Technical Project Manager, Merlin Labs
Ability to travel 25 – 50%
Aviation tech for fully autonomous flight
Job no longer available
Aviation tech for fully autonomous flight
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
Ability to travel 25 – 50%
101-200 employees
Company mission
To build the AI-powered operating system of record that allows aircraft, large and small, to fly autonomously.
Role
Who you are
- Requires a combination of project management, lightweight process creation and optimization, and execution skills
- BS in a technical discipline
- 2-3 years of technical project management
- Expertise in implementing lean development methodologies and building systems to track project progress in tools like Jira, Asana, and others
- Adept at advanced Jira features and reports
- Experience decomposing strategic product plans into operational project plans for teams to implement
- Extraordinary judgment and composure in high-pressure situations
- Excellent customer service skills
- A real passion for developing strong partnerships and high functioning teams
- Attention to detail, including maintaining accurate records and diligently tracking key project metrics
- US Person status is required as this position may need to access export controlled data
Desirable
- PMP Certification
- Experience as a pilot (former military or recreational)
- Active US Security clearance or eligibility and willingness to obtain a US Security clearance
What the job involves
- If you love fixing problems and always keep vigorous focus on the outcome, you might be a good fit for the team in a Technical Project Management role here at Merlin
- Partner with Merlin engineers, flight ops, certifications and regulatory teams to drive key product deliverables through the entire software development cycle
- Synthesize concrete technical goals from the product vision and map product strategy to granular team tasks and issues. This means triaging requests and creating maximum focus for the team, while escalating items that need immediate attention
- Take a creative approach to project management centered around putting a lightweight process in place that allows for rapid iteration
- Keep a broad and complete state of everything involving or related to your projects. Pre-empt and resolve any issues that may steer projects off-course
- Create and maintain informative top level reports for the executive team that depict consistent accurate state of projects and projected launch dates
- Deconflict cross-team collaboration. Read a room of technical experts to align them around shared objectives. Improve efficiency where you see miscommunication or lack of coordination
- Be prepared to go forward and meet with customers to create an iterative feedback loop that drives product development
- This role reports directly to the Chief of Staff. You will be attached to Merlin engineering teams and should view the team as your customer
Our take
Companies like Xwing and Reliable Robotics are retrofitting aircrafts for full autonomy, however, Merlin Labs is taking a different route. Rather than building its own aircradt, it's developing the Merlin Pilot - an autonomous flight system designed to integrate into existing fleets. And this systems-first approach is gaining rel traction across commercial and defense sectors.
Instead of developing an autonomous vehicle, the company has designed configurable software that can be fitted into any plane to turn it into one. It’s already received certification from the FAA in the US, and the CAA in New Zealand; now, the goal is to get it fitted into large commercial aircraft to help reduce crew sizes. Ultimately, Merlin Labs is hoping its software will be used to fly smaller aircraft completely autonomously.
Providing a way for non-autonomous aircraft to be repurposed is a neat and attractive solution: costly aircraft needn’t be scrapped, human co-pilots don’t require retraining, and there’s a wealth of existing commercial and private applications for the software. So it’s an astute way of manoeuvring ahead of well-funded competition. Investors are paying attention, as are top-tier clients: Merlin has partnered with the likes of Ameriflight, the U.S. Air Force, and Dynamic Aviation, and pulled in millions of dollars of funding. It will need it: the competition is fierce.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
55% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Apr 2023
$1m
GRANT
Jul 2022
$105m
SERIES B
Total funding: $170.8m
Company HQ
Leather District, Boston, MA
Leadership
Matt George
(CEO)Served in an OPC role at The White House, then on the Senior Advisory Board at Boston 2024. Went on to found and lead tech company Bridj.
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