Jet Excellence LLC | Chief Pilot

Jet Excellence, a rapidly growing fleet charter operator located in Raleigh, North Carolina, seeks a Director, Fleet Operations to lead the integrated daily operation of its floating fleet. This hybrid role focuses on ensuring aircraft, crew, maintenance readiness, and flight support are aligned for successful trip execution and service delivery.

About the Role

The Director, Fleet Operations is an execution-focused leader responsible for the integrated daily operations of Jet Excellence's fleet. This role involves establishing shared priorities, resolving cross-functional issues across Charter Coordination, Fleet Scheduling, and Crew Scheduling, and holding teams accountable for a coordinated operating plan. The Director will work collaboratively with functional teams to anticipate constraints, close readiness gaps, and drive operational issues to resolution, partnering closely with the Director of Operations, Chief Pilot, and Maintenance leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the daily operating plan, aligning aircraft availability, crew readiness, maintenance status, and flight support with trip commitments.
• Provide direct operational support during complex events and high workloads, removing obstacles and completing critical actions.
• Conduct operational briefings to establish priorities, assign ownership, and confirm readiness for current and upcoming trips.
• Maintain active involvement in fleet activity, identifying constraints and closing execution gaps.
• Ensure effective shift handoffs and follow-through on outstanding actions.
• Direct coordination across Charter Coordination, Fleet Scheduling, and Crew Scheduling.
• Resolve competing priorities and dependencies affecting aircraft assignments, crew coverage, positioning, and trip preparation.
• Partner with Maintenance leadership and Maintenance Control to incorporate aircraft limitations and availability into the operating plan.
• Ensure operational changes are accurately reflected in Company systems and communicated to affected teams.
• Align with Client Services and commercial teams on feasible options and realistic delivery expectations.
• Lead the coordinated response to maintenance events, weather disruptions, crew shortages, and other interruptions.
• Evaluate recovery options for operational feasibility, customer impact, crew considerations, and cost.
• Bring appropriate teams together to develop recovery options, establish decision timelines, and assign actions.
• Drive recovery plans to completion, obtaining required validations and approvals.
• Escalate safety, regulatory, maintenance, and resource concerns beyond assigned authority.
• Keep leadership and affected stakeholders informed of significant developments.
• Set clear expectations for functional leaders regarding readiness, responsiveness, communication, and execution.
• Coach teams through operational challenges and provide direct support during complex events or high workloads.
• Address missed handoffs, unresolved issues, and performance gaps promptly.
• Assess staffing, coverage, and training needs to support continuous charter operation.
• Monitor schedule reliability, recovery effectiveness, fleet utilization, positioning efficiency, and recurring causes of disruption.
• Lead post-event reviews and implement practical improvements to planning, procedures, and coordination.
• Track corrective actions to completion and verify their effectiveness.
• Report operational results, emerging risks, and resource needs to leadership.
• Ensure execution practices remain aligned with Company manuals and authorized responsibilities.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership experience in Part 135 charter operations, preferably within a floating fleet environment.
• Experience leading operational managers or multiple aviation support functions across aircraft scheduling, crew scheduling, flight coordination, logistics, and maintenance coordination.
• Proven ability to direct daily operations and lead recovery efforts during significant disruptions.
• Strong working knowledge of aircraft readiness, crew duty and rest requirements, mission planning, and fleet utilization.
• Ability to make timely, sound decisions, resolve competing priorities, and align teams in a fast-paced operating environment.
• Excellent communication, coaching, conflict-resolution, and follow-through skills.
• Proficiency with aviation scheduling and operational management systems; JetInsight experience preferred.