Director, Hardware Engineering

Director, Hardware Engineering

At REGENT, we're on a mission to revolutionize regional transportation between coastal cities. We're not just building vehicles, we're creating a new category of transportation: the Seaglider. These groundbreaking wing-in-ground-effect craft travel just above the water's surface, combining the speed of an airplane with the low operating costs of a boat. Capable of 180 miles at 180 mph on today's battery tech (and up to 400 miles with next-gen batteries), Seagliders will unlock fast, affordable, and sustainable coastal transit for passengers and cargo - connecting cities, islands, and communities like never before.

Backed by leading investors and powered by a team of passionate, forward-thinking engineers, builders, and operators, we're now scaling from a breakthrough prototype to full production - and building the team to make it happen.

Role Overview

As Director, Hardware Engineering, you'll lead REGENT's hardware engineering organization through its next critical phase - stepping into a team with real momentum and helping evolve it into the high-performing, process-mature organization that can carry Seaglider programs from concept through certification and into production. You're joining a sizable organization with strong technical talent and real momentum already in motion. This is not a blank-slate build - the foundations are in place, and the next chapter is about strengthening leadership, sharpening execution, and building the systems needed to scale. Your first priority will be to listen, assess, and earn trust: understand where the team is strongest, where friction exists, and what support leaders and engineers need to perform at their best.

From that foundation, you'll lead the next stage of growth - strengthening the organization where it matters most and building the capabilities required for scale. A core part of the role is coaching and developing functional managers into exceptional leaders: helping them raise performance, grow their teams, navigate tough decisions, and lead with greater clarity and accountability. You'll build leadership capacity while creating an environment where managers can operate with ownership and consistency. You'll also raise the bar on execution, mature the processes that enable complex hardware programs to move faster with less risk, and build the cross-functional partnerships that make the broader engineering organization more effective.

As part of Engineering leadership, you'll co-own REGENT's engineering operating system: shared standards for configuration management, design reviews, requirements traceability, and documentation that underpin both hardware and software delivery. Working closely with Chief Engineers and PMO, you'll help ensure the hardware organization delivers consistently across multiple programs.

Success looks like an organization that is stronger, more cohesive, and more scalable than when you arrived - with stronger managers, improved systems, and a team ready to execute through certification and beyond. If you're energized by inheriting something strong and helping make it exceptional, we'd love to meet you!

What You'll Do

• Lead and Strengthen the Hardware Engineering Organization: Own the people, structure, and culture of a 30+ person (and growing!) hardware engineering organization spanning structures, aerodynamics, propulsion, electrical, and mechanical systems. Build on the strong technical foundation already in place while strengthening leadership, raising expectations, and creating a culture of accountability, rigor, and ownership.

• Coach and Develop Functional Managers: Invest deeply in the growth of functional managers and emerging leaders. Coach them to lead higher-performing teams, make stronger decisions, navigate complexity, and operate with greater ownership, consistency, and accountability.

• Own Delivery and Execution Rhythm: Establish clear operating cadences, decision-making mechanisms, and accountability systems that keep work moving. Remove blockers quickly, escalate tradeoffs when needed, and ensure teams consistently translate priorities into measurable progress.

• Mature Engineering Processes: Own the hardware side of REGENT's engineering operating system - including configuration management, design review discipline, documentation standards, release processes, and requirements traceability. Establish the right level of rigor for the current phase while building toward certification readiness.

• Build a Stronger Leadership Layer: Create the systems, expectations, and support that allow the next layer of leaders to grow and operate independently. Increase organizational leverage by developing managers and senior technical leads who can scale the business with you.

• Partner Across Engineering: Work closely with software engineering to co-own shared standards and a unified engineering culture. Drive clear hardware/software integration points and ensure both organizations operate as one engineering team where it matters most.

• Align Capacity with Program Demand: Partner with PMO and functional leaders to match resources to program priorities - balancing near-term delivery needs with long-term team health, forecasting headcount needs, and managing competing demands across programs.

• Drive Execution Across Programs: Ensure the hardware organization's outputs are synchronized with test campaigns, manufacturing readiness, certification milestones, and program schedules. Lead an organization that not only designs exceptional systems, but delivers them reliably and on time.

What You'll Bring

• Proven Senior Engineering Leadership: Demonstrated success leading complex engineering organizations in aerospace, defense, marine, automotive, or other hardware-intensive industries, especially in start-up environments. Experience guiding multi-disciplinary teams through periods of growth, increasing complexity, and high execution demands.

• Experience Leading Leaders: Strong track record of managing and developing engineering managers. Able to coach, challenge, and hold leaders accountable while building a management layer that operates with ownership, sound judgment, and independence.

• Demonstrated Success in Existing Organizations: Proven ability to step into an established organization, quickly assess strengths and gaps, earn trust, and lead meaningful change without disrupting momentum. Skilled at preserving what works while improving what must evolve.

• Process Maturity, Change Management, and Operational Excellence: Experience building, improving, and scaling engineering processes that match the needs of the business and stage of development. Strong change management instincts with the ability to introduce new ways of working, gain buy-in, and drive sustained adoption across teams. Deep familiarity with areas such as configuration management, design reviews, documentation standards, release discipline, and operational rigor.

• Broad Technical Fluency: Credible across multiple hardware disciplines - including structures, mechanical, electrical, propulsion, and aero/physics. Able to evaluate technical quality, challenge assumptions, and make strong prioritization, staffing, and tradeoff decisions.

• Certification and Production Mindset: Understanding of what it takes to build an engineering organization ready for certification and production, including rigor, documentation, traceability, verification, and evidence-based execution.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with software, manufacturing, program management, and executive leadership. Skilled at aligning priorities, managing interfaces, and driving shared outcomes across functions.

Who We're Looking For

• Collaborative Team Player: You believe that great things happen when teams work together. You communicate effectively and collaborate with engineers, stakeholders, and other cross-functional teams to align on goals and move projects forward. You bring people together, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and moving towards a shared vision.

• Creative Problem Solver: You thrive on tackling complex challenges and finding innovative solutions. Whether it's optimizing data pipelines, solving integration hurdles, or improving automation workflows, you approach every problem with creativity and determination. You're able to address immediate needs while also planning for future scalability and efficiency.

• Adaptable & Agile: In a fast-paced, ever-evolving startup environment, you quickly adapt to changing priorities and requirements. You approach challenges with a calm, resilient mindset, and know how to pivot and adjust your approach as needed, ensuring that progress continues without missing a beat.

• Innovative Mindset: You're driven by curiosity and a passion for technology. You're passionate about driving continuous improvement, embracing new technologies and methodologies to enhance efficiency, quality, and team performance.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation including a robust equity incentive plan.

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance - we cover 100% of your premiums.

• 401(k) with company matching, so you can plan for the future.

• Generous flexible time off, paid parental leave, and company-wide holiday breaks.

• Relocation packages available for those moving to join our team.

• Daily, free catered lunches

• Learning & professional development opportunities

If you're ready to take on