Director, Autonomy Applications Engineering (R3988)

What you'll do:

Customer Technical Lifecycle Management 
• Develop and implement a comprehensive technical customer engagement strategy from initial onboarding through full operational deployment and ongoing expansion. 
• Oversee the creation and execution of detailed phased engagement plans (e.g., 3-6-9-12 months) tailored to customer needs and strategic objectives. 
• Champion the development of customers as “sovereign capabilities,” enabling them to become self-sufficient operators of Hivemind. 


Team Leadership & Development 
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing global team of Application Engineers. 
• Manage distributed teams across the globe (USA, Japan, Korea, Singapore, EU etc.). 
• Foster a culture of customer obsession, proactive problem-solving, and technical excellence. 
• Own and drive training programs for managers and ICs 
• Set and drive team OKRs to meet company OKRs 


Customer Technical Education 
• Set standards and drive creation of high-quality customer training materials. 
• Oversee the creation of technical documentation, best practice guides, and learning materials. 


Delivery Excellence & Project Oversight 
• Drive execution of key customer projects, including CONOP demonstrations, integrations, and production deployments. 
• Oversee execution for high-impact events such as Tech Days and customer demonstrations. 
• Implement processes for milestone tracking, risk management, and timely delivery of deliverables. 


Cross-Functional Collaboration & Voice of the Customer 
• Partner with Sales and Business Development to ensure seamless pre- and post-sales transitions. 
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to feed customer insights into the Hivemind roadmap. 
• Work with Marketing to produce case studies, success stories, and public communications. 
• Build relationships with key customer engineering and leadership contacts. 
• Contribute to reviewing and responding to customer RFIs and RFPs. 
• Contribute to creating and reviewing Scope of Work documents for customer proposals. 


Strategic Relationship Management 
• Build long-term relationships with executive stakeholders and program leads. 
• Ensure customers achieve measurable mission success with Hivemind. 
• Develop strategies to create “highlight moments” and referenceable customer outcomes. 

Required qualifications:

• M.S degree in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics or a related field required; Master’s or MBA preferred. 
• 15+ years in customer-facing technical leadership (solutions/support). 
• Proven success leading globally distributed technical teams. 
• Deep understanding of enterprise software integration, SDKs, and mission-critical systems—ideally within AI/ML, autonomy, or defense technology sectors. 
• Strong program and project management skills; experience overseeing complex deployments. 
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage both technical and executive stakeholders. 
• Experience working with defense primes or international government customers is highly desirable. 
• Customer-Obsessed: Passionate about understanding customer needs and driving their success. 
• Strategic Thinker: Ability to see the big picture, anticipate future customer needs, and align enablement efforts with business goals. 
• Execution-Focused Leader: Proven ability to translate strategy into action and deliver results. 
• Collaborative & Influential: Adept at working cross-functionally and building strong internal and external relationships. 
• Technically Credible: Comfortable diving into technical details up to and including reviewing code and engaging with engineering teams. 
• Adaptable & Resilient: Thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics or a related field required;  
• MBA 
• Hands on development experience in C/C++ 
• Hands on edge autonomy applications development experience