Director of Software Engineering, New Programs (AI)

Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States; Onsite

Salary: $300K–$415K plus equity

Company

hirify.global builds autonomous factories for aerospace and defense manufacturing by combining AI, software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing. Its Factory-as-a-Service platform and Opus AI-driven manufacturing autonomy platform support rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems.

What you will do

• Lead the Forward Deployed team across one or more major programs and own technical outcomes, roadmap, delivery, quality, schedule, and cost.
• Take programs from ambiguous initial conversations through production, deciding what Opus covers, what must be built, and what should be rejected.
• Act as the primary technical contact for customer program leaders, government stakeholders, prime partners, and hirify.global executives.
• Run technical reviews, resolve scope and schedule trade-offs, and manage high-stakes technical commitments.
• Hire and develop engineers, product managers, and designers while setting a high execution and quality bar.
• Remain hands-on by building early program versions and closely reviewing later team deliveries.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience leading engineering and product teams and scaling a product from zero to one.
• Strong commercial and product judgment, including deciding what is valuable to build and defining a high-quality user outcome.
• Experience owning senior customer relationships, working with internal and external executives, and making commitments on behalf of a company.
• Hands-on technical capability, including architecture, technical review, and taking ideas from design through delivery.
• Experience using AI across discovery and execution and reshaping team workflows around AI.
• Experience hiring builders for ambiguous roles and making them productive quickly.
• Strong alignment with rebuilding the industrial base and delivering at customer-required pace.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations under ITAR.

Nice to have

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

Culture & Benefits

• Mission focused on reindustrializing America and creating autonomous manufacturing capabilities.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance for full-time employees.
• 401(k), flexible vacation policy, and equity.
• Relocation support may be provided in certain situations based on business need.
• AI-assisted recruiting tools may organize recruiting data and record or transcribe interviews; candidates are notified before recording and may opt out.