Director, Forward Deployed (AI)

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA; on-site. U.S. citizenship, national status, lawful permanent residency, protected individual status, or eligibility to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations is required under ITAR regulations.

Salary: $300K–$415K plus equity.

Company

hirify.global builds autonomous factories by combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing for aerospace and defense customers.

What you will do

• Lead the Forward Deployed team across one or more programs and own technical outcomes.
• Own the technical roadmap and delivery from initial scoping through production, including decisions about Opus coverage, new development, and scope trade-offs.
• Ensure software and systems support program rate, quality, schedule, and cost targets.
• Bring program learnings to platform teams and determine which Forward Deployed products should become part of Opus.
• Own technical relationships with customer program leadership, government stakeholders, and prime partners; run technical reviews and resolve scope and schedule decisions.
• Hire, develop, and lead engineers, product managers, and designers while remaining hands-on with early builds and technical reviews.

Requirements

• Experience leading engineering and product teams and scaling a product from zero to one.
• Strong external and internal executive communication, including ownership of senior customer relationships and company commitments.
• Strong product judgment, with experience shipping products end to end and understanding what is worth building.
• Hands-on technical ability, including architecture, technical reviews, and taking ideas from design through delivery.
• AI-native approach with concrete experience using AI to accelerate discovery and execution and redesign team workflows around AI.
• Experience hiring builders into ambiguous roles and making them productive quickly.
• Motivation by hirify.global’s mission of rebuilding the industrial base and delivering at customer pace.
• Must meet U.S. Government ITAR eligibility requirements.

Nice to have

• Founder or founding-team experience, especially ownership of customer relationships and business decisions while building.
• Background in aerospace, defense, manufacturing, or environments combining hardware, software, and operations.
• Forward Deployed or solutions leadership experience at a product company.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans.
• 401(k).
• Relocation support may be provided in certain situations based on business need.
• Flexible vacation policy.
• Equity.