Engineering Manager - Forward Deployment (Defense)

About the role

As the Engineering Manager, you'll lead a team of 8-12 Forward Deployed Engineers who each operate like startup CTOs: owning end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects in small teams. Your job is to make this team scale, hiring and developing exceptional engineers, setting technical direction across engagements, and building the repeatable delivery practices that let us bring physical AI to more platforms and more customers without sacrificing quality or speed.

This is a high visibility player-coach role in a significant customer-facing, mission-critical environment. You'll represent Applied Intuition with authority in front of defense and government customers, own delivery outcomes across a portfolio of concurrent programs, and serve as the escalation point when projects hit ambiguity, changing requirements, or hard technical tradeoffs. You'll be expected to stay close to the technology, reviewing architectures, pressure-testing integration approaches, and diving in when a program needs it. Fielding intelligent machines is a systems problem spanning software, hardware, and operations, and your team sits at the center of it.

At Applied Intuition, you will:

• Work directly with defense and government customers to deploy, integrate, and operationalize Applied Intuition's vehicle intelligence products in military and government environments, from defense contractors to forward operating bases

• Tackle a broad range of technical challenges, including software engineering, operating system configuration, system deployment, and hardware integration

• Bridge customer-built systems and Applied’s solutions to deliver tangible value

• Design and implement scalable, consistent approaches for customer engagement and project execution

• Develop architectural solutions that improve consistency and scalability across projects

• Collaborate with internal engineering, product, and customer teams to ensure successful outcomes

• Take ownership of technical outcomes and drive projects to completion, adapting to changing requirements and priorities

We're looking for someone who has:

• 8+ years of industry experience with at least 2 years, recent technical leadership exposure.
  Production grade SW experience. Has deployed SW or HW systems to active customers (not R&D, one-off projects)

• Exceptional customer-facing skills and focus on solving customer problems

• A proven mentor and leader of engineering talent

• Strong engineering background, preferred in fields such as Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

• Broad technical experience across software engineering, operating systems, and some hardware

• Experience supporting integration and deployment of complex systems

• Exceptional problem-solving skills and a proven ability to thrive and innovate independently within highly ambiguous and rapidly evolving operational environments

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field

Security Requirements:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen

• Must hold or be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

For more information about U.S. security clearances: click here.

Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.

Please reference the job posting’s subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the location listed is: $250,000 - $300,000 USD annually.