Technical Operations Team Lead Strategy & Ops

Front Door Defense; El Segundo, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k with company match

FSA/HSA

Life insurance

Free daily lunch

No meeting Fridays

Unlimited PTO

Relocation assistance

Job summary

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Technical Operations Team Lead in El Segundo, CA to mentor a team of engineers, scale field deployments, and drive reliability across hardware and software deployments. You will develop repeatable SOPs, participate in on-site deployments, and communicate effectively with customers and internal teams.

The role requires hands-on field work, travel up to 25%, and a strong background in Linux, networking, and scripting.

Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or related field or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Proven experience leading technical teams in field engineering or technical operations.
• Strong Linux environment skills, SSH, networking tools, and system debugging.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor Technical Operations Engineers, including onboarding and feedback.
• Develop SOPs, runbooks, escalation processes, and diagnostics for repeatable deployments.
• Deploy with the team, integrating CHAOS systems with customer infrastructure and debugging edge issues.

Skills

Linux

Networking

Python

Communication

Travel willingness

Team leadership

Education

Engineering / CS degree or equivalent

Tools

Docker

AWS

Azure

SSH

Job description

Technical Operations Team Lead

Lead field deployments of CHAOS systems and scale operational processes

Location: El Segundo, California

Compensation: $200,000 - 250,000 USD / year

About The Role

Technical Operations Team Lead

El Segundo, California, United States

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats.

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London.

Role Overview

Technical Operations at CHAOS sits at the intersection of technology and real-world mission environments — integrating hardware and software, diagnosing complex system issues, and ensuring CHAOS systems operate flawlessly in the field.

As Technical Operations Team Lead, you will manage, mentor, and develop a team of Technical Operations Engineers while remaining hands-on in the field. You will help scale how the mission team deploys by building the SOPs, support practices, and technical standards that make deployments repeatable.

Responsibilities:

• Manage, mentor, and develop Technical Operations Engineers through onboarding, coaching, and performance feedback.
• Help build the SOPs, runbooks, escalation processes, and diagnostics that make deployments and support repeatable.
• Deploy alongside your team — integrating CHAOS systems with customer infrastructure and debugging complex edge issues.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex hardware, software, and networking issues, leading incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Advise internal and customer teams on operational use and best practices, and communicate technical status to key customers.
• Capture operational feedback and partner with engineering to drive reliability and product improvements.
• Travel (typically up to 25%) to customer and test sites for deployments, escalations, and mission support.

Minimum Requirements:

• Strong technical foundation with a degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or related field — or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Proven experience leading technical teams in field engineering, technical operations, systems integration, or similar — as a formal manager or established team lead.
• Deep familiarity with Linux environments; comfortable with SSH, networking tools, and system-level debugging.
• Track record of delivering complex hardware/software deployments in customer environments.
• Experience integrating or maintaining hardware or sensor systems, with an understanding of networking protocols and hardware interfaces.
• Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language (Python, Bash, or similar).
• Excellent communication skills — able to represent technical operations to customers, executives, and engineers with clarity and composure.
• Willingness and enthusiasm for travel and on-site technical work.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience building a team or function from an early stage — defining processes and scaling operations.
• Background in defense, aerospace, or other mission-critical environments; experience working directly with military or government operational users.
• Understanding of RF systems, SDRs, or radar technologies.
• Familiarity with telemetry, data integration, or IoT-style architectures, and with cloud and edge computing environments (Docker, Azure, AWS, etc.).
• Active US security clearance, or eligibility to obtain one.

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, 'No meeting Fridays', unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 350 employees and counting across 5 global offices

Salary Range: $200,000 - $250,000

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.