Senior Manager of Solutions Engineering (State, Local, Educational (SLED) Small Cities)

Skydio; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Skydio seeks an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for SLED Small Cities. This remote role requires ~30% travel to support engagements, field activities, deployments, and events.

You will lead a team across sales and engineering, own site assessments, and ensure successful, scalable dock-based and BVLOS operations while aligning with the city/state procurement processes.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading technical teams in high-volume environments.
• Strong understanding of drone technology and public safety sUAS operations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with operators, program managers, and executives.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Solutions Engineering team for SLED Small Cities.
• Drive technical win rate through demos, site assessments, and proofs of concept.
• Collaborate with Sales, Engineering, and Product to shape deployments at scale.
• Oversee capacity planning, prioritization, and resource allocation across territories.
• Represent customer voice to Product and Engineering and drive requirements.

Skills

Leadership

Team building

Drone technology

Public Safety sUAS

Communication

Sales collaboration

Tools

Salesforce

Palantir

Databricks

CAD

VMS

Job description

• Skydio is seeking an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join our team as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for SLED Small Cities. The motion is transactional and high volume, coverage runs at one Solutions Engineer to two Key Account Leaders, and the agencies are small enough that a single well-run demonstration often decides the outcome
• This is a remote role. Travel of approximately 30% is required to support customer engagements, field activities, deployments, team onsites, and company events
• This role reports to the Director, Solutions Engineering - SLED
• The SLED Solutions Engineering team is the technical arm of Skydio's state and local go-to-market motion. We sit between the agency and the product: turning operational problems into program designs, proving capability in the field, and making sure Skydio's products are used, integrated, and flown at scale
• The team is measured on technical win rate, trial and proof of concept outcomes, program expansion, site assessment quality, and the requirements we push back into the product organization
• Solutions Engineers are critical members of the Skydio organization and work closely with Key Account Leaders, Engineering, and Product to support deal progression, customer confidence, successful deployments, and the long-term success of Public Safety sUAS programs
• Hire, onboard, coach, and retain your team, with clear ownership and coverage across the territories in your segment, and develop people beyond the seat they are in
• Set the bar for technical quality - demos, trial plans, site assessments, and customer-facing documentation that hold up in front of a chief, a sheriff, or a city council
• Own capacity across your segment. Decide where Solutions Engineering time goes, say no when it needs to be said, and make the tradeoffs visible to leadership
• Own the technical win across a two to one coverage model. Leverage is the job, and what cannot be templated, recorded, or reused will not scale here
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point on critical pursuits, deployments, and customer issues. Jump in and work the problem yourself, and be in the field when it matters
• Partner with Sales leadership on pipeline, forecast, and account planning, and on the land-and-expand motion that turns a first dock into a citywide program
• Stand the team up. Most of the seats are open, the operating model does not exist yet, and much of the segment is carried by Inside Sales working remote first
• Own site assessment quality as a performance measure. Solutions Engineers are the DRI for verifying a dock location before deployment, and the quality of the resulting installation reflects on the team
• Hold the bar on proofs of concept: structured deployments tied to an active opportunity with measurable operational value, not casual evaluations
• Guide integration and airspace strategy - CAD and dispatch, video and evidence management, streaming platforms, BVLOS approvals, waivers, COAs, and docked operations
• Maintain command of the public sector procurement path, including cooperative contracts, grant funded programs, and public sector buying cycles
• Be the aggregated voice of the customer to Product and Engineering. Turn field observations into prioritized, defensible requirements rather than a list of one-off asks
• Build the enablement content, reference architectures, and reusable technical assets that let the team scale, and maintain first-hand product knowledge through frequent hands-on use

Strong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance, including Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock based remote operations1+ years leading a technical team, formally or as a technical lead with hiring and mentorship responsibility. First-time managers with a demonstrated record of leading and developing people will be consideredExcellent written and verbal communication. You can brief an operator, a program manager, and a senior executive without changing the factsLead by example. Willing to do whatever is needed to get a customer situation resolvedComfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning a quota, deal strategy, and the judgment to know when to commit technical resources and when to decline5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineering, field engineering, or applications engineering)Working knowledge of Public Safety technologies, including CAD, VMS, and related software platforms, and the ability to lead integration discussionsA track record of hiring, onboarding, and developing technical people, and of keeping themAbility to lift up to 60 lbs unaidedAbility to travel approximately 30% of the timeObtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged for all Skydio employees and required for certain positionsExperience standing up a Drone as First Responder program from waiver through go-live, and with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scalePrior public safety service as a sworn officer, firefighter, or agency UAS program leadWorking knowledge of Salesforce, Palantir, Databricks, or equivalentsTrack record of building and scaling a technical team through a period of rapid growthFamiliarity with grant funding pathways and cooperative purchasing vehicles used by state and local agencies