JOB OVERVIEW
FTAI Aviation's Innovation Group is the company strategic division where future technologies are developed. The department supports day-to-day activities while seeking improvement projects for financial and technological growth.
We are currently looking for Repair Development Engineers to define, substantiate and qualify new repairs for CFM56 engine hardware, and to deploy them across FTAI's global MRO operations.
Responsibilities:
- Define repair schemes for CFM56 hardware, establishing the technical approach and acceptance criteria for parts that fall outside published serviceable or repairable limits.
- Build the substantiation package: stress, thermal and life analysis, materials and process justification, test plans, and the supporting data.
- Coordinate approvals with Designated Engineering Representatives (DER) and the design approval organization, and prepare the technical content each approval route requires.
- Own the qualification path from concept through first article to production release, including the process qualification behind it.
- Review unserviceable material and assess whether a repair is technically sound and commercially worth developing.
- Act as FTAI's technical contact with repair vendors and joint-development partners, holding them to the network's technical requirements.
- Deploy approved repairs into the shops: write work instructions, brief site engineering and production teams, and support first production runs.
- Provide the technical inputs - expected yield, cost, cycle time and service life - used to prioritize the repair development pipeline.
- Prepare and present technical and project status updates to leadership and stakeholders.
Qualifications:
- Mechanical, Aerospace, Materials or Metallurgical engineering degree from an accredited university, or equivalent engineering experience
- Minimum 5 years of experience in aero engine engineering - repair development, MRO engineering, DER support, or OEM component design (8+ years for the senior level)
- Hands-on knowledge of CFM56 or comparable turbofan hardware: turbine and compressor blades and vanes, cases, combustors, rotating structures
- Working command of engine and component maintenance manuals, serviceable and repairable limits, and unserviceable material disposition
- Substantiation fundamentals: finite element or classical stress analysis, materials behavior, and fatigue and creep life assessment
- Familiarity with FAA and EASA repair approval routes, including PMA and DER, and the evidence each requires
- Strong technical writing skills - on this team the approval package is the deliverable
- Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience serving as a Designated Engineering Representative (DER), or successfully leading a DER repair approval through the certification process
- Repair process knowledge - welding, brazing, thermal spray and coatings, machining, or additive manufacturing
- Industrial gas turbine or power generation experience
Job Demands:
Work is performed in a Shop environment and requires the ability to perform extensive standing, driving, walking, and climbing; to lift up to 50lbs. regularly; to manipulate up to 100lbs. with assistance. Must be able to bend, stoop, climb to reach materials, and work in a noisy environment.
