{"id":1940599,"url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer","title":"Senior Airworthiness & Certification Engineer","company":{"id":46278,"name":"Merlin Labs","domain":"merlinlabs.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/merlin-labs","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":79,"open_postings":6,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.833,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":44,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Boston, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":165000,"max":220000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":220000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"DO-178C","optional":true},{"name":"DO-254","optional":true},{"name":"FMEA","optional":true},{"name":"MIL-STD-882","optional":true},{"name":"Verification & Validation","optional":true}],"status":"closed","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T01:58:51Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T21:21:40Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":"2026-10-21T21:21:40Z","days_open":15,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":15},"description":"About You:\nYou are a hands-on airworthiness & certification engineer who owns certification work directly. You lead compliance activities for defined certification workstreams, resolve complex compliance challenges, interface confidently with regulatory authorities (military and civil), and mentor engineers. You communicate effectively with regulatory authorities on assigned technical topics.\nMerlin builds autonomous aviation systems for civil and defense customers. The Airworthiness & Certification organization needs an experienced certification engineer who can lead complex technical areas through the military airworthiness and civil certification process. You will lead certification documentation and compliance activities for a defined technical area, interface directly with regulatory authorities, and mentor junior and mid-level certification engineers within the Airworthiness & Certification and Engineering organizations. If you want ownership over meaningful technical certification work with room to broaden across both military and civil domains, this is the role for you.\nResponsibilities:\nExecute the certification strategy and technical approach for a major program or product line.\nContribute to planning, developing, and coordinating important engineering projects.\nLead certification documentation and compliance activities for complex technical areas (structures, systems, avionics, or flight controls).\nDevelop and apply cross-functional competency in military and industry airworthiness standards - MIL-SPECs, MIL-STDs, DEF STANs, JSSG-2001, and MIL-HDBK-516 - and guide engineering teams in developing compliant designs.\nAuthor and manage Issue Papers (IPs), Certification Review Items (CRIs), and Military Certification Review Items (MCRIs), and drive them to closure.\nInterface directly with regulatory representatives, airworthiness authorities and sponsoring offices (e.g., USAF, U.S. Army Aviation, NAVAIR, FAA, EASA) on assigned certification topics.\nDrive certification program schedules, identifying compliance risks and implementing mitigation strategies to ensure timely approvals.\nSupport civil certification programs and activities as needed, applying 14 CFR Part 21/23/25 and applicable advisory circulars alongside civil certification authorities.\nManage regulatory audits, conformity inspections, and test witnessing activities.\nContribute to standardizing and scaling Merlin's airworthiness and certification processes and provide technical assistance to certification engineers across departments.\nManage Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) prerequisites, draft TIAs, and secure approvals across programs.\nManage the designee program including appointment and oversight; maintain an internal registry of available designee resources.\nQualifications:\nBachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.\n6-9 years of aerospace certification experience, including direct interface with airworthiness or certification authorities.\nProven ability to work both independently and embedded within cross-functional engineering teams.\nDirect, hands-on experience taking military airworthiness or civil certification programs from certification basis development through closure.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills and project management capability.\nWorking knowledge of 14 CFR Part 21, 23, 25, and applicable advisory circulars, sufficient to support civil certification activities.\nDemonstrated ability to interface with military airworthiness authorities (e.g., USAF, U.S. Army Aviation, NAVAIR, MAA) and to conduct meetings with regulatory agencies.\nU.S. citizenship, and an active Secret clearance or a clear path to one (as required by program assignment).\nWorking knowledge of military airworthiness standards (MIL-SPECs, MIL-STDs, DEF STANs) sufficient to lead an existing program independently.\nNice to Have:\nDeep civil certification/validation experience with FAA (Part 23/25) and/or EASA (CS-23/25) programs.\nKnowledge of systems engineering principles - requirements decomposition, V&V planning, and configuration management.\nWorking familiarity in software and hardware assurance standards (DO-178C, DO-254, MIL-STD-882).\nWorking knowledge of safety assessment methodologies: FHA, FMEA/FMECA, FTA, and common cause analysis.\nWorking knowledge of emerging aerospace technologies such as electric propulsion, UAVs, or advanced air mobility is highly desirable.\nWorking knowledge of FAA military certification processes and interaction with FAA Military Certification Branch (MCB, formerly Military Certification Office (MCO)).\nLogistics:\nWe welcome remote applicants for this role, with a preference for candidates based in or willing to relocate to Boston, MA for a hybrid work schedule at our HQ.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4807,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Avionics & Flight Control","Drone AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-06T02:35:45Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-10-21T21:21:40Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":null,"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":220000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T21:06:23Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":29889,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":46278},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=46278"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/merlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-senior-airworthiness-certification-engineer"}]}