Stop paying 20% of a CFI's first-year salary for one hire. Pay a flat monthly retainer for ongoing candidate flow.
The CFI and LAME shortage in Australian aviation is, in the words of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, "absolutely dire." 60,000 years of LAME experience are leaving the industry. AST Perth — a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer training MRO founded in 1931 — collapsed in April 2025. The supply side is shrinking. The recruitment channel needs to be a flywheel, not a transaction.
Built for the 329 CASA-certified flight training organisations + 179 Part 145 MROs in Australia.
The economics
- · Agency fee per CFI hire: $13,500-22,500 (15-25% of $90K salary)
- · Our retainer: $1,500-2,000 USD/mo flat
- · Break-even: 1 hire per year
- · Above 1 hire/year: retainer wins every time
- · Plus: ongoing funnel between hires, not just transactional placement
- · Plus: your career page, your brand, your candidate relationships
Quick answer
What is the Instructor & LAME Recruitment Funnel?
A productised aviation recruitment-marketing service for Australian flight schools and Part 145 maintenance organisations. Career page + LinkedIn outreach to passive candidates + aviation-specialist job board placement (AvCrew, AOPA, AHIA, RAAA) + ATS integration + referral incentive framework. Flat $1,500-2,000 USD per month retainer instead of 15-25% agency commission per hire. Six-month minimum.
The pain
The supply pipeline is shrinking. Agencies are charging more per hire. Your training output is capped by the instructor you can't hire.
Every flight school in Australia is running into the same wall: there are CFI applications coming in, but not enough qualified, retained instructors to teach the students you already have. The Part 145 side is worse. The RAAA puts the situation in regional Australia at "absolutely dire" and warns it will only worsen. AST Perth's closure removed one of the few independent LAME training pipelines the country had.
When you do find a candidate, the recruitment agency takes 15-25% of their first-year salary in a single placement fee. For a CFI on $90K, that is $13,500-22,500 in commission for one hire. And then the agency is gone — you have no ongoing candidate flow, no nurture pipeline for the next role you need to fill, and no continuing relationship to draw on.
The funnel pattern is what works in every other talent-constrained industry: continuous candidate engagement, your brand on the career page, your job alerts going to passive candidates, your ATS getting the applications. The aviation-specialist version of that funnel is what this offer productises.
How it works
Six channels feeding one ATS. You see every applicant. You decide who to hire.
Channel 1
Optimised career page
Built on your existing site (or hosted at jobs.youroperator.com.au if needed). Per-role landing pages optimised for "CFI jobs [city]" and "LAME jobs [city]" search terms.
Channel 2
LinkedIn passive-candidate outreach
Targeted DMs to CFIs / CFIIs / LAMEs in your region who are NOT actively job-hunting but might consider a move. Aviation-specific search filters by ratings, hours, current employer.
Channel 3
Aviation job boards
AvCrew, AOPA Australia jobs board, AHIA placements, RAAA member network. Where actively job-seeking aviation professionals are already looking.
Channel 4
Generalist boards (Seek)
Covers the candidates who do not yet identify as "aviation pros" — early-career CFIs, lateral-move engineers, people relocating to your region. Lower conversion but wider reach.
Channel 5
Referral incentive framework
Structured referral bounty for your existing instructors and engineers (typically $1,000-2,000 for successful 6-month retained placement). Internal-network candidates retain longer than cold-channel candidates.
Channel 6
ATS integration + monthly funnel report
Applications flow into your ATS (Workable, BambooHR, Greenhouse, or a Google Sheet). Monthly report on searches, applicants, interviews, hires across all six channels.
Packages + pricing
Flat retainer. Public pricing. Pays for itself at one hire per year.
Standard · 6-month min
Single role-class
Recruitment funnel for one role-class (CFIs, LAMEs, etc.).
$1,500 USD/mo
~$2,300 AUD/mo
- All 6 channels active
- Career page on your site or subdomain
- LinkedIn outreach (up to 100 DMs/mo)
- ATS integration
- Monthly funnel report
- 6-month minimum (the ramp window)
Flexible
Month-to-month
Same scope as Standard, no commitment.
$1,800 USD/mo
~$2,750 AUD/mo
- Same as Standard, cancel anytime
- +20% over Standard for the flexibility
- Use case: hire 1-2 then pause
Scale · 6-month min
Multi-role program
3+ concurrent role-classes (e.g. CFIs + LAMEs + ground school).
$3,500 USD/mo
~$5,350 AUD/mo
- Up to 3 role-classes active
- LinkedIn outreach (up to 250 DMs/mo)
- Cross-role pipeline view
- Fortnightly funnel report
- Bi-monthly strategy call
Adding a second concurrent role-class to the Standard tier is +$750/mo. Bundle discount of 15% if combined with any other OTGM service. Chat first if your situation is unusual.
Frequently asked
Questions that come up before you enquire.
Recruitment agencies typically charge 15-25% of the placed candidate's first-year salary. For a CFI on $90K, that is $13.5-22.5K per hire — paid in a lump-sum at placement. We run a flat monthly retainer ($1,500-2,000 USD/mo) that delivers ongoing candidate flow rather than transactional placement. The break-even is around 1 hire per year; above that, the retainer wins every time.
We generate qualified applications. You run the interviews, the assessments, the trial flights, and you decide who gets the offer. Our scope is the funnel — career page + LinkedIn outreach + targeted job-board placement + ATS integration if you have one — not the selection. That keeps the hiring decision in your hands where it belongs.
CFIs (Flight Instructor Rating + Grade 1/2/3), CFIIs (instrument instructor), LAMEs (Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer), Part 145 engineers, ground school instructors, theory examiners. The funnel mechanic is the same across roles; the targeting copy + LinkedIn search terms + job-board placements differ per role.
Seek is one channel out of six we run for you (the others being LinkedIn outreach to passive candidates, aviation-specific job boards like AvCrew, AOPA AU + AHIA + RAAA job placements, your own optimised career page with aviation-buyer search terms, and a referral incentive framework). Generalist job boards underperform in aviation; specialist channels are where the candidates actually are.
Both. The LAME shortage is "absolutely dire" per the RAAA — and AST Perth (LAME training MRO, founded 1931) collapsed in April 2025, so the supply pipeline is shrinking. We run LAME funnels for Part 145 MROs with the same flat-retainer model. Targeting copy + job-board placements are different; the mechanic is the same.
No replacement guarantee like an agency offers — but our retainer keeps running, so the next hire comes through the same funnel. If retention is the real issue (not acquisition), we can scope a small ops review to identify the leakage point. Often it is onboarding or pay banding, not the recruitment channel.
Six-month minimum at the standard $1,500/mo retainer. Month-to-month available at +20% (i.e. $1,800/mo). The 6-month minimum exists because recruitment funnels take 60-90 days to fully ramp — the first month is setup + career-page build, the second month is the first cohort of applications, by month three you have a steady candidate flow.
Yes. We build the career-page section onto your existing site if you control it. If your site is on a platform we cannot edit, we host the career page on a subdomain (jobs.youroperator.com.au) and link from your main site. Either way, the page lives under your brand.
We integrate with whatever you use — Workable, BambooHR, Greenhouse, JazzHR, or a Google Sheet if you have not adopted an ATS yet. The applications flow through to your inbox + your tracking system without us being in the middle of the hiring decision.
The $1,500-2,000 USD/mo retainer covers a single role-class active at a time (e.g. CFIs, or LAMEs). Adding a second concurrent role-class is +$750/mo. Multi-role discounts available if you have a planned hiring program across 3+ role-classes.
Get a retainer quote
Send the operator details. Reply within one business day.
Tier recommendation, expected funnel volume, and a 30-minute intake call slot. Or use the longer /contact form if you want to chat first.
About
Built by the instructor who sat on both sides of the hiring desk.
Joey Pehrson is a commercial helicopter pilot and Grade 2 flight instructor based in Brisbane. The recruitment funnel was originally built for an aviation operator where he watched generalist recruitment agencies miss what aviation candidates actually search for and what aviation operators actually need. The flat-retainer model exists because the agency-commission model is built for one-off transactions, not for an industry where the talent shortage is structural.
SEO retainer for general operator growth. Website Design if your career page lives on a site that needs rebuilding too. All services for the full picture.