Role details
Job description
Responsibilities
- Lead development and continuous improvement of aircraft maintenance programs, scheduled inspections, maintenance intervals, and continued airworthiness processes.
- Develop, author, validate, and maintain Aircraft Maintenance Manuals (AMM), Component Maintenance Manuals (CMM), Repair Station Manuals (RSM), Job Cards, Task Cards, Service Bulletins, Service Instructions, and associated technical documentation.
- Partner with Design Engineering to ensure aircraft systems, components, and software meet maintainability, reliability, and serviceability requirements.
- Develop troubleshooting procedures, fault isolation methodologies, and maintenance best practices to support field technicians and operators.
- Support engineering change implementation and ensure maintenance documentation remains aligned with released aircraft configurations.
- Participate in certification, audit, and regulatory activities supporting aircraft entry-into-service and continued operational approval.
- Lead fleet-wide investigations of reliability, maintainability, and operational issues affecting aircraft availability.
- Perform root cause analysis of propulsion, battery, avionics, flight control, charging, structural, and electrical system failures.
- Analyze maintenance findings, field reports, flight data, warranty claims, and operational trends to identify reliability improvements and corrective actions.
- Develop repair plans, maintenance campaigns, retrofit activities, and return-to-service recommendations.
- Collaborate with Engineering, Quality, and Operations teams to drive corrective and preventive action initiatives.
- Support customer and field operations through direct technical troubleshooting, aircraft recovery efforts, and on-site engineering assistance when required.
- Develop and maintain maintenance work packages within Epicor ERP/MRP, including job creation, routing, operations, and material planning.
- Support fleet maintenance activities by releasing jobs, coordinating material requirements, and ensuring work packages are execution-ready.
- Create and manage RMAs, Sales Orders, and other ERP transactions associated with repair, warranty, and customer support activities.
- Maintain accurate maintenance records, serialized component tracking, and configuration data to support traceability and operational readiness.
- Serve as the primary maintenance engineering interface between Engineering, MRO, Flight Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Customer Support organizations.
- Support development of maintenance training programs, technician qualification materials, and operational best practices.
- Mentor technicians and junior engineers in troubleshooting methodologies, maintenance procedures, technical documentation, and reliability practices.
- Support strategic initiatives related to fleet growth, customer support expansion, reliability improvements, and operational scalability.
Maintenance Engineering & Continued Airworthiness
Fleet Reliability & Service Engineering
Maintenance Planning & ERP/MRP Administration
Cross-Functional Leadership
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aviation Maintenance, or related technical discipline.
- 5+ years of aerospace, aviation, military, maintenance engineering, reliability engineering, aircraft sustainment, or related experience.
- Strong understanding of scheduled and unscheduled aircraft maintenance practices.
- Experience developing maintenance programs, technical publications, instructions for continued airworthiness, or maintenance procedures.
- Experience troubleshooting complex electromechanical, avionics, propulsion, or aircraft systems.
- Experience reviewing engineering drawings, schematics, wiring diagrams, and technical documentation.
- Strong technical writing and documentation skills.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment.
- Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- FAA Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) Certificate.
- Experience supporting eVTOL, electric aircraft, UAV, rotorcraft, military, or OEM aircraft programs.
- Experience developing AMM, CMM, IPC, RSM, ICA, or maintenance training documentation.
- Experience supporting fleet entry-into-service activities and customer operations.
- Familiarity with MSG-3, Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), and maintenance program development methodologies.
- Experience with Epicor ERP/MRP or similar enterprise resource planning systems.
- Experience creating maintenance jobs, routings, material plans, RMAs, and service-related transactions within an ERP environment.
- Knowledge of FAA Part 23, Part 91, Part 135, Part 145, and continued airworthiness requirements.
- Experience supporting technical publications, service bulletin development, and engineering change implementation.
- Familiarity with lithium-ion battery systems, electric propulsion systems, avionics, and aircraft networking architectures.
Attributes aligned with Core Values
- Demonstrates a proactive safety mindset by embedding safety into daily operations, identifying and mitigating risks through assessments and training, encouraging open dialogue on safety concerns, and continuously improving protocols to ensure a safe work environment.
- Puts customers at the center of every action by deeply understanding their challenges, delivering exceptional value, and striving to exceed expectations to support their success as our core purpose.
- Actively seeks and values diverse stakeholder perspectives, builds cross-functional relationships, and fosters trust through empathetic, fact-based communication—committing to shared decisions for the greater good.
- Drives results with clarity and purpose by focusing on what matters most, adapting to change, taking initiative, and owning outcomes while aligning actions with a clear understanding of success at every level.
- Navigates ambiguity with resilience and bold thinking, challenges the status quo, and combines innovative ideas with practical best practices to overcome obstacles and drive progress.
- Fosters a high-performance culture grounded in respect, professionalism, and support—balancing high expectations with a healthy, collaborative environment and being a trusted, dependable teammate.
Role context
This Senior Maintenance Engineer role at Pivotal sits in the engineering track within defense and autonomy. The position is tied to Palo Alto, CA and is posted earlier in the current hiring cycle, which signals active hiring intent rather than archived demand. Compensation is not disclosed in the source listing, so candidates should verify range details directly with the employer. Combined with the live company and role links on this page, this listing gives candidates a direct path to compare equivalent openings by employer, market, and role focus.
Ready for the next step?
Apply directly with Pivotal
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Palo Alto, CA
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Palo Alto, CA
Approximate role location based on the employer listing.
Palo Alto, CA
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