Director/VP of Engineering

Harnham; Arizona; On-site; USD 200,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Director of Engineering in Tempe/Phoenix is a greenfield leadership role focused on building an autonomous real-time platform. You will architect systems, write and review code, ship critical features and solve production problems yourself, then recruit and develop engineers who share ownership.

You’ll drive the engineering org, establish culture, and shape the product while partnering with product leadership, operators and customers. Equity is a meaningful component of the package.

Qualifications

• You have built and shipped complex software in real-time environments.
• You understand production reliability and distributed systems.
• You can architect across the full stack and own tech decisions.

Responsibilities

• Architect and own platform architecture; write/review critical code.
• Ship features and resolve production issues.
• Recruit, mentor and grow the engineering team as the org scales.
• Establish engineering culture and practices; lead by example.

Skills

Real-time systems

Production reliability

Full-stack architecture

Hiring mentoring

AI coding tools

Tools

AI coding tools

Job description

Director of Engineering | Autonomous Systems & Real-Time Software

What if your next engineering leadership role gave you the opportunity to define the architecture, build the product, hire the team and put your fingerprints on an entirely new technology platform?

We're partnering exclusively with an early-stage technology company building at the intersection of drones, autonomous systems, AI and physical security.

They're looking for their first senior software engineering leader.

This is not a role for someone who wants to inherit a mature organization, manage from a distance or spend their days exclusively in meetings.

They need a genuine player-coach.

You’ll operate with Principal-level technical ownership while building the engineering organization around you. Initially, that means architecting systems, writing and reviewing code, shipping critical features and solving production problems yourself. As the company scales, you’ll recruit and develop the engineers who increasingly take ownership alongside you.

What You’ll Build

At the center of the opportunity is a real-time operational platform that enables security professionals to remotely monitor, pilot and ultimately automate physical systems across complex environments.

You’ll have the freedom to shape the platform end-to-end across:

• Real-time, operator-facing interfaces
• Drone control and remote operations
• Live data and video
• Cloud infrastructure
• APIs and external integrations
• Reliability, security and observability
• Connected physical systems
• AI-assisted and increasingly autonomous capabilities

One of your earliest challenges will be helping overhaul the existing product and enabling operators to pilot drones directly through the platform.

There is no predetermined technology playbook you’re being hired to follow.

You’ll determine what should be retained, what should be rebuilt, how the architecture should evolve and which engineers need to be hired next.

Who We’re Looking For

You may come from autonomy, robotics, drones, aerospace, gaming, simulation, geospatial technology, public safety, physical security or another environment where sophisticated software interacts with the real world.

Direct defense or drone experience is not required.

What matters more is that you’ve personally built and shipped complex software, understand real-time systems and production reliability, can architect across the full stack, and still genuinely enjoy being close to the technology.

You should also have experience hiring, mentoring or leading engineers. The ambition isn’t to remain a team of one. It’s to build an exceptional engineering organization around the platform you help create.

Experience using modern AI coding tools and software agents as part of serious production engineering would be particularly relevant.

Why This Opportunity?

Because genuine greenfield engineering leadership roles are rare.

You’ll work directly alongside product leadership, operators and customers. You’ll see how your software performs in real operational environments and have the authority to improve it.

You’ll help decide the architecture.

You’ll build critical parts of the product.

You’ll hire the team.

You’ll establish the engineering culture.

And you’ll have meaningful equity in what you’re helping create.

Most importantly, the mission has tangible human consequences: using technology to protect people, extend the capabilities of security professionals and reduce the need to put humans in harm’s way.

The company is establishing its engineering organization in Tempe/Phoenix. There is some flexibility during the initial build-out, but this is ultimately an onsite opportunity for someone who wants to build closely alongside the team.

Compensation: Approximately $225k base, with flexibility for exceptional candidates, plus a significant equity component.