Jobs in Aviation Series: Piper CEO Simon Caldecott

Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach, Florida, is enjoying its best financial health in well over a decade thanks to increasing demand for its training airplanes used by flight schools around the world to address the growing pilot shortage. But that success is putting a strain on the company to find and retain talented workers, particularly engineers.

In our ongoing Jobs in Aviation video series, Piper CEO Simon Caldecott spoke with Rod McDermott, cofounder and CEO of executive search firm McDermott & Bull, about the turnaround at Piper and what that means for job seekers who are perhaps thinking about making a career switch to aviation.

Piper’s workforce has grown in just the last few years from 700 employees to handful short of 1,000 today. Driving the growth has been a 33 percent increase in production this year, which is expected to see Piper build more than 220 airplanes in 2018 versus 166 last year.

With no slowdown in the flight training market predicted for at least the next several years, now could be the perfect time to consider seeking a job at a major aircraft OEM.