Derek S. Miller
Avionics Maintenance Technician | Aircraft Quality Assurance
Maintenance Leadership | U.S. Air Force
San Marcos, Texas
Professional Summary
Avionics maintenance and aircraft quality assurance professional with 9+ years of U.S. Air Force experience inspecting, troubleshooting, repairing, and validating integrated avionics systems on KC-46 and KC-10 aircraft. Experienced with communication/navigation systems, GPS, SATCOM, TCAS/IFF, UHF, weather radar, flightline maintenance, technical order compliance, maintenance documentation, training/certification management, FOD prevention, weight and balance, and quality assurance inspections. Proven ability to identify adverse maintenance trends, coordinate with engineers and field service representatives, improve inspection programs, and lead technicians in high-volume home-station and expeditionary aircraft maintenance environments.
Core Skills
Selected Achievements
Professional Experience
KC-46 Avionics Craftsman / Maintenance Team Lead
United States Air Force, 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ | Dec 2024 – Present
- •Supervise multi-capable maintenance teams performing KC-46 avionics inspections, troubleshooting, repairs, software/component replacement, training, certifications, and worldwide aircraft support for a 24-aircraft fleet valued at $7B.
- •Use technical orders, schematics, wiring diagrams, and logic diagrams to replace and validate integrated avionics system components and software.
- •Executed 80 quality assurance evaluations aligned with the Maintenance Standardization and Evaluation Program; identified documentation trends and drove corrective training that reduced repeat findings.
- •Guided avionics personnel through a high-volume aircraft maintenance period, resolving recurring discrepancies and helping raise fleet aircraft availability to a 9-month high of 74%.
- •Managed training records for 75 personnel, corrected 32 errors, removed qualification barriers, and advanced 6 technicians to the next certification level.
- •Performed avionics maintenance during multinational Indo-Pacific flight operations, sustaining aircraft availability, on-time departures, and uninterrupted support for partner aircraft.
Quality Assurance Inspector
United States Air Force, 305th Maintenance Group
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ | Dec 2021 – Nov 2024
- •Provided aircraft maintenance quality, compliance, safety, trend analysis, inspection strategy, data integrity, FOD/dropped object prevention, aircraft impound, and weight and balance support for aircraft fleets valued up to $7.5B.
- •Led quality inspection team through 327 evaluations and identified 65 negative trends, contributing to 95% inspection program effectiveness and stronger maintenance compliance.
- •Responded to 7 flightline aircraft/personnel mishaps, collected time-sensitive data, and enabled cross-organization lessons learned that reduced the incident rate by 89% in six months.
- •Routed 11 engineering requests to accelerate repairs and helped improve KC-46 fleet aircraft availability to a 7-month high of 82%.
- •Chaired technical coordination meetings with subject matter experts and engineers, producing 7 corrections and validating KC-46 maintenance procedures.
- •Streamlined FOD and dropped object reporting with Microsoft Power Platform, enabling automated analytics and increasing team productivity by 15%.
- •Validated and corrected 14 critical aircraft weight and balance updates, supporting 11.9K safe flight hours and 2.8K completed flight operations.
- •Conducted 120 deployed evaluations, identified 45 findings, and led flightline sweep operations that removed 609 pounds of debris and reversed a negative FOD trend.
- •Directed aircraft impound program actions, certified 4 personnel, and supervised critical aircraft event evaluations with zero mishaps across 8 operational check flights.
KC-10 Avionics / Communication-Navigation Systems Supervisor
United States Air Force, 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ | Jan 2019 – Nov 2021
- •Supervised and performed flightline maintenance, inspections, troubleshooting, documentation, software/component verification, and repair on KC-10 communication/navigation systems across 30–32 aircraft valued up to $4.5B.
- •Troubleshot and repaired navigation database failures, GPS receiver issues, SATCOM discrepancies, weather radar faults, TCAS processor failures, audio select panel malfunctions, UHF faults, and avionics interface unit discrepancies.
- •Supervised GPS receiver replacements and software updates, ensuring FAA compliance, improved navigation accuracy, and reliable return-to-service readiness.
- •Oversaw aircraft identification system inspections and battery replacements, strengthening communication/navigation system readiness and reducing risk of delayed flight operations.
- •Led maintenance personnel through pilot-reported discrepancies, inspections, and launch-critical repairs, helping raise aircraft availability to an 85% rate, the best in 15 months.
- •Coordinated high-volume maintenance actions across multiple specialties as a maintenance production expediter, helping achieve 98.5% maintenance execution effectiveness.
- •Corrected intermittent collision avoidance and navigation faults through wiring repair, software reloads, and line-replaceable unit replacement, restoring aircraft availability for passenger movement, cargo transport, and scheduled flight operations.
KC-10 Communication / Navigation Systems Technician
United States Air Force, 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ | May 2015 – Jan 2019
- •Performed avionics troubleshooting, equipment accountability, tool control, aircraft support-equipment inspections, communication/navigation system repair, aircraft configuration actions, and maintenance documentation for KC-10 operations.
- •Advanced aircraft configuration management by improving component and system modification tracking, protecting fleet data accuracy and accountability for aircraft assets valued at $43.3M.
- •Resolved a dual weather radar discrepancy by replacing the receiver/transmitter and antenna in 2 hours against a 3-hour standard, returning the aircraft to service ahead of schedule.
- •Reviewed 7.3K maintenance data entries, identified and corrected 155 errors, and achieved a 1.5% error rate against a 3% standard.
Military Service
Staff Sergeant (E-5) — Honorable Service
United States Air Force
Avionics Maintenance Craftsman | Quality Assurance Inspector | Maintenance Team Lead
9+ Years of Service | Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ
Education, Training & Certifications
Heavy Aircraft Integrated Avionics Journeyman / Craftsman
U.S. Air Force
MAF Integrated Communication / Countermeasures / Navigation Systems, KC-10
U.S. Air Force — 7 months of aircraft maintenance, avionics power distribution, communication, navigation, radar, mission systems, safety, security, and technical order training
Avionics Fundamentals
DC/AC principles, semiconductors, power supplies, amplifiers, wave-shaping circuits, soldering, solderless connections, safety, and shop practices
Weight and Balance Course
Aircraft weight and balance procedures, loading calculations, documentation, and technical order requirements
Air Force Training Course
Work-center training program development, training documentation, and automated systems
FAA Aircraft Systems Professional Development Course
Federal Aviation Administration