Head of Field Operations, Robotics Deployments

Field AI; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Field AI is seeking a Manager, Field Operations to lead and scale a global team of Field Applications Engineers, overseeing deployments and aligning field activities with product and engineering goals.

You will shape the operating model, establish processes and metrics, and coordinate with Product, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success to ensure customer value. This leadership role requires travel and a passion for scalable robotics deployment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in robotics, engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant experience in field applications engineering, robotics deployment, systems integration, technical operations, or a comparable customer‑facing engineering function.
• Demonstrated experience leading, developing and managing technical field teams.
• Experience building or scaling field operations across multiple customers, sites, or geographic regions.
• Strong understanding of complex hardware and software systems, ideally involving robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, technical infrastructure or other deployed advanced technology.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent deployments and balance customer urgency, technical complexity, staffing constraints, and business priorities.
• Strong troubleshooting and systems‑thinking skills, with the ability to lead teams through ambiguous and high‑pressure field situations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, frontline operators, customer executives, and internal leadership.
• Strong organizational and operational discipline, including experience developing processes, documentation, training programs, and performance metrics.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Field Applications Engineers responsible for deploying and supporting Field AI’s technology at customer sites.
• Scale the Field Applications Engineering organization to support an expanding portfolio of customers, robotic platforms, applications, and geographic regions.
• Establish clear team roles, performance expectations, career paths, training programs, and technical competency standards.
• Recruit, onboard, and develop new Field Applications Engineers as the organization grows globally.
• Plan staffing and allocate field engineering resources across customer deployments, demonstrations, pilots, and production programs.
• Ensure deployments are properly scoped, staffed, documented, and prepared before teams arrive at customer sites.
• Develop repeatable processes, playbooks, tools, and operating standards for deployment readiness, commissioning, testing, troubleshooting, customer acceptance, and ongoing support.
• Partner with customers to understand their workflows, technical environments, operational requirements, safety standards, and success criteria.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex technical, operational, and customer‑facing issues during deployments.
• Work closely with Product, Engineering, Program Management, Sales, Solutions, and Customer Success teams to ensure alignment throughout the customer lifecycle.
• Create effective feedback loops between field teams and product development teams, translating deployment insights into actionable product and engineering priorities.
• Track and improve key operational metrics, including deployment readiness, time to commissioning, system performance, issue resolution, customer satisfaction, and team utilization.
• Promote a strong culture of safety, accountability, technical excellence, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
• Develop a global operating model that accounts for regional hiring, travel, training, logistics, customer support, and local operating requirements.
• Represent Field AI professionally with customer engineers, site leaders, executives, technology partners, and other stakeholders.
• Maintain sufficient hands‑on familiarity with Field AI’s technology and deployment processes to provide credible technical guidance and leadership in the field.
• Travel to customer locations as needed to support critical deployments, coach team members, and strengthen customer relationships.

Skills

People leadership

Field operations

Robotics deployment

Technical operations

Education

Bachelor's degree in robotics/engineering/CS

Job description

Field AI is seeking a Manager, Field Operations to lead and scale a global team of Field Applications Engineers, overseeing deployments and aligning field activities with product and engineering goals.

You will shape the operating model, establish processes and metrics, and coordinate with Product, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success to ensure customer value. This leadership role requires travel and a passion for scalable robotics deployment.