Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering - State, Local, Educational (SLED) Top 1200

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 Solutions Engineering leader to join our team as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for the SLED Top 1200. The Top 1200 is the band of agencies immediately below Majors, and it is where the Drone as First Responder motion moves from bespoke to repeatable, so the work rewards a leader who can build patterns and hold a team to them. The segment runs as one national team today, and depending on growth it may later split into East and West regions; building the team so that split is clean when it comes is part of the job.

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 Director, Solutions Engineering – SLED.

About the Team

The SLED Solutions Engineering team is the technical arm of Skydio's state and local go-to-market motion. We sit between the agency and the product: turning operational problems into program designs, proving capability in the field, and making sure Skydio's products are used, integrated, and flown at scale.

The team is measured on technical win rate, trial and proof of concept outcomes, program expansion, site assessment quality, and the requirements we push back into the product organization.

Solutions Engineers are critical members of the Skydio organization and work closely with Key Account Leaders, Engineering, and Product to support deal progression, customer confidence, successful deployments, and the long-term success of Public Safety sUAS programs.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

• Hire, onboard, coach, and retain your team, with clear ownership and coverage across the territories in your segment, and develop people beyond the seat they are in.

• Set the bar for technical quality — demos, trial plans, site assessments, and customer-facing documentation that hold up in front of a chief, a sheriff, or a city council.

• Own capacity across your segment. Decide where Solutions Engineering time goes, say no when it needs to be said, and make the tradeoffs visible to leadership.

• Own the technical win across the Top 1200 nationally, pairing one Solutions Engineer to each Key Account Leader.

• Serve as the senior technical escalation point on critical pursuits, deployments, and customer issues. Jump in and work the problem yourself, and be in the field when it matters.

• Partner with Sales leadership on pipeline, forecast, and account planning, and on the land-and-expand motion that turns a first dock into a citywide program.

• Turn what works in Majors into something repeatable at volume. Demo standards, site assessment quality, and trial design are yours to systematize, and to structure so the segment can split regionally without relearning the motion.

• Own site assessment quality as a performance measure. Solutions Engineers are the DRI for verifying a dock location before deployment, and the quality of the resulting installation reflects on the team.

• Hold the bar on proofs of concept: structured deployments tied to an active opportunity with measurable operational value, not casual evaluations.

• Guide integration and airspace strategy — CAD and dispatch, video and evidence management, streaming platforms, BVLOS approvals, waivers, COAs, and docked operations.

• Maintain command of the public sector procurement path, including cooperative contracts, grant funded programs, and public sector buying cycles.

• Be the aggregated voice of the customer to Product and Engineering. Turn field observations into prioritized, defensible requirements rather than a list of one-off asks.

• Build the enablement content, reference architectures, and reusable technical assets that let the team scale, and maintain first-hand product knowledge through frequent hands-on use.

What Makes You a Good Fit:

• 5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineering, field engineering, or applications engineering).

• 1+ years leading a technical team, formally or as a technical lead with hiring and mentorship responsibility. First-time managers with a demonstrated record of leading and developing people will be considered.

• Strong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance, including Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock based remote operations.

• Working knowledge of Public Safety technologies, including CAD, VMS, and related software platforms, and the ability to lead integration discussions.

• A track record of hiring, onboarding, and developing technical people, and of keeping them.

• Comfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning a quota, deal strategy, and the judgment to know when to commit technical resources and when to decline.

• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can brief an operator, a program manager, 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 as a sworn officer, firefighter, or agency UAS program lead.

• Experience standing up a Drone as First Responder program from waiver through go-live, and with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale.

• Familiarity with grant funding pathways and cooperative purchasing vehicles used by state and local agencies.

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

• Track record of building and scaling a technical team through a period of rapid growth.

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 $172,000 - $215,000* + commission*. 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.

For positions located in the United States of America, Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit https://www.e-verify.gov/