UAS Team Lead

Core Responsibilities:

Safety and Compliance

• Serve as the primary safety authority for all UAS operations,establishingand enforcing a comprehensive Safety Management System (SMS) aligned with company HSEand Aviationpolicies and industry best practices.

• Ensure full compliance with FAA Part 107 regulations, BVLOS waivers, COAs, and any applicable international aviation authority requirements for cross-border or offshore operations.

• Develop,maintain, and enforce UAS-specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Emergency Response Procedures (ERPs), and Mission Risk Assessments (MRAs) for all operation types.

• Improveuponand supportpre-mission hazard identification and risk mitigationprocesses, including airspace conflict analysis, weather assessment, electromagnetic interference evaluation, and site-specific hazard reviews.

• Maintain thorough incident investigation protocols; leador delegateroot cause analysis and corrective action implementation for any UAS-related incident, near-miss, or equipment loss.

• Enforce strict adherence to Process Safety Management (PSM) and OSHA regulations whenoperatingin and around hazardous energy environments (refineries, compressor stations, tank farms, gas plants).

• Ensure pilots and crewmaintaincurrent certifications, medical fitness (where applicable), and substance abuse compliance per company policy.

Fleet and Asset Management

• Own the full lifecycle management of the UAS fleet, includingsensor packages and associated payloads.

• Establish procurement, maintenance, and end-of-life procedures

• Work with management toestablishroutine refreshes of critical equipment to ensure fleet and mission readiness

• Develop and enforce scheduled preventive maintenance programs,componentlifecycle tracking (motor hours, prop cycles, battery charge cycles), and mandatory inspection intervals for each platform class.

• Oversee firmware and software updates across the fleet,evaluatingand validating changes in a controlled test environment prior to operational deployment.

• Manage payload inventory including RGB cameras,lighting kits,radiometric thermal imagers,LiDAR scanners,methane/gas detection sensors

• Manage secure transport, storage, and readiness of equipment for rapid field deployment including cases, charging infrastructure, and environmental storage requirements.

• Maintain insurance documentation and records for all airframes; interface with risk managementand aviationas needed.

Pilot Management and Training

• Recruit, hire, onboard, and manage a team of FAA Part 107-certified UAS pilots and mission specialists, ensuring adequate coverage for operational demand across multiple simultaneous campaigns.

• Develop and administer a structured internal pilotproficiencyprogram encompassing initial qualification, platform type ratings, mission category endorsements, and annual recurrency requirements.

• Conduct regularproficiencyevaluations, standardization flights, and documentedcheckfor all pilots;maintainindividual pilot training records and currency logs.

• Ensure training programs exists and are available for fleet pilots andstaff pilots

• Establish a mentorship and career progression pathway for junior pilots toadvance tomission-lead and senior pilot roles.

• Train pilots and data technicians on data collection protocols, payload operation, sensor calibration, etc.

• Identifyand manage approved external training providersand recurrency programs to supplement internal capability development.

• Administer performance reviews,identifyskill gaps, and implement individual development plans for all direct reportsas needed.

• Foster a culture of continuous learning, safety-first decision-making, and operational excellence across the entire UAS team.

Day-to-Day Operations Management

• Oversee and direct all daily UAS flight operations including pre-mission planning, mission execution, post-mission data processing, andassociated debriefs.

• Coordinate with site operations,mechanical integrity,HSE, pipeline integrity, facilities maintenance, and electrical transmission teams to align drone mission execution with site access, permit-to-work (PTW), and operational windows.

• Manage simultaneous field campaigns across multiple asset types and geographies, including remote pipeline corridors, offshore platforms, tankbatteries, compressor stations, substations, and transmission towers.

• Ensure all flight operations are logged in a digital operations management system, capturing flight hours, battery cycles, anomalies, and personnel records in compliance with FAA and company documentation requirements.

• Monitor real-time weather conditions, NOTAMs, TFRs, and airspace status for all active and planned operation areas; make go/no-go decisions withappropriate authority.

• Establish and enforce strict pre-flight checklists, mission briefing standards, and post-flight debrief protocols.

Scheduling, Backlog Management & Prioritization

• Maintain and communicatea rolling backlog and mission queue integrating requests from multiple internal customers including asset integrity, pipeline operations, electrical transmission, HSE, and engineering.

• Design and implement a structured intake and prioritization framework that accounts for regulatory inspection intervals, risk-ranked asset criticality, operational urgency, weather windows, and resource availability.

• Build and manage a detailed master schedule for all UAS operations, balancing planned inspection programs, reactive/emergency response deployments, and capability development activities.

• Produce monthly and quarterly operational forecasts for crewutilization, flight hours, equipment usage, and data delivery timelines; communicate proactively with stakeholders on scheduling constraints.

• Triage and respond to unplanned inspection requests (e.g., leak detection, post-storm damage assessment, pre-turnaround surveys, incident response support) with rapid mobilization capability.

• Coordinate with planning and maintenance departments to align UAS access windows with planned outages, turnarounds, maintenance campaigns, and construction activities to maximize operational efficiency.

• Track open work orders and inspection assignments to completion, escalatingblockersand resource conflicts to management with clear recommendations.

• Maintain KPI dashboards tracking planned vs. actual flight hours, mission completion rates, backlog age, schedule adherence, and data delivery cycle times.

Data Processing, Management and Delivery

• Work and coordinate with support staff to ensure arobust data pipeline from raw sensor capture through processing, quality assurance, and delivery to end-user stakeholders.

• Manage delivery of data products to GIS platforms (Esri ArcGIS), asset management systems (SAP PM)andinspection management platforms.Seek ways to integrate UAS data,imagesand findings into standardized workflows.

• Work with support staff to ensuredata governance standards including file naming conventions, metadata tagging, coordinate reference system (CRS) management, and long-term archive and retrieval procedures.

• Work with support staff to ensureQA/QC processes for all data deliverables, including independent review protocols and defect detection validation against manual inspection findings where available.

• Track data delivery SLAs against stakeholder commitments; report on turnaround time KPIs andidentifybottlenecks in the processing workflow.

Capabilities Development and Innovation

• Lead the research, evaluation, and integration of emerging UAS technologies, including advanced payload sensors, autonomous/semi-autonomousflight systems, AI-assisted detection, anddrone dock systems.

• Develop business cases and ROI analyses for new capability investments, comparing drone-based approaches against traditional inspection methodsin terms of cost, cycle time, data quality, and safety risk reduction.

• Work with relevant teams to evaluateAI/ML-powered automated recognition platforms for integration into the inspection data workflow.

• Develop and socialize internal technical standards for UAS-based inspection methodologies and data products to achieve consistency across asset classes and operating regions.