CTO

Chief Technology Officer

Samson Rose has been retained by a venture-backed defense technology company building advanced robotics and AI systems for real-world deployment. The company is seeking a Chief Technology Officer to define the technical vision, lead the autonomy and robotics roadmap, and serve as the technical face of the business with customers, investors, partners, and government stakeholders. This is a strategic executive role for a technical leader who has built and deployed complex robotic products, understands autonomy deeply, and can help turn ambitious technology into reliable systems that perform in the field.

What You'll Lead The CTO will own the company's long-term technical direction across robotics, AI, autonomy, system architecture, and product execution. This person will work directly with the CEO and executive team to shape company strategy, strengthen technical differentiation, and ensure the product roadmap aligns with commercial and mission-critical customer needs. The original role brief emphasizes that the CTO will define the company's technical future, build durable technical advantage, represent the company externally, and help strengthen customer and investor confidence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define the long-term technical vision, architecture, and autonomy roadmap
• Lead technical strategy across robotics, AI, autonomy, and deployed systems
• Ensure product, engineering, and commercial priorities are tightly aligned
• Build defensible technical differentiation across the company's platform and products
• Represent the company with credibility in front of customers, investors, partners, and government stakeholders
• Recruit, retain, and develop world-class technical talent
• Maintain a high technical bar across engineering, architecture, product execution, and deployment
• Partner closely with the CEO on company strategy, market positioning, and technical narrative

Ideal Background We are looking for a CTO or senior technical executive with direct experience building and deploying robotic or autonomous systems. Relevant backgrounds may include:

• Autonomous mobile robots
• Drones or unmanned aerial systems
• Quadrupeds or legged robots
• Autonomous maritime systems
• Defense robotics
• Field-deployed AI/autonomy products
• Complex hardware/software robotic systems

Strong candidates will have experience moving technology beyond the lab and into real-world customer environments. Autonomy experience is especially important. Required Qualifications:

• Experience leading technical teams building robotics, autonomy, AI, or related systems
• Strong understanding of autonomous systems, robotic product development, and deployment
• Ability to set technical vision while staying close enough to architecture and execution
• Experience working across engineering, product, customers, and executive leadership
• Strong external communication skills with customers, partners, investors, or government stakeholders
• Ability to recruit and lead high-caliber technical talent
• Must be a U.S. person, defined as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident / green card holder

Location: This role is remote, with travel required for customer meetings, company leadership sessions, technical reviews, partner engagements, and other key business needs.

Why This Role Is Compelling: This is an opportunity to lead technology for a company operating at the intersection of defense, robotics, AI, and autonomy. The right CTO will help shape not only the engineering organization, but also the company's product strategy, technical credibility, customer trust, and long-term market position. This is a high-impact role for someone who wants to build serious technology, lead from the front, and help deploy robotic systems that matter.