NODA AI

Field Operations Lead

Austin

No sponsorshipDetected 6 days ago

CybersecurityAgileConfluenceLogisticsLeadershipCommunicationAdaptability

About the role

This is a player-coach role, not a headquarters role.
You will hold real authority over tasking and priorities, but you will exercise it from the shop floor and the field: physically present, hands-on, constantly listening, removing blockers, and pushing decision authority down rather than concentrating it.
The team's horizontal, collaborative culture is its greatest asset.

Grow the Team. Help recruit, hire, and onboard Field Operations Specialists and own the onboarding curriculum that transfers both craft and strategic context.
Develop People and Teams.
Build the training program - certification pipelines (e.g., FAA Part 107), cross-training, and knowledge transfer - and coach each team member along distinct career lanes, building depth and redundancy in critical skills as the team scales.
Integrate and Plan. Lead operational coordination with Mission Operations and Engineering Operations - setting tasking horizons, demo lead times, and clear points of contact - and plan and adapt complex, multi-site deployment logistics as conditions change.
Build/Run Lean Systems. Run lean operational systems - reporting rhythms, task tracking, inventory, and delegated purchasing - right-sized so the team spends its time building and flying.
Drive a Cycle of Improvement. Own deployment plans, checklists, logs, and after-action reports, and drive lessons learned and customer feedback into improved demo-readiness processes.
To mitigate this risk of uncertainty, you will build teams of teams through strong human relationships, across NODA, with clients, and ultimately with the armed forces.
A successful Field Operations Lead will have opportunities to expand into senior leadership roles as NODA scales.
Own the Safety Program.

U.S. Citizen (required)
5+ years of hands-on technical experience in field, lab, or operational environments, including 5+ years leading technical teams.
Proven planner with experience organizing complex, rapidly changing operations or logistics efforts.
ability to lift 60 lbs and work in dynamic field conditions.

Leadership experience, with a demonstrated servant-leadership style suited to a flat, high-trust technical team.
Experience with UAS/robotic platforms, payloads, RF/communications, and multi-domain test events.
Experience establishing safety programs, test SOPs, or demo-readiness processes for hardware in the field.
Familiarity with lightweight project and inventory tooling (e.g., Kanban boards, Confluence, asset tracking) and with right-sizing process to a small team's tempo.
Experience in defense applications of autonomous systems (e.g., DoD programs, test ranges, military exercises), including familiarity with military CONOPS and operations in contested or GPS/comms-denied environments.
Quality control and safety mindset with attention to detail
independent problem-solver with a collaborative, ego-less approach.
active Secret or higher clearance strongly preferred, with the ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance required

Exceptional organizational and planning skills with a bias for action and for pushing authority down.
Composed decision-maker in high-pressure, mission-critical settings.
Quality control and safety mindset with attention to detail; independent problem-solver with a collaborative, ego-less approach.
Hybrid work environment
Competitive pay
Flexible time off
Generous PTO policy
Federal holidays
Generous health, dental, and vision benefits
Free OneMedical membership
Director of Field Operations - owning field operations strategy, budget, hiring, and organizational growth across all programs.
Head of Test & Evaluation - shaping test strategy across Mission Operations, Engineering Operations, and Field Operations.

Own flight-worthiness verification, integration timelines, and test review processes that maximize learning from deliberate R&D test attrition

You will be the voice of Field Operations, shaping tasking horizons, demo lead times, and priorities in partnership with Mission Operations, Engineering, and company leadership.
NODA is a veteran-owned, venture-backed technology company that is transforming how unmanned systems collaborate in complex, mission-critical environments.
We are developing next-generation solutions that enable the autonomous orchestration of heterogeneous unmanned systems across air, sea, land, and space with vital applications in the defense, intelligence, and commercial sectors.
Our Field Operations team plays a critical role in bringing our technology to life through the assembly, integration, deployment, and field testing of unmanned systems that directly support mission-critical testing and operations.

Equal Opportunity Employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
All qualified individuals will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, age, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Citizen; active Secret or higher clearance strongly preferred, with the ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance required

This listing is sourced directly from NODA AI's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.