Poseidon’s Certification Master Plan, including certification basis, means of compliance, evidence strategy, and phased approval pathways.
• Define what elements are in scope for near-term certification versus deferred or alternative approval paths.
• Establish assumptions, risks, and decision gates tied to configuration freeze and test milestones.

Regulatory Engagement

• Serve as Poseidon’s primary point of contact with the FAA and other relevant authorities.
• Lead preparation for regulator engagements, technical briefings, and formal submissions.
• Drive resolution of certification issues and alignment on expectations.

Engineering and Requirements Integration

• Translate regulatory expectations into clear, actionable engineering requirements across structures, propulsion, avionics, autonomy, command and control, and operations.
• Ensure certification considerations are incorporated early into system architecture and design decisions.
• Establish lightweight but effective compliance tracking and configuration control.

Flight Test and Evidence Generation

• Partner with flight test and engineering teams to align test planning with certification evidence needs.
• Distinguish between engineering learning tests and certification-relevant tests to maximize return on test investment.
• Define data collection, analysis, and reporting standards for certification use.

External Partners and Ecosystem

• Select and manage external certification resources including DERs, consultants, test labs, and conformity support.
• Coordinate conformity planning and compliance expectations with suppliers and partners.

Organizational Build-Out

• Help define the long-term structure of Poseidon’s certification and airworthiness organization.
• Mentor and grow internal certification capability as the program scales.

Qualifications
Required

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

Preferred

• 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.

What Success Looks Like

• A clear, executable certification strategy that guides engineering and test decisions.
• Predictable, constructive engagement with regulators and external partners.
• Flight test activities that produce usable certification evidence.
• Reduced program risk through early identification and management of certification issues.

Why This Role MattersThis role will directly influence aircraft design, test strategy, and the credibility of Poseidon’s path to operational use. The Director of Certification will have outsized impact on the speed, cost, and success of the program.