SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 100,000 - 145,000 / annual
Skydio is the leading US autonomous drone company, serving defense, public safety, and enterprise customers. The Network Specialist – Launch Team role is responsible for ensuring every dock deployment achieves and maintains network connectivity across diverse customer environments.
You will own network readiness for dock deployments by reviewing each site's network design, firewall requirements, and connectivity plans with customer IT and network administrators before deployment. You'll act as Skydio's technical point of contact for customer IT and security teams, answering security questionnaires, explaining the dock's traffic, ports, and protocols, and guiding change requests through corporate firewalls and infosec policies.
Key responsibilities include designing and validating connectivity for each site (wired Ethernet, PoE, VLANs, static addressing, NAT, VPN, WiFi, LTE/5G cellular backhaul), confirming adequate bandwidth for live video. You'll support Deployment Engineering on-site and remotely when network issues block progress, and debug connectivity outages on launched docks. You'll build the network playbook—standard requirements, pre-install validation tests, site survey checklists, and troubleshooting runbooks—enabling Readiness Specialists and Support to resolve issues without escalation. Finally, you'll translate deployment insights into prioritized feedback for Product and Engineering on dock networking, diagnostics, and configuration.
The Launch Team is the operational arm of Skydio's dock business, sitting between opportunity and running programs. Network readiness is one of the most common launch-date drivers; firewall changes, security reviews, and carrier plans can take weeks on the customer side. The team is measured on time-to-launch, readiness gate adherence, deployment schedule performance, and program handoff quality.
This is a customer-facing role requiring comfort communicating with IT teams of varying technical expertise. Travel of up to 40% is required for site surveys, customer engagements, deployments, team onsites, and company events.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 4+ years in network engineering, network administration, or customer-facing networking role
- Strong hands-on experience with TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, routing, NAT, VPNs, and firewall policy
- Experience diagnosing connectivity problems using packet captures and standard network tools
- Experience with enterprise firewalls and network equipment (Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Meraki)
- Working knowledge of WiFi and cellular networking, including LTE/5G routers, signal assessment, and carrier data plans
- Comfortable communicating directly with customers of varying technical knowledge
- Highly organized with strong documentation habits
- FAA Part 107 Certificate, or ability to obtain within 60 days of hire
- Ability to travel up to 40% of the time
- US Person required for working at US government facilities
NICE TO HAVE:
- Networking certifications (CCNA, CCNP, CompTIA Network+, PCNSA)
- Experience with public sector networks, including CJIS or similar security requirements
- Familiarity with Linux, basic scripting, and REST APIs
- Experience with IoT devices, video streaming systems, or physical equipment deployed on customer networks
- Experience in UAS, public safety, or utilities
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
