Director, Launch Team

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors to first responders, soldiers in battlefield scenarios, and beyond.

About the Role:

Skydio is seeking an experienced operations leader to join our team as Director, Launch Team. This role owns customer readiness from the point an opportunity is qualified through to a live, running dock program, across both regions and the whole of the dock business. A dock program goes live when the site is ready, the policy is approved, the public conversation has been had, and the agency has the people to fly it; the Launch Team runs that plan, holds the sequence, and is accountable for the date. It is a leader of leaders role, and the readiness bar you set is the one every launch inherits.

This is a remote role. 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.

About the Team

The Launch Team is the operational arm of Skydio's dock business. We sit between the opportunity and the running program, and we are the integrator across four domains: site readiness, from dock placement and mounting through power, connectivity and contractor coordination; policy and public approval, from privacy and retention policy through council authorization and public comment; flight readiness, covering the remote pilot station, airspace authorizations, CAD, radio, video and evidence integrations, and who flies and supervises; and operational handoff, the documentation, configuration, training and program condition Customer Success receives.

The team is measured on time-to-launch, readiness gate adherence, deployment schedule performance, and the condition of the program at handoff. Readiness capacity is sized against dock site volume, so the function has to scale faster than headcount.

Readiness Specialists work closely with Solutions Engineers, Deployment Engineering, Legal and Policy, and Customer Success to support successful deployments and the long-term success of Public Safety sUAS programs. As Director you own the capacity model that sizes the function, and you are the operational counterpart to Solutions Engineering and Deployment Engineering leadership.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

Lead the leaders

• Recruit, hire, and develop Senior Managers, and create the path that takes strong Readiness Specialists into their first management role.

• Hold each manager to a regional outcome rather than an activity count, and coach them on coaching.

• Scale the function without losing the bar.

• Own the operating rhythm of the function: launch reviews, capacity decisions, and the escalation path when deployment demand exceeds readiness supply.

Drive on-time launches

• Own time-to-launch and readiness gate adherence across the entire dock portfolio, and own the capacity model that sizes the function against dock site volume rather than bookings.

• Engage readiness early. The work that determines a launch date — council calendars, policy drafting, staffing decisions, site access — starts before the contract is signed, and the team is expected to be in it.

• Partner with Sales and Solutions Engineering leadership on pipeline, site feasibility, and launch sequencing, and bring a defensible position rather than a request.

• Represent the Launch Team in forecast, planning, and executive reviews, and bring launch risk forward early rather than at the end of the quarter.

Own the readiness problem set

• Develop and maintain the readiness playbook across all four domains: launch checklists, site readiness standards, policy and approval templates, flight readiness criteria, documentation, and handoff criteria.

• Project manage the customer to readiness. Your team does not write the agency's privacy policy, make their staffing decisions, or install the dock. It owns the plan, the sequence, the dependencies, and the date, and brings in the right internal owner at the right time.

• Make the definition of readiness legible to customers. Agencies routinely underestimate the policy, approval, and staffing work; naming it early is what protects the launch date.

• Hold the line on readiness gates, report on time-to-launch and gate adherence, and drive systemic fixes for recurring blockers rather than one-off workarounds.

Represent the customer inside Skydio

• Be the aggregated voice of the customer to Product and Engineering, and the escalation point for cross-team conflicts affecting launch timelines.

• Carry what the team learns in council chambers and community meetings back into how Skydio prepares the next agency for the same conversation.

• Ensure a clean post-launch handoff to Customer Success, with clear documentation of configuration, policy commitments, and readiness status.

What Makes You a Good Fit:

• 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. A track record of managing managers, or of managing a team large enough to have required a second layer.

• Experience guiding customers or agencies through a public approval process — council or board authorization, public comment, privacy and data retention policy, or community engagement on a program that drew scrutiny.

• A record of building organizations through fast growth, and of building repeatable process in an ambiguous environment.

• Familiarity with Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock based remote operations. Professional experience is strongly preferred.

• Fluency in the commercial side of the business: capacity models, forecast discipline, and the judgment to know when to commit resources and when to decline.

• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can brief an operator, a program manager, a city council, and a senior executive without changing the facts.

• Lead by example. Willing to do whatever is needed to get a customer situation resolved.

Nice to Have

• Prior public safety service, or experience standing up a Drone as First Responder program on the agency side.

• Direct experience with sUAS or surveillance technology policy: CJIS, records retention, community oversight ordinances, or state privacy requirements.

• Experience with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale, and with site survey, RF and LTE assessment, and network readiness for fixed installations.

• Experience owning a customer onboarding or implementation function through a period of rapid growth.

• Working knowledge of Salesforce, Palantir, Databricks, or equivalents.

What Is Required

• Ability to travel approximately 30% of the time.

• Ability to lift up to 60 lbs unaided.

• Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged for all Skydio employees and required for certain positions.

Compensation: At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the form of stock options, and comprehensive benefits packages. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. Relocation assistance may also be provided for eligible roles. The annual base salary range for this position is $195,000 - $229,500*. Fundamentally, we believe that equity is the key to long-term financial growth, and we ensure all regular, full-time employees have the opportunity to significantly benefit from the company's success. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to enroll in the Company’s group health insurance plans. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive the following benefits: Paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and 401K savings plan. This position and all associated benefits are subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the Company’s policies and eligibility criteria.

*Compensation for certain positions may vary based on the position’s location.

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At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multidisciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws.

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