Forward Deployed Engineering Manager (AI Robotics)

Location: Based in Sydney, Australia; regional and international travel of approximately 30–40% is expected, including to austere test and trial environments.

Company

hirify.global develops AI, robotics, navigation, sensing, and autonomy technologies for land, air, sea, and space applications.

What you will do

• Build, lead, and develop a global Forward Deployed Engineering organisation supporting customer deployments.
• Define the FDE operating model, prioritise technical resources, and establish playbooks for qualification, integration, acceptance testing, handover, and support.
• Lead technical strategy for strategic pursuits through demonstrations, trials, benchmarking campaigns, and integration proofs of concept.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex customer implementations and technical queries.
• Translate field insights into product requirements and partner with R&D on ruggedisation, interfaces, and firmware priorities.
• Partner with commercial, revenue operations, and marketing teams to improve win rate, time-to-integration, customer adoption, and technical proof.

Requirements

• Degree in mechatronics, mechanical, electrical, or aerospace engineering, or equivalent field experience.
• 8+ years of experience in applications engineering, solutions engineering, presales, or field engineering within navigation, robotics, autonomous systems, or adjacent deep-tech.
• Demonstrated success winning complex technical pursuits; defence experience is strongly preferred, with aerospace or maritime experience also relevant.
• Hands-on fluency with inertial navigation, GNSS and GNSS-denied operation, sensor fusion, and platform integration using serial, CAN, and Ethernet interfaces.
• Experience leading and scaling distributed technical teams, or readiness to progress from a senior individual contributor or team-lead role into functional leadership.
• Willingness to travel globally, including to austere test and trial environments.

Nice to have

• Experience in a Five Eyes defence program environment involving land, maritime, or uncrewed systems.
• Familiarity with export controls affecting field engineering work.
• Second-language capability and cross-cultural fluency for global account work.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time, permanent employment based in Sydney.
• Work across defence and commercial platforms in vehicles, vessels, ranges, and integration laboratories.
• Collaboration with regional teams across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
• Participation in customer executive briefings, industry conferences, and defence expos.
• Performance focus on technical win rate, customer satisfaction, response time, resolution time, adoption, and retention.