Aerospace Solutions Advisor, SME

Role at a Glance

We’re hiring a senior, highly-credible aerospace domain expert to close gaps in practical aerospace inspection and maintenance experience and aircraft structural/NDT knowledge in Gecko’s aerospace business. This individual will be the team’s principal subject matter expert on how aircraft are inspected, maintained, and sustained over decades — particularly from the operator/owner (e.g., squadron-level) and depot-maintenance perspective — and will translate that domain expertise into product requirements, customer engagements, and field execution.

This is a rare opportunity to leverage aerospace maintenance subject matter expertise in a cutting edge, vertically integrated hardware and software product environment.

This role is posted as remote; however, we strongly prefer candidates located near current or anticipated customer sites to support in-person engagement. Additionally, for team members based in cities where Gecko maintains an office, regular in-office presence is expected as part of our in-person operating culture.

What you will do

Technical leadership & product input

• Serve as the lead technical voice on aircraft structural integrity, maintenance and inspection workflows, and NDT methods for all aerospace product development and POVs.

• Translate depot/operator/maintenance practices and constraints into concrete product requirements, acceptance criteria, and validation plans.

• Define inspection/NDT scope, success criteria, and data-quality thresholds for pilot opportunities and production deployments (e.g., understand what “great” looks like, where the pain points are with current processes).

Commercial & GTM support

• Provide credible representation of Gecko to senior customer stakeholders — maintenance chiefs, sustainment leaders, program offices, primes, and airline/airframe technical operations leads.

• Support capture efforts by writing technical sections of proposals, mapping requirements to engineering solutions, and participating in customer technical discussions that require deep domain credibility.

Coaching & cross-functional enablement

• Mentor engineers (mechanical, software, NDT/level II/III staff) to raise domain fluency in aerospace sustainment, NDE interpretation, and operator language.

• Contribute to internal training materials, playbooks, and deliverables to ensure the broader team can speak confidently with customers.

Execution & customer engagement

• Advise on technical execution for pilot programs and deployments. Own the high-level inspection plan and success criteria, ensuring product claims and scopes reflect operator, depot, and regulatory expectations.

• Be Gecko’s senior technical face to customers. Serve as the credible contact for senior maintainers, program offices, primes, and sustainment leadership — run briefings, answer technical questions, and resolve escalations.

• Coordinate cross-functional delivery. Translate customer objectives into realistic execution plans and align Operations, Engineering, and Product on feasibility, resources, and risks.

• Turn results into decisions. Synthesize post-job findings into clear recommendations for customers and product teams, highlighting confidence, risk, and required follow-ups.

• Provide high-level technical guidance. Recommend appropriate inspection approaches and data expectations, and identify when issues require escalation to working-level NDT or engineering specialists — without owning procedure-level implementation.

About You

Required Skills

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in aircraft maintenance, depot sustainment, aerospace engineering, or related NDT/structural roles (civilian prime/airline or military aviation career). Candidates with career USAF / USN aviation backgrounds are strongly preferred.

• Deep, demonstrable experience with aircraft structural inspection, corrosion management, and lifecycle sustainment practices (ASIP or equivalent).

• Track record of interfacing with senior maintainers and program offices — able to speak credibly with senior engineers, maintenance chiefs, and sustainment leaders.

• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to convert technical insight into customer-ready messages, proposal language, and product requirements.

Preferred Skills

• Military aviation maintenance career (airframe/flightline/depot), or multi-year experience at a major aerospace prime, MRO, or airline maintenance organization.

• Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Certification (or military equivalent).

• Familiarity with acquisition/program office workflows (e.g., WR-ALC, PMS/PEO interfaces) and experience engaging with government sustainment stakeholders.

• Prior experience shaping product deliveries (proof of concepts/pilots) and supporting commercial capture efforts with technical credibility.

• Graduate of USAF / USN test pilot school.

• Engineer qualified to sign off on aircraft.

• Formal education: B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science, or equivalent practical experience. Advanced degree a plus.

• Practical NDT experience (Level II technical competency in some modalities or equivalent accumulation preferred) — demonstrated ability to design and interpret UT/PAUT, eddy current, and visual inspection approaches for structural assessments.

• Strong mechanical/metallurgy literacy: fatigue, fracture-mechanics considerations, repair practices, and metal joining/fastener behavior as applied to airframes.