The Role: Lead Robotics & Engineering Instructor
Location: 118 Ferry Street, Jersey City, NJ - in-person
Compensation: $60,000 to $75,000 per year plus benefits
We are looking for someone to lead instruction at Flight & Aerospace Academy in Jersey City, and to grow into running it.
You will spend your week with students aged 7 to 17, leading small teams through builds that run for weeks or months. Cranes, drawbridges, rovers, robotic arms, custom drones. Designed in CAD, printed on our Bambu Lab P1S, wired, programmed, and flown or driven. Not kits with the steps printed on the box. Real builds that fail, get debugged, and eventually work.
About us
Flight & Aerospace Academy runs a mastery pathway that takes students from their first hour on a Cessna simulator to preparing for the FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate at 16 and beginning private pilot training at 17 with our partner, Princeton Flying School at Princeton Airport. Our students are mentored by engineers from Columbia, Michigan, and Rutgers. We run weekly programs during the school year and an eight-week engineering camp every summer.
We are small and growing. That is the honest pitch. You will have more ownership here in six months than you would get in five years somewhere larger, and you will also have to build things that do not exist yet.
What you will actually do
- Lead student build teams. Help teams choose a project, scope it so it can actually be finished, run it over weeks or months, and get it across the line
- Run head-to-head build challenges between teams, set the constraints, and judge them fairly
- Teach across three age bands: Flight Lab for ages 7 to 10, Robotics Lab for 11 to 14, Aerospace Lab for 15 to 17
- Take students through the full build cycle: CAD design, 3D printing, soldering, wiring, mechanisms and motors, flight controller configuration in Betaflight, tuning, and testing
- Run the radio-controlled airplane program, including build sessions and supervised flying
- Build the project library. If you have wanted to make something with a group of teenagers, this is where you get to
- Lead our summer engineering camp alongside our camp director
- Coach and schedule our undergraduate mentor team, and help us hire the next ones
- Talk to parents. They will ask you what their kid built this week, and you should be able to tell them
How the builds actually work
This is the part most people do not expect, so it is worth explaining properly.
Students work in small teams with an instructor on one build that runs for weeks or months. The team decides what they are making. A working crane. A drawbridge. A rover. A robotic arm. A custom drone. They design it, print it, wire it, program it, and argue about it, and at the end of it the thing either works or it does not.
Sometimes we put two teams on the same challenge. Same constraints, same deadline, completely different approaches, and then we see whose holds up. If you have been anywhere near FIRST or VEX, you already know the shape of this.
This is a job you grow out of, on purpose
Most instructor jobs are the same in year three as they were in month one. This one is designed not to be.
Months 1 to 6. You learn our programs and teach them well. You get to know the students and the families. You start rebuilding the parts of the curriculum that are weakest, because you will find them fast.
Months 6 to 18. You own curriculum. You are scheduling and coaching the mentor team, sitting in on hiring, and running camp. You start seeing the business side: which programs fill, which do not, why families stay or leave. We will bring you into those conversations because you will have information we do not.
Beyond. We are planning additional locations in the New York and New Jersey market. The person in this role is our first candidate to run one, or to lead instruction across all of them.
We will not promise you a title on a date we cannot control. That progression depends on your performance and on the business hitting its numbers. What we will promise is that the path is real, the door is open, and nobody is standing in it.
Who this is for
The builder who likes teaching. You studied engineering, or you did not and you learned anyway. You ran the drone team, the rocketry club, the FSAE car, or you have a workbench at home covered in half-finished projects. You have explained something technical to someone who did not get it and enjoyed the moment they did.
The instructor who actually builds. You have taught STEM enrichment, camp, or a classroom, and you know how to hold attention across a wide age range. You are not just running someone else's curriculum. You build things yourself.
What we need
- Hands-on build experience. Electronics, mechanical, robotics, RC, or 3D printing. Personal projects count, and we would rather see those than a certificate
- You are good with kids and comfortable across a wide age range
- Available afternoons, evenings, and some Saturdays during the school year, and full days during summer camp
What helps
Any of these are a plus, and none are required:
- FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, or interest in preparing for one
- CAD (Onshape, Fusion, Tinkercad) and 3D printing
- Betaflight, ELRS, soldering, multirotor building
- AMA membership or radio-controlled flying experience
- Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Python, or embedded work
- Prior experience teaching, coaching, camp, or tutoring
- Any experience leading a team, even a club or a shift
- Competition experience: VEX, FIRST, drone racing, Aerial Drone Competition
Schedule and location
On-site at 118 Ferry Street, Jersey City, NJ 07307. This is not a remote or hybrid role.
During the school year, expect afternoons and evenings, roughly 1:00 PM to 7:30 PM, plus Saturday morning.
Compensation and benefits
$60,000 to $75,000 per year. Where you land depends on demonstrated build capability and prior teaching or leadership experience. We will tell you why we landed where we did.
Benefits and additional compensation available within the first twelve months:
- Health benefit. Monthly tax-free reimbursement toward your individual health insurance premium and qualifying medical expenses, through a Qualified Small Employer HRA
- Paid time off. 10 days of paid vacation plus 8 paid holidays, in addition to New Jersey earned sick leave
- Professional development. We pay for your FAA Part 107 preparation and test fee, plus an annual budget for courses, conferences, or certifications relevant to the work
- Employee discount. Free or at-cost enrollment in our programs for your own family
- Referral bonus for families you bring to the academy
- Shop access. 3D printers, drone fleet, flight simulators, and tooling, for your own projects too
Pay: $60,000.00 - $75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Employee discount
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Referral program
Application Question(s):
- Describe something you built. What broke and what did you do about it?
Work Location: In person
