Senior Director of Forward Deployed Engineering

Hadrian; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 300,000 - 420,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation stipend

Flexible vacation policy

Job summary

Hadrian seeks a Senior Director to lead the Forward Deployed team across multiple programs, owning the technical outcomes from concept to production. You will work directly with government representatives, customers, and Hadrian’s leadership, scaling the team and influencing multi-billion-dollar programs.

You will define the technical roadmap, drive end-to-end delivery, and partner with executive leadership to set program scope and priorities.

Qualifications

• Executive-level stakeholder management across government, customers and leadership
• Hands-on leadership to guide engineers, product managers and designers
• AI-native approach to accelerate discovery and delivery
• Track record building highly productive teams in ambiguous environments
• Experience owning customer relationships and business decisions

Responsibilities

• Lead Forward Deployed programs across one or more initiatives
• Oversee technical outcomes and program scope from concept to delivery
• Hire and grow engineers, product managers, and designers across programs
• Maintain high standards of quality and drive timely delivery across multiple programs

Skills

Stakeholder management

Hands-on leadership

AI-enabled approach

Product team scaling

Job description

• As a Senior Director, you lead the Forward Deployed team across one or more programs and are responsible for their technical outcomes


• You will oversee the technical aspects of a program larger than most startups ever experience, working directly with government representatives, customers, and Hadrian’s leadership teams


• The team is in its early stages, and the scope is rapidly expanding with Hadrian. You will play a key role in scaling the Forward Deployed team and leading multi-billion-dollar programs


• Own the technical roadmap and delivery end‑to‑end. Drive programs from ambiguous first conversations to production deployment—defining scope, determining what gets built, and making clear, decisive calls on what we ship


• Share program learnings across the business to improve the product and determine which Forward Deployed products are shipped to both current and future programs and customers


• Executive ownership: serve as primary technical owner for customer program leadership, government stakeholders, and prime partners. Lead technical reviews, oversee discussions regarding scope and scheduling, and drive technical decisions across programs


• Build and lead the team. Hire and grow engineers, product managers, and designers across programs. You set the standard for how they work


• Remain hands‑on as programs evolve—build the early foundation, then drive quality, set the bar for excellence, and ensure the team delivers to that standard

Benefits

• 100% coverage of platinum medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
  401k


• Relocation stipend if you’re moving from outside of LA


• Flexible vacation policy

You have product taste. You know what’s worth building and what good looks like for the user, and you’ve shipped end-to-end enough times to back that upExecutive‑level stakeholder management. You have owned executive level customer relationships and made commitments on behalf of a company that you then had to deliver onYou have a demonstrated history leading engineering and product teams and scaling a product from 0-1You are driven by the mission and the tempo. Rebuilding the industrial base matters to you, and you want to deliver at the pace our customers needTrack record of building highly productive teams in ambiguous enviormentsHighly commercial technical leaders with excellent product judgmentAI-native and relentless about it. You use AI to compress everything from discovery to execution, you can show us concretely how it already makes you and your teams run 5x fasterHands on technical leader. You are just as comfortable supporting your team with architecture and review as you are taking your own idea from design to deliveryFounder or member of a “founding-team”Experience owning customer relationships and business decisionsBackground in aerospace, defense, manufacturing, or anywhere hardware, software, and operations intersectForward-deployed or solutions leadership at a product company