Production Flight Test Manager

Position Summary

Teal Drones, a wholly owned subsidiary of Red Cat Holdings, is looking to hire a full-time Production Flight Test Manager. Teal is a rapidly growing technology company focused on creating world‑class unmanned aircraft system solutions for defense, public safety, and government security applications.

The Production Flight Test Manager is a key operational leadership role responsible for managing Production Flight Test as a post‑production quality and acceptance function. This team serves as the final verification gate before aircraft systems are released to customers or downstream operations.

This role is responsible for ensuring completed aircraft are tested safely, consistently, and against clearly defined acceptance criteria. The manager will own daily test execution, test readiness, defect tracking, First Pass Yield, reject rates, retest performance, recurring failure trends, and the definition of acceptable performance limits for production flight acceptance.

The ideal candidate is a data‑driven leader who can manage flight test operations while turning test results into actionable information for Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Software, Hardware, and Flight Operations. This position requires the ability to identify trends, elevate systemic issues, define where performance is outside acceptable limits, and drive corrective action through the appropriate quality and engineering processes.

This role reports directly to the VP of Operations and plays a critical role in aircraft acceptance, quality performance, delivery execution, and continuous improvement.

• Manage Production Flight Test personnel, including professional development, scheduling, timecards, expense reporting, coaching, feedback, and accountability.
• Lead daily Production Flight Test coordination meetings to align flight priorities, aircraft readiness, range availability, personnel support, acceptance status, and delivery schedules.
• Manage and schedule post‑production flight testing for all applicable sUAS platforms, ensuring aircraft readiness, test‑site coordination, personnel coverage, and deconfliction across multiple test locations.
• Own and maintain the Production Flight Test schedule to ensure completed aircraft are tested, documented, dispositioned, and released in support of delivery timelines.
• Track and report aircraft status through the full Production Flight Test process, including completed, awaiting test, passed, failed, requiring retest, blocked, and ready for delivery.
• Own and report key Production Flight Test metrics, including:
  • First Pass Yield, FPY
  • Pass and fail rates
  • Reject rates
  • Retest rates
  • Repeat failure trends
  • Defect categories
  • Aircraft aging in test queue
  • Test throughput
  • Acceptance cycle time
  • Ready‑for‑delivery conversion rate
• Define, monitor, and communicate acceptable limits for Production Flight Test performance, including reject‑rate thresholds, FPY targets, retest limits, and escalation triggers.
• Identify recurring defects and failure modes using test data, reject trends, and FPY analysis.
• Ensure bugs, failures, nonconformances, and recurring issues identified during Production Flight Test are accurately documented through the appropriate quality, engineering, and bug‑reporting systems.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Software, Hardware, and Flight Operations to ensure test failures are reviewed, assigned, dispositioned, and driven to resolution.
• Establish clear standards for what constitutes a pass, fail, retest, hold, or escalation condition during Production Flight Test.
• Ensure Production Flight Test data is complete, accurate, timely, and usable for quality reviews, delivery planning, engineering feedback, and continuous improvement.
• Support implementation of sampling strategies, AQL‑based inspection approaches, and data‑backed acceptance criteria where appropriate.
• Ensure Production Flight Test activities comply with applicable FAA rules and regulations, company policies, pilot qualification requirements, airspace requirements, and flight standards.
• Coordinate NOTAM establishment and required operating notifications for various test sites as…