Senior Certification Manager

1 week ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Our Mission

At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The VX4, our eVTOL (electric, vertical, take-off and landing), ‘zero emissions’ aircraft will set a new safety standard for how we will navigate the sky.

Our Mission

At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The VX4, our eVTOL (electric, vertical, take-off and landing), ‘zero emissions’ aircraft will set a new safety standard for how we will navigate the sky.

We won’t realise our mission following the same legacy processes and traditions our predecessors followed, instead, we want to ‘redefine’ aerospace best practices.

We are growing quickly from a prototype business to a scaling SME, and the next few years will be critical to our success and delivering on our ambitious goals of having the VX4 in service by 2030.

What To Expect

As our Senior Project Certification Manager, you’ll lead the certification programme from the early stages of design all the way through to type certification. You will be the key liaison between engineering, suppliers, and regulatory authorities globally.

Reporting to our Head of Airworthiness, you will play a key part in our certification efforts as we seek to certify the novel VX4 design by 2028.

What You'll Do

• Defining the certification basis and means of compliance, negotiating with civil aviation authorities
• Leading development of certification plans, test proposals, verification/validation (V&V) strategy, and inspection & qualification campaigns.
• Ensuring compliance in all technical domains (software, hardware, structural, systems, interiors, propulsion) with industry standards and regulations.
• Managing physical inspections, flight tests, environmental tests and other verification activities.
• Overseeing configuration management, design changes, and maintaining traceability of certification requirements.
• Leading and mentoring a team of certification, compliance, and technical specialists.
• Proactively identifying risks, resolving threats to schedule, and could-be obstacles to certification.
• Collaborating with suppliers to ensure their parts, processes and documentation satisfy certification requirements.
• Supporting continued airworthiness post-certification and managing modifications or changes.

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of experience in aircraft type certification or major modification/STC/major regulatory engagements in aerospace, preferably with highly regulated domains.
• Strong foundation in regulatory/airworthiness standards (e.g. equivalent to CS/FAR Part 23/25/27/29 or their global analogues), software & hardware compliance standards (DO-178C / DO-254), environmental qualification (DO-160 or equivalent), and systems safety & reliability (ARP
  4754A, ARP
  4761 or equivalents).
• Proven experience in interacting with aviation authorities internationally, negotiating technical requirements/methods of compliance, and delivering projects through audit or authority review.
• Leadership & management experience: building teams, mentoring engineers, managing cross-disciplinary stakeholder interfaces.
• Strong project planning, risk management, configuration control, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication: able to translate complex technical/certification issues into program-level strategy and reports.
• Adaptability, bias for action, and able to thrive in fast-paced aerospace R&D / certification environment.

What can you expect from us?

We're on a mission. Where others see limits, we see opportunity, and we work king at Vertical isn't your average role but for those seeking a challenge, a flexible, supportive organisation and an incredible team; working here is an opportunity to do the best work of your career.

Our approach promotes ingenuity and courage, while our environment builds success through diligence in safety and being open in the way we work. The only way we're going to assure the next chapter of aviation history is by working as a team, relentlessly, towards our goal.

Our Benefits

Our people matter - we're not going anywhere without them. Which is why our company benefits go beyond the essentials.

• 26 days holiday, plus bank…