Head of AI (Robotics)

TL;DR

Head of AI (AI Engineering/Robotics): Defining and owning the AI strategy across products and internal tooling for autonomous defence systems with an accent on sensing, autonomy, and robotics. Focus on driving AI-powered productivity, leading stack decisions, and scaling technical AI standards in a safety-critical environment.

Location: Must be based in Berlin or Munich

Company

hirify.global is a defence technology company developing software-defined, mass-scalable unmanned systems to bolster NATO Allies and defend Europe.

What you will do

• Define and own the overall AI strategy across product and internal domains, setting direction for technical leads.
• Lead AI stack decisions, including model selection, frameworks, MLOps infrastructure, and tooling.
• Coordinate cross-team AI dependencies and resolve shared infrastructure gaps.
• Drive internal AI adoption, developer productivity tooling, and automation infrastructure.
• Provide technical oversight on adversarial robustness, distribution shift, and performance under operational conditions.
• Represent the company externally at robotics and AI venues and build the company's standing in the European defence-AI community.

Requirements

• Degree in ML, computer vision, robotics, or equivalent depth through industry research and publications.
• Proven experience setting AI technical strategy at a senior level across multiple domains.
• Deep technical fluency in perception, sensor fusion, autonomy, motion planning, or SLAM.
• Strong track record of influencing technical decisions without direct line authority.
• Experience in defence, aerospace, or safety-critical domains; direct UAS or ground-robotics experience strongly preferred.
• Fluent English and eligibility for required security clearance; must be based in Berlin or Munich.

Nice to have

• Existing network within the European defence AI community.
• Prior experience in staff- or principal-level AI roles inside scaling deep-tech or defence companies.
• Public technical profile, including talks, papers, or open-source contributions.

Culture & Benefits

• High-autonomy, low-overhead role with the ability to shape outcomes without a large dedicated team.
• Direct reporting line to the CTO.
• Opportunity to build high-performance, deployable systems with real-world impact for defence.
• Work environment focused on delivering operational reality over theoretical research.