The Flying School — Anywhere
About AFI The Flying School (AFI) is a growing Part 141 flight training operation with locations in Colorado and Wyoming, and more states on the way. We're building a modern, data-driven flight school from the ground up. This role is a ground-floor opportunity to design AFI's entire maintenance program as it scales into a national training fleet. Position Summary AFI is hiring a Director of Maintenance (DOM) to build our maintenance program from the ground up and own airworthiness, fleet reliability, and regulatory compliance across all locations. This is a hybrid role: hands-on wrench time now, evolving into a maintenance management/oversight role as AFI adds schools and the fleet and maintenance team grow. The DOM will be the architect of how AFI maintains aircraft consistently across every state it operates in. Responsibilities Build the Program (Now) - Design AFI's maintenance program from scratch: inspection schedules, scheduled/unscheduled maintenance workflows, parts and vendor management, squawk tracking, and record-keeping systems - Establish standardized maintenance procedures and documentation that can be replicated at every new location - Perform and/or directly oversee inspections (100-hour, annual), airworthiness directive (AD) compliance, and service bulletin tracking across the fleet - Set up a maintenance tracking system (digital squawk log, maintenance software) usable across multiple locations - Manage relationships with maintenance shops, vendors, and parts suppliers in both CO and WY, and vet new vendors as AFI expands into new states - Perform hands-on maintenance and troubleshooting as needed, especially during the current build-out phase Scale the Program (Growth Phase) - Transition from primarily hands-on work to overseeing a growing maintenance team as AFI adds mechanics and new locations - Hire, train, and standardize maintenance staff/contract shops at new locations to AFI's program and standards - Own fleet airworthiness reporting and compliance oversight across all locations, including recordkeeping audits - Partner with ownership on fleet acquisition decisions, aircraft downtime/utilization tradeoffs, and maintenance budgeting - Serve as the point of contact for FAA inspections and any maintenance-related regulatory matters - Build a maintenance cost/downtime dashboard so ownership has visibility into fleet health and spend across all locations Requirements Certificates - FAA Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) Certificate required - Inspection Authorization (IA) required — this is the "highest level" credential for the role and is necessary to sign off annual inspections and major repairs/alterations without routing through a separate IA - Valid and current IA renewal (14 CFR 65.93 recent experience/renewal requirements) Experience - Several years of hands-on A&P experience, ideally in general aviation / flight training or charter environments (training aircraft like Cessna 172s, Pipers, and multi-engine platforms like the Baron) - Direct experience with 100-hour and annual inspection programs - Experience building or significantly improving a maintenance program, not just executing an existing one — this role starts from scratch - Familiarity with Part 141 and/or Part 135 maintenance recordkeeping expectations (Part 141 schools are held to airworthiness standards during audits) - Experience managing vendor/parts relationships and controlling maintenance costs Growth-Phase Requirements - Willingness and ability to travel between CO and WY locations regularly, with travel to new states as AFI expands - Comfortable transitioning over time from hands-on turning wrenches to managing a distributed team of mechanics/shops - Strong documentation habits — this program needs to be replicable at every new location, not dependent on one person's institutional knowledge Preferred - Experience standing up maintenance operations for a multi-location business - Background with both single- and multi-engine piston trainers - Comfortable with maintenance tracking software and building simple reporting/dashboards for ownership What AFI Offers - Competitive salary + growth path into a true Director-level role as AFI scales - Ground-floor ownership of maintenance program design for an expanding national flight school brand - Direct input into fleet decisions, vendor relationships, and hiring as the team grows - W-2 employment with benefits (details provided during offer stage) Pay: $130,000.00 - $160,000.00 per year Benefits: - 401(k) - 401(k) matching - Dental insurance - Employee discount - Health insurance - Paid time off - Retirement plan - Vision insurance Application Question(s): - Do you currently hold an FAA Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) Certificate? - Do you currently hold an active Inspection Authorization (IA)? - Have you ever built or significantly redesigned a maintenance program from scratch, rather than only operating within an existing one? Experience: - of hands-on A&P experience do you have,?: 3 years (Required) Work Location: In person