Chad Kirk Senior Director, Civil Aviation

Chad Kirk serves as Senior Director of Civil Aviation at the Aerospace Industries Association. He focuses on a range of issues in the civil aviation portfolio, including building consensus among a wide range of stakeholders to advance aviation safety, sustainability, and economic viability.   

Previously, Kirk served as Head of Policy at Reliable Robotics, where he developed a comprehensive policy and engagement strategy with the Executive and Legislative branches and collaborated with various industry stakeholders to promote Advanced Air Mobility. He also served as Head of Government and Policy Affairs at Airspace Link, a Detroit-based startup focused on building uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) technologies.

Kirk gained substantial knowledge while serving at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He held various positions, notably as a Program Manager for Partnership for Safety (PSP) projects in the UAS Integration Office, where he led teams of subject matter experts, aviation safety analysts, and industry partners to integrate novel UAS operations into the National Airspace System. He also served as a policy analyst, foreign affairs specialist for North Asia, counter UAS security analyst, and a member of the Executive Secretariat for the Administrator’s Management Advisory Council (MAC) and the UAS Safety Team (UAST). Kirk received multiple awards, including the FAA Administrator’s Award for Strategic Achievement and the Special Service Award.

He earned a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from The George Washington University. Kirk is a United States Marine Corps veteran, volunteers as a youth soccer coach, serves on the board of trustees for Naval Lodge Building, and previously served as an appointee on the Alexandria Gang Prevention Community Task Force.