Full Job Description
The UAS Operations Team Leader is responsible for the leadership, daily management, and continuous advancement of the organization's internal unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drone) program. This role serves as the primary technical authority and operational leader for all drone-based activities supporting Oxy oil and gas operations including, facility and well pad imaging, pipeline and midstream infrastructure inspections, drone based compliance inspections, electrical transmission and distribution asset imaging and inspections, offshore inspections, and related industrial inspection programs. The Team Leader ensures all UAS operations are executed to the standards and procedure set forth by Oxy and result in safe, efficient, and compliant day to day operations. This individual manages a team of certified pilots and mission specialists, maintains a multi-platform fleet of UAS infrastructure, drives capability development, interfaces with internal stakeholders and is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of actionable inspection data and analytical products to operations, asset integrity, and engineering teams.
Core Responsibilities:
Safety and Compliance
Serve as the primary safety authority for all UAS operations, establishing and enforcing a comprehensive Safety Management System (SMS) aligned with company HSE and Aviation policies 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.
Improve upon and support pre-mission hazard identification and risk mitigation processes, including airspace conflict analysis, weather assessment, electromagnetic interference evaluation, and site-specific hazard reviews.
Maintain thorough incident investigation protocols; lead or delegate root 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 when operating in and around hazardous energy environments (refineries, compressor stations, tank farms, gas plants).
Ensure pilots and crew maintain current 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, including sensor packages and associated payloads.
Establish procurement, maintenance, and end-of-life procedures
Work with management to establish routine refreshes of critical equipment to ensure fleet and mission readiness
Develop and enforce scheduled preventive maintenance programs, component lifecycle tracking (motor hours, prop cycles, battery charge cycles), and mandatory inspection intervals for each platform class.
Oversee firmware and software updates across the fleet, evaluating and 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 management and aviation as 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 pilot proficiency program encompassing initial qualification, platform type ratings, mission category endorsements, and annual recurrency requirements.
Conduct regular proficiency evaluations, standardization flights, and documented check for all pilots; maintain individual pilot training records and currency logs.
Ensure training programs exists and are available for fleet pilots and staff pilots
Establish a mentorship and career progression pathway for junior pilots to advance to mission-lead and senior pilot roles.
Train pilots and data technicians on data collection protocols, payload operation, sensor calibration, etc.
Identify and manage approved external training providers and recurrency programs to supplement internal capability development.
Administer performance reviews, identify skill gaps, and implement individual development plans for all direct reports as 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, and associated 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, tank batteries, 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 with appropriate authority.
Establish and enforce strict pre-flight checklists, mission briefing standards, and post-flight debrief protocols.
Scheduling, Backlog Management & Prioritization
Maintain and communicate a 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 crew utilization, 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, escalating blockers and 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 a robust 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) and inspection management platforms. Seek ways to integrate UAS data, images and findings into standardized workflows.
Work with support staff to ensure data 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 ensure QA/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 and identify bottlenecks in the pr
