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Salary: USD 195,000 - 229,500 / annual
Skydio is seeking an experienced operations leader to join as Director, Launch Team. This role owns customer readiness from opportunity qualification through to a live, running dock program across regions and the entire dock business. A dock program goes live when the site is ready, policy is approved, public conversation has occurred, and the agency has trained personnel to operate it. The Launch Team runs that plan, holds the sequence, and is accountable for launch dates. This is a leader-of-leaders role where the readiness bar you set cascades to every launch.
The Launch Team is the operational arm of Skydio's dock business, sitting between opportunity and running program as the integrator across four domains: site readiness (dock placement, mounting, power, connectivity, contractor coordination); policy and public approval (privacy policy, retention policy, council authorization, public comment); flight readiness (remote pilot station, airspace authorizations, CAD, radio, video and evidence integrations, personnel and supervision); and operational handoff (documentation, configuration, training, program condition to Customer Success).
The team is measured on time-to-launch, readiness gate adherence, deployment schedule performance, and program condition at handoff. Readiness capacity is sized against dock site volume, requiring the function to scale faster than headcount.
Key responsibilities include: recruiting, hiring, and developing Senior Managers while creating pathways for strong Readiness Specialists into first management roles; holding each manager to regional outcomes rather than activity counts; scaling the function without lowering the bar; owning the operating rhythm (launch reviews, capacity decisions, escalation paths when demand exceeds supply); owning time-to-launch and readiness gate adherence across the dock portfolio; engaging readiness early before contracts are signed; partnering with Sales and Solutions Engineering on pipeline, feasibility, and sequencing; representing the Launch Team in forecasts and executive reviews; developing and maintaining the readiness playbook across all four domains; project managing customers to readiness while owning the plan, sequence, dependencies, and date; making readiness definitions legible to customers; holding the line on readiness gates and driving systemic fixes; serving as the aggregated voice of the customer to Product and Engineering; and ensuring clean post-launch handoffs to Customer Success.
Travel of approximately 30% is required to support customer engagements, field activities, deployments, team onsites, and company events. This role reports to the VP, Solutions Engineering.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8+ years of relevant experience in customer-facing operations, deployment, implementation, or project delivery, including time in a public safety or regulated environment
- 2+ years leading leaders; track record of managing managers or managing a team large enough to require a second layer
- Experience guiding customers or agencies through public approval processes (council or board authorization, public comment, privacy and data retention policy, community engagement on scrutinized programs)
- Record of building organizations through fast growth and building repeatable process in ambiguous environments
- Familiarity with Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock-based remote operations; professional experience strongly preferred
- Fluency in commercial business: capacity models, forecast discipline, judgment on resource commitment and declining opportunities
- Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to brief operators, program managers, city councils, and senior executives without changing facts
- Lead by example; willing to do whatever is needed to resolve customer situations
- Ability to travel approximately 30% of the time
- Ability to lift up to 60 lbs unaided
- Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within first 60 days of employment strongly encouraged and required for certain positions
NICE TO HAVE:
- Prior public safety service or experience standing up a Drone as First Responder program on agency side
- Direct experience with sUAS or surveillance technology policy (CJIS, records retention, community oversight ordinances, state privacy requirements)
- Experience with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale; site survey, RF and LTE assessment, network readiness for fixed installations
- Experience owning customer onboarding or implementation function through rapid growth
- Working knowledge of Salesforce, Palantir, Databricks, or equivalents
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
