Flight Control Lead

Permanent
Aichi, Japan
Excellent salary + benefits + relocation package

My client are developing a range of certified eVTOLs and are looking for a passionate and talented Team Leader for their Flight Control Team. The candidate will provide leadership across all aspects of aircraft flight control.
The role requires leadership across all aspects of flight control systems for manned air mobility products, including architecture definition, aircraft level integration, flight control Laws and supplier management. Interfacing with many disciplines is a critical aspect of the role, in enabling effective requirements management, integration at the aircraft level and activities associated with achieving certification.
 
The successful candidate will be a critical part of the technical team and requires excellent interpersonal skills (in a multilingual environment), strong work ethic, efficient self-management, passion to learn new skills and help develop others.
 
We are looking for a passionate and talented leader to fill the role of Flight Control Leader for the Air Mobility Division. The role is highly multidisciplinary, and applicants must have a passion for new technology whilst working in a lean manner to achieve program objectives and help to deliver a range of certified eVTOLs into the Advanced Air Mobility eco-system.
 
The role requires leadership across all aspects of flight control systems for manned air mobility products, including architecture definition, aircraft level integration, flight control Laws and supplier management. Interfacing with many disciplines is a critical aspect of the role, in enabling effective requirements management, integration at the aircraft level and activities associated with achieving certification.
The successful candidate will be a critical part of the technical team and requires excellent interpersonal skills (in a multilingual environment), strong work ethic, efficient self-management, passion to learn new skills and help develop others.

Responsibilities
1. Engineering leadership and technical authority across the flight control system (FCS) life-cycle, from concept to entry into service. Responsible for technical outcome and ensuring delivery of an FCS solution that meets very high safety and performance standards.
2. Lead Mechanical, electrical and software integration and work with subject matter experts (SMEs) to constantly refine and improve systems and aircraft concepts. Ensure harmonization with company-wide Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) efforts.
3. Generate architectures to optimise safety and performance using conventional approaches and innovative solutions. Ensure robustness to forecasted changes in technology and certification, whilst working with motor and sensor equipment SMEs to understand performance impacts.
4. Lead requirements capture and management of all items related to FCS in technical requirements documents by effective implementation of ARP4754.
5. Work with Flight Control Law team to design, develop and certify control laws that meet the performance and safety requirements.
6. Lead trade studies for FCS and support benchmarking of suppliers against defined requirements that have been generated by a robust V&V process. Key role in supplier selection, scope definition and performance approval from technical perspective.
7. Liaise with the certification team and regulators to ensure FCS solutions meet airworthiness standards and define appropriate means of compliance, by creating and implementing the FCS certification plan.
8. Work closely with the safety team to ensure robust FHA/SSA and analysis to ensure Type Certification can be achieved on time and within budget.
9. Define internal FCS standards and best practice for quality of engineering tasks and act as focal for FCS interactions with standards bodies (ASTM, RTCA, SAE etc). Combine knowledge from conventional aerospace and new approaches for eVTOL and emphasise the needs of a lean start-up culture with novel designs and unique operational characteristics.
10. Review and approve all outputs from the FCS Team and other departments that impact FCS (e.g. test plans, procedures and reports).
11. Work closely with R&D to understand feasibility of latest technologies and define how to mature systems across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).
12. Develop and nurture talent with a wide range of backgrounds, experience and skill level. Assist in recruitment activities within the FCS Team and related areas across the company.

 Essential
1. Excellent engineering skills in one of; auto-pilot; fly-by-wire flight controls; rotor flight controls; guidance, navigation and control (GNC) or inverters (within the context of flight control). Detailed expertise not required across all, but astute enough to ensure the correct technical and conceptual decisions are made.
2. Familiar with typical trade-offs in analogue and digital FCS architectures from systems and fully capturing flight physics requirements.
3. Worked in a systems integration environment with at least one of the sub-systems above (auto-pilot, FBW, rotor flight controls etc). Demonstrated appreciation for working closely with other system leads to ensure robust interface management.
4. Led design and development of a system/sub-system from concept stage to qualification/testing and entry in service. Experience with design/production reviews (e.g. PDR, CDR, PRR or equivalent).
5. Experienced in creating or reviewing certification plans for aircraft (or related) systems and worked with common method of compliance techniques to achieve certification. Deep knowledge in one-of Part/CS 23/25/27/29.
6. Experienced in practical implementation of all aspects of ARP4754, knowledge of safety assessment/analysis techniques (e.g. ARP4761) and lower-level hardware and software standards (e.g. DO-178, DO-254 etc).
7. Knowledge and experience working with range of different requirement types (e.g. regulations, functional, operations, safety, human factors, maintenance, installation, manufacturing). Expertise not expected across all but proven ability to delegate and leverage experts when required.
8. Strong project and man-management skills across teams of different skill level and languages. Including but not limited to – strong communication, motivation, technical negotiation, progress tracking, risk management, task prioritisation and delegation; scheduling, human resource and financial budgeting.
9. BSc or MSc in Engineering (aerospace, electrical, mechanical or equivalent).
10. Minimum of 10 years in technical role within aerospace or related field. At least 5 years working in a systems engineering / integration environment.
11. Minimum of2 years in management role within aerospace or related field.
12. Software: general office skills (MS Office, Gdocs), configuration tools (e.g. TeamCenter or equivalent), requirements management tools (e.g. DOORS or equivalent), and control design tools (e.g. Matlab/Simulink).
13. Business level English and demonstrated ability to build positive relationships in a multilingual environment.
 
Desirable
1. Experience working in eVTOL and/or drone development and demonstrated experience in handling multiple control targets for safety critical systems.
2. Experience with propeller aerodynamics and characteristics fundamental to successful flight control schemes, e.g. delays, instabilities, aerodynamic phenomenon (e.g. vortex ring states).
3. Worked across multiple departments and functions to deliver high performance/safety-level complex systems. Familiarity with regular discussions across engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical and software), operations, business, flight test, quality assurance, production etc.
4. Led a “cutting-edge” project with market leading performance. Developed novel solutions with new technologies in complex environments.
5. Some experience in contributing to aerospace regulations and/or standards/guides (e.g. ASTM/RTCA/SAE/Advisory Circulars) to aid development of aircraft and systems
6. Able to effectively apply Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) to improve efficiencies and reduce lead-times across the aircraft life-cycle.
7. Software (following or equivalent): Catia, Labview, Jira, SourceTree.
8. Business level Japanese.
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