Engineering Manager - Defense Systems - applied

Polluxa, Inc.; Washington; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Applied Intuition, Inc. is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Forward Deployed team. You will lead 8-12 engineers, own end‑to‑end delivery on high‑stakes defense projects, and hire and develop talent.

You will set technical direction and establish repeatable delivery practices enabling faster, safer deployments in challenging environments. You will serve as the primary liaison with defense and government customers, ensuring delivery outcomes while maintaining quality and speed.

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering teams delivering complex programs.
• Strong track record of building scalable delivery practices.
• Ability to represent a company with authority to defense/government customers.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 8-12 Forward Deployed Engineers to deliver high‑stakes projects.
• Hire and develop engineers, set technical direction across engagements.
• Build repeatable delivery processes to scale across platforms and customers.
• Represent Applied Intuition to defense and government customers as primary point of contact.

Skills

Leadership

Team management

Customer-facing

Job description

Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy.

Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo.

Learn more at applied.co http://applied.co.

We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full‑time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments.

This in‑office expectation does not apply to contractor positions

ABOUT THE ROLE

Applied Intuition is powering the future of physical AI, bringing intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Nowhere are the stakes higher than in defense, where physical AI is reshaping how the United States and its allies deter and win conflicts. Our Forward Deployed Engineering team is where that intelligence meets the real world: deploying and integrating Applied Intuition's tools, operating systems, and autonomy stacks onto defense platforms in challenging operational environments.

As the Engineering Manager, you'll lead a team of 8-12 Forward Deployed Engineers who each operate like startup CTOs: owning end‑to‑end execution of high‑stakes projects in small teams. Your job is to make this team scale, hiring and developing exceptional engineers, setting technical direction across engagements, and building the repeatable delivery practices that let us bring physical AI to more platforms and more customers without sacrificing quality or speed.

This is a high visibility player‑coach role in a significant customer‑facing, mission‑critical environment. You'll represent Applied Intuition with authority in front of defense and government customers, own delivery outcomes across a portfolio of concurrent programs, and serve as the escalation point when projects hit ambiguity, changing

requirements