Verification & Validation Team Lead

MAKO is putting 'shark skin' on planes to save fuel and reduce emissions.

Your Mission

MAKO's mission is to improve the efficiency of the global aviation fleet, saving billions in fuel and megatonnes of CO2 every year. We are looking for a Verification & Validation Team Lead to lead the design, execution, and evaluation of complex test and verification programs across product development and certification. You will report to the Product Engineering Team Lead and work closely with Certification, Materials, Manufacturing, and Quality teams to ensure robust and efficient evidence generation.

What You Will Do

• Lead & grow a world-class team across the design, execution, and evaluation of complex test and evaluation programs for product development & certification
• Own the test development and verification and validation strategy and deliverables, ensuring activities align with MAKO’s technical goals, certification roadmap, and business priorities
• Establish and maintain verification and validation standards, processes, and documentation, including systems engineering, requirements management, architecture and configuration control
• Define, develop, and manage test methodologies, acceptance criteria, and risk-based test plans to ensure results are robust, efficient, and defensible
• Assess and improve internal and third-party testing & systems processes and procedures, providing technical guidance and driving best practices in test design, execution and evaluation
• Train & mentor engineers to uplift MAKO’s testing, experimentation, and evidence-based decision-making capability

What Success Looks Like

• First Month: Develop a strong understanding of MAKO’s product architecture, materials behaviour, installation concepts, and existing verification and test development programs; Review existing systems/requirements documentation, test plans, reports, risk registers, and evaluation methods; Build working relationships across Product Engineering, Certification, Materials, Manufacturing, and Quality teams
• First Six Months: Take ownership and lead the team through key verification and validation programs targeting certification and regulatory approval of MAKO’s first product; Lead improvements to test methodologies, systems engineering processes, templates, and risk-based planning approaches; Drive higher confidence, efficiency, and clarity in test execution and reporting
• First Year: You will have grown the team in both size and capability, ensuring professional development plans address key capability needs; Establish MAKO-wide best practices for test design, systems engineering, risk-based evaluation, and evidence generation; Have defined MAKO’s longer-term test development and verification/validation strategies

About You

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering or similar
• Track record leading cross-disciplinary teams in highly technical, highly regulated fields such as aerospace, medical or automotive
• Demonstrated experience designing and leading complex verification & validation, test and evaluation programs
• Strong understanding of Systems Engineering principles and lifecycle management
• Thrive in a fast-moving, ambiguous and constantly evolving startup environment
• You enjoy mentoring junior and senior engineers and leading technical decisions with confidence and clarity

Why You Should Join MAKO

• Impact: Aviation is one of the hardest to abate industries, and its share of global emissions is only growing. Join our mission to improve the efficiency of the global fleet and save millions of tonnes of CO2 every year
• Technology: Our technology leverages the drag-reducing properties of shark skin to make aircraft more efficient. You'll be exposed to expertise and developments in materials, photolithography, fluid dynamics, and scale manufacturing
• Team: Our team focuses on achieving our mission. We live our values of lift over drag, active transparency, and changing the boundary conditions, and we welcome new team members who want to do the same
• Corporate Jet: We have (most of) a corporate jet. It won't fly, but it sure does look cool