Chief Pilot — Willson Aire

Willson Aire — Founding Chief Pilot 📍 Florida (home base — exact station TBD) · Full-time · Founding leadership team

About Willson Aire Willson Aire is a FAR Part 121 startup carrier in development, flying the Airbus A220 out of Florida. We're building an airline around a simple idea: crew and passengers deserve the same level of care — reliability and comfort without the high-stress "turn-and-burn" culture common at low-cost carriers. We're currently pre-certification, working through FAA Part 121 approval, with a target launch in 2028.

The Role As Chief Pilot, you'll be one of five FAA-mandated leadership post holders (14 CFR §119.65) named directly in our certification filing. You'll build the pilot group from the ground up — standards, training programs, scheduling philosophy, and culture — working directly with our Director of Operations and Director of Safety to shape how this airline actually flies.

What You'll Own

• Pilot recruiting, hiring standards, and onboarding for our founding pilot group
• Flight crew training program design and oversight, in coordination with our A220 type-rating partners
• Day-to-day operational control authority over flight crew per FAR 121 / Ops Specs
• Direct input into the General Operations Manual (GOM) and Training Manual during FAA manual-writing phase
• Crew scheduling philosophy and standards that reflect our safety-first, sustainable-pace culture

What We're Looking For

• Current or former Part 121 Chief Pilot, Director of Operations, or equivalent senior flight operations leadership experience
• A220 experience a strong plus, though not required
• Direct experience with a Part 121 certification project (ideally as a startup/new-entrant carrier) is highly valued
• FAA ATP certificate
• Comfortable operating in a build-from-scratch environment — this is not a role with existing systems to inherit

Compensation Full-time, founding leadership role. Compensation includes a base salary and founding-team equity (four-year vesting, one-year cliff) — final structure to be confirmed following CFO review. Happy to discuss specifics directly in conversation.

• Stage Pre-certification. This is a chance to shape an airline's flight operations from its very first page, not step into a role that already exists.