Senior Solutions Engineering Manager (Majors West)

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

Job summary

Skydio is seeking an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join our team as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for SLED Majors West. The role oversees multi-site, citywide Drone as First Responder deployments, statewide highway and transit programs, and federal work through DOJ, with travel around 30% to support customer engagements, field activities, deployments, team onsites, and company events.

You will hire and coach your team, set a high bar for technical quality, guide integration

Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role.
• 1+ years leading a technical team, with hiring and mentorship responsibility.
• Strong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance.
• Experience standing up a Drone as First Responder program from waiver through go-live.
• Comfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning a quota and deal strategy.
• Familiarity with grant funding pathways and cooperative purchasing vehicles used by state and local agencies.
• Public Safety CAD, VMS familiarity is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead the team across territories, hiring, onboarding, and retaining top talent.
• Set the bar for technical quality—demos, site assessments, and customer-facing documentation.
• Own capacity planning and tradeoffs for the Majors West segment.
• Drive technical wins and own the technical win across the Majors West portfolio.
• Represent the customer inside Skydio and communicate feedback to Product and Engineering.
• Guide integration and airspace strategy including CAD, dispatch, video, and BVLOS operations.
• Maintain knowledge of public sector procurement paths and cooperative contracts.
• Collaborate with Sales on pipeline, forecast, and land-and-expand motions.
• Travel ~30% for customer engagements, field activities, deployments, and events.

Skills

Leadership

Public Safety

Drone technology

Strategic planning

Team building

Tools

Salesforce

Palantir

Databricks

Job description

• Skydio is seeking an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join our team as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for SLED Majors West
• This role carries some of the most complex programs in our portfolio: multi-site, citywide Drone as First Responder deployments, statewide highway and transit programs, and federal work through DOJ, alongside the Canadian public safety business
• 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
• Lead the team
• 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
• Drive technical wins
• Own the technical win across the East majors portfolio, including citywide programs that run multiple docks and span several agencies inside a single customer
• 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
• Own the Majors West problem set
• 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
• Represent the customer inside Skydio
• 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

Excellent 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 resolvedWorking knowledge of Public Safety technologies, including CAD, VMS, and related software platforms, and the ability to lead integration discussions1+ 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 considered5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineering, field engineering, or applications engineering)Comfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning a quota, deal strategy, and the judgment to know when to commit technical resources and when to declineStrong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance, including Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock based remote operationsA track record of hiring, onboarding, and developing technical people, and of keeping themWorking 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 agenciesPrior public safety service as a sworn officer, firefighter, or agency UAS program leadExperience standing up a Drone as First Responder program from waiver through go-live, and with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale