Head of Drone Hardware

The role

You will lead and scale a multi-disciplinary engineering organization responsible for all drone hardware products. You will own the hardware roadmap and technical strategy from concept and prototyping through high-volume production.

What you will do

• Build, lead, and scale a multi-disciplinary hardware engineering organization
• Own the technical roadmap and architecture for all drone hardware products
• Set technical direction on tradeoffs between weight, strength, durability, power, and manufacturability
• Drive projects through the full lifecycle from prototyping to high-volume production
• Establish and scale the engineering department and processes
• Lead failure investigations and root cause analysis
• Champion design for manufacturability, reliability, and field serviceability
• Hire, mentor, and grow engineering managers and individual contributors
• Work directly with external customers to align technical requirements
• Partner cross-functionally with autonomy, software, program management, and manufacturing leaders

Required qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Product Design, or a related technical field
• 15+ years of hardware engineering experience
• 10+ years leading and scaling engineering teams or departments
• Deep, hands-on background in mechanical engineering and product design
• Experience in structural design, enclosure design, thermal management, and environmental protection for ruggedized systems
• Experience driving hardware designs through the full lifecycle from concept to high-volume production
• Expertise in Design for Manufacturing (DFM/DFA)
• Experience in hardware test and validation methodologies including environmental stress screening and field or flight testing
• Proven track record of building, leading, and scaling hardware engineering organizations from the ground up
• Experience working directly with customers to align technical requirements and drive delivery

Nice to have

• Background in Electrical Engineering, including PCB design, schematic capture, and power distribution systems
• Background in Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering
• Direct leadership experience in drones, space, uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), or similar complex hardware products
• Blend of background in consumer electronics combined with experience in defense, automotive, trucking, construction, mining, or agriculture
• Experience executing committed deliverables for defense programs or major enterprise customers

About the company

Applied Intuition, Inc. is a Silicon Valley company creating digital infrastructure for physical AI. It services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries.