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Salary: USD 172,000 - 215,000 / annual
Skydio is seeking an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for the SLED Top 1200 segment. The Top 1200 represents state and local government agencies immediately below major federal accounts—a critical segment where drone-as-first-responder programs are transitioning from bespoke, custom deployments to repeatable, scalable operations. This role is remote with approximately 30% travel required for customer engagements, field activities, deployments, team onsites, and company events.
You will lead the Solutions Engineering team for this national segment, with potential to split into East and West regions as the business grows. The team sits between customers and product, translating operational problems into program designs, proving capability in the field, and ensuring Skydio's autonomous drone products are deployed, integrated, and operated at scale across public safety agencies.
Key responsibilities include:
**Lead the Team:** Hire, onboard, coach, and develop your Solutions Engineering team with clear territorial ownership and coverage. Set the technical bar for demos, trial plans, site assessments, and customer-facing documentation that withstand scrutiny from agency leadership. Own capacity allocation across the segment, making tradeoffs visible to leadership.
**Drive Technical Wins:** Own technical win strategy across the Top 1200 nationally, pairing Solutions Engineers with Key Account Leaders. Serve as the senior technical escalation point on critical pursuits, deployments, and customer issues. Partner with Sales leadership on pipeline, forecast, account planning, and land-and-expand motions that grow first deployments into citywide programs.
**Own the Top 1200 Problem Set:** Systematize what works in larger accounts into repeatable processes for volume—demo standards, site assessment quality, and trial design that enable clean regional splits. Own site assessment quality as a performance measure; Solutions Engineers are the DRI for verifying dock locations before deployment. Hold the bar on structured proofs of concept tied to active opportunities with measurable operational value. Guide integration and airspace strategy including CAD/dispatch integration, video/evidence management, streaming platforms, BVLOS approvals, waivers, COAs, and docked operations. Maintain command of public sector procurement paths including cooperative contracts, grant-funded programs, and public sector buying cycles.
**Represent the Customer:** Aggregate field observations into prioritized, defensible product requirements. Build enablement content, reference architectures, and reusable technical assets that let the team scale. Maintain hands-on product knowledge through frequent use.
The role reports to the Director, Solutions Engineering – SLED.
**Requirements:**
- 5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineering, field engineering, or applications engineering)
- 1+ 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 considered
- Strong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance, including Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock-based remote operations
- Working knowledge of Public Safety technologies, including CAD, VMS, and related software platforms, with ability to lead integration discussions
- Track record of hiring, onboarding, and developing technical people and retaining them
- Comfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning quota, deal strategy, and judgment on committing technical resources
- Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to brief operators, program managers, and senior executives without changing facts
- Lead by example; willing to do whatever is needed to resolve customer situations
- FAA Part 107 Certificate, or ability to obtain one within 60 days of hire
- Ability to travel approximately 30% of the time
- Ability to lift up to 60 lbs unaided
**Nice to Have:**
- Prior public safety service as a sworn officer, firefighter, or agency UAS program lead
- Experience standing up a Drone as First Responder program from waiver through go-live, with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale
- Familiarity with grant funding pathways and cooperative purchasing vehicles used by state and local agencies
- Working knowledge of Salesforce, Palantir, Databricks, or equivalents
- Track record of building and scaling a technical team through rapid growth
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
