Team Leader: AIMS at South African Airways Technical (SAAT)

Job Purpose    

• Lead and manage aircraft flight data monitoring programmes, safety analytics, and aviation data investigation support to improve operational safety, identify risks, and support strategic safety management initiatives within the organisation.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Incident & Event Investigation Support: Provide rapid extraction, validation, and reconstruction of flight data to support incident and accident investigations.
• Safety Risk Management & Governance: Ensure compliance with ICAO Annex 13 principles, safety risk assessments, data confidentiality, and hazard mitigation processes.
• Aircraft Data Systems & Technical Analysis: Interpret aircraft systems data, validate parameter accuracy, and analyse flight profiles to distinguish operational deviations, technical failures, and human-machine interaction issues.
• Leadership & Departmental Management: Manage AIMS analysts, establish analytical standards, prioritise investigations, and coordinate proactive safety monitoring activities.
• Stakeholder & Regulatory Coordination: Interface with SACAA, aircraft manufacturers, regulators, pilot groups, and operational departments regarding aviation safety data matters.
• Data Integrity & Systems Administration: Maintain aviation data analysis systems, replay tools, and ensure the reliability and integrity of aircraft data sources.
• Continuous Improvement & Safety Enhancement: Identify opportunities to improve safety analytics capabilities, investigation methodologies, and aviation data monitoring processes.
• Evaluate and provide recommendations on quotations for outsourced aircraft data analysis services.
• Ensure facility compliance with all applicable regulatory authority requirements, standards, and procedures.
• Engage with customers to identify and define software requirements for the analysis and interpretation of aircraft data.
• Remain abreast of emerging technologies and industry developments to support customer fleet changes, and recommend appropriate system enhancements and improvements.
• Design, develop, and maintain aircraft and ground-based software solutions for the retrieval, decoding, processing, and analysis of aircraft data.

Qualifications & Experience    

• Grade 12 or equivalent with Mathematics - Essential
• Aircraft Avionics Trade qualification with 3 years’ experience - Essential
• Qualification in IT or related field - Essential 
• Management or Business qualification - Advantageous
• Aircraft type course - Advantageous
• Safety analytics or Statistical analysis training - Advantageous
• Aircraft maintenance or avionics environments - General Aviation (4 Years) Advantageous
• AIMS Analyst - General Aviation (3 Years) EssentialSupporting incident and accident investigations - General Aviation  (3 Years)  Essential
• High Level of Computer Literacy (MS Office, Visual Basic, Fortran) - General Aviation - (3 Years) - Essential
• Working with aviation regulators and operational departments    General Aviation - (4 Years) - Essential

Knowledge and Skills    

• Programming skills - Advanced
• Problem solving skills - Advanced
• Interpersonal Skills - Intermediate
• Communication Skills - Intermediate
• Aviation safety data analysis - Advanced
• Analytical and problem-solving capability - Advanced
• Assertiveness skills - Advanced
• Coaching and mentoring skills - Intermediate
• Technical report writing and presentation - Intermediate
• Stakeholder engagement and coordination - Intermediate
• Flight profile reconstruction and event analysis - Advanced