Commercial Operations Maintenance Lead - Austin

About the Role

As the Maintenance Lead, you will own the daily maintenance execution, ensuring high availability and operational readiness of fleet assets. You’ll lead the local team of technicians, organize work, manage the return-to-service pipeline, and enforce rigorous shop floor standards.

Your leadership will directly drive maintenance turnaround time and technician productivity. This role requires a hands-on leader with a balance of technical expertise, operational discipline, and people management. You’ll be accountable for aligning staffing to shifting operational demands while delivering on core KPIs around uptime, turnaround, and productivity.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as Maintenance Technician, and Lead

• Lead and develop Maintenance Technicians and Shift Leads

• Deliver aircraft turnaround, uptime, and daily work execution

• Execute maintenance schedules and optimize shift coverage

• Managing backlog, return-to-service pipeline, and inspections

• Oversee aircraft receiving and conformity checks

• Enforce shop floor SOPs, productivity targets, and safety protocols

• Align staffing plans with operational needs and site growth targets

• [Test Only] Ensuring accurate documentation of Test Aircraft Modifications

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of experience in aviation maintenance, fleet operations, or related technical field leadership

• Proven track record managing maintenance teams in a fast-paced operational environment

• Strong knowledge of aviation maintenance standards, safety regulations, and audit compliance

• Demonstrated ability to manage work pipelines, optimize scheduling, and deliver uptime results

• Experience with backlog management, inspections, and return-to-service workflows

• Strong people leadership skills with a focus on coaching, training, and technician development

• Operational discipline with the ability to manage KPIs, implement SOPs, and enforce accountability

• Flexibility to support shift operations and adapt to a scaling environment

Success Metrics

• Aircraft downtime and first time fix rate

• Site uptime and turnaround performance

• Technician productivity, error rate, and training completion

• Shift effectiveness and escalation rate

• Return-to-service times and backlog closure

• Compliance with SOPs and audit readiness

• Technician staffing growth and coverage across shifts

What Else You Need To Know

Travel will vary based on launch, escalation, and field-support needs, but candidates should be comfortable spending significant time with teams in the field.

The starting cash range for this role is $110,000 - $125,000. 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 where applicable, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives where applicable, benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance, paid time off, and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer.