Find Aerospace and Defence Subcontractors in Australia

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Aerospace and defence carry two gates that most sectors do not: a regulator that licenses the individuals maintaining aircraft, and a clearance regime that determines who may see the work at all.

This page covers what gets subcontracted in this sector, the credentials worth confirming, and how a job runs on Workforce Marketplace. Early access is open.

What gets subcontracted

The work most often subcontracted covers:

Aircraft maintenance, line and base, under an approved organisation
Component overhaul and specialist repair
Non-destructive testing on airframes and components
Defence facility works and sustainment support
Precision machining and fabrication to defence specification
Systems engineering and integration support
Drone operations for survey, inspection and training

Credentials that matter here

Licensing is national through CASA, and access is controlled separately:

CASA Aircraft Maintenance Engineer licence, Category A, B1 or B2. The categories cover different scopes and are not interchangeable
CASA Air Operator Certificate where the contractor conducts flying operations
CASA Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) for commercial drone work
CASA ASIC, the aviation security identification card, for access to secure airside areas
Security clearance at the level the contract requires, which is held by the individual and sponsored by the organisation
NDT Level 2 in the relevant method for structural inspection
ISO and AS9100 certification where the supply chain requires it

Clearances take months and are sponsored, not bought. If a scope requires cleared personnel, that timeline sits on the critical path and should be confirmed before award rather than discovered afterwards.

What to confirm before work starts

An active ABN. Where a supplier does not quote one, you are generally required to withhold 47 per cent of the payment and remit it to the ATO. Their GST registration also tells you whether the price should carry it.

That the credential is held by the entity you are contracting with. A person can hold a qualification while the business you are paying holds nothing. Check the name on the document against the name on the invoice.

Insurance appropriate to the scope. Public liability is the common one. Depending on the work you may also need professional indemnity, and workers compensation if they carry their own staff.

That the engagement is genuinely a contract for services. Since the Fair Work amendments the test looks at the real substance of the relationship rather than the label on the paperwork, and getting it wrong creates back-pay, superannuation and payroll tax exposure. Contractor vs employee in Australia sets out how it now works.

Writing a scope that gets comparable quotes

These contracts turn on approvals and traceability. State which approvals the work must be performed under and whose approval covers it, what certification and release documentation is required, how configuration and change are controlled, what the clearance requirement is and who sponsors it, what export control obligations apply, and how intellectual property and technical data are handled.

How it works on Workforce Marketplace

Post the scope with the payment structure it actually uses, whether that is fixed price, hourly, daily, quoted or split into milestones for staged work. Subcontractors apply, and you compare them side by side rather than chasing callbacks.

Every account is ABN-verified at sign-up. Beyond that, subcontractors can submit licences, certifications and insurance for verification, which we review rather than grant automatically. Their profile shows the status against each credential without showing the document, the licence number or the ABN. Verification is opt-in, so a profile may hold credentials that have not been submitted, and it reflects the document as at the date it was reviewed rather than standing indefinitely.

Applying for work costs nothing and there are no leads to buy. Payment runs through Stripe, and Workforce Marketplace never stores your card or bank details.