The engineer in the loop.
K-Tech Labs is led by Kristian Cruickshank — an engineer at the forefront of safety-critical aerospace systems and advanced technology integration. Large companies scale by leveraging junior staff; K-Tech Labs scales by leveraging senior experience.
Kristian Cruickshank
Founder · Principal engineerKristian works at the intersection of systems engineering, systems safety, and uncrewed aviation. His focus is the hard middle of emerging capability — the analysis, architecture, and evidence that turn a promising idea into an operation a regulator will accept and a crew can run. That experience comes from three directions:
Five years co-founding and running Revolution Aerospace, and two years managing Airservices Australia's strategic innovation incubator for future air-traffic management — business strategy, program management, and stakeholder and international engagement.
Six years at Nova Systems as a senior systems engineer — systems safety and software-assurance specialist, technical lead across dozens of projects, and lead of the autonomous-systems capability as Chief Remote Pilot and UTM subject-matter expert.
Certification and software-assurance roles in the Royal Australian Air Force, including the C-27J certification strategy and software-certification work at the Directorate General Technical Airworthiness.
K-Tech Labs is where that experience is offered directly.
Where the experience comes from.
Revolution Aerospace
Co-founder · CTO · ConsultantCo-founded an Australian aerospace start-up and led its UAS architecture — command-and-control link design, ground control station, containment and flight-termination, CONOPS, and safety-case development — alongside business strategy, program management, and engagement with CASA and DASA.
Airservices Australia
Program Manager · Integrated Airspace ProgramRan Airservices' strategic innovation incubator for future air-traffic management — coordinating government, research, and industry across UAS Traffic Management, Urban Air Mobility, and stratospheric traffic management, with input to national policy and international standards bodies.
Nova Systems
Senior Systems EngineerSystems safety and software-assurance specialist and technical lead across dozens of projects. Coordinated multiple UAV innovation projects, led Nova's autonomous-systems capability, and served as Chief Remote Pilot and UTM technical subject-matter expert.
Royal Australian Air Force
System certification & assuranceDeveloped the certification strategy for the RAAF's C-27J acquisition and worked as a software-certification engineer at the Directorate General Technical Airworthiness — shaping regulatory guidance and conducting software audits on major type-design projects.
What Kristian brings to a program.
Systems engineering
Architecture, integration, and verification across the air, ground, and traffic-management segments.
Systems safety & safety cases
Regulatory-grade safety arguments and evidence, including certification and approvals for uncrewed operations.
Airspace integration
Traffic management, operational approvals, and the interfaces that let new operations share the sky.
Flight operations
Remote Pilot Licence, test and field validation, concepts of operation, and operations manuals.
Airworthiness & software assurance
Aviation software design acceptance to RTCA/DO-178B, and CNS/ATM assurance to DO-278A.
Sensing & situational awareness
Sensing and situational awareness — test, evaluation, and prototyping from guideline development to field trials.
Practical now — not someday.
The work is grounded in deployment reality: integrate what is proven, build what is missing, innovate for a competitive edge, and back every claim with evidence. The goal is a resilient, innovative, sovereign Australian capability — and the shift from lean to autonomous. Aerospace-educated and startup-led: knowing where to be rigorous and where to accelerate.
That same discipline runs through the products. Instrument-grade precision, field-first design, and nothing that has not earned its place.
Working on something that has to fly — safely, and soon?
Tell us what you're trying to fly, measure, or track. We reply to every enquiry.