Director of Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering

Employer description

Hadrian - Manufacturing the FutureHadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

Forward Deployed at HadrianWe embed Forward Deployed teams on Hadrian’s largest and most critical programs with the U.S. Government, the Armed Forces, and major defense primes. The Forward Deployed team works alongside program and engineering teams, from scoping to execution.

 Forward Deployed adapts our product to fulfill customer needs. Sometimes that involves extending Opus, Hadrian’s AI-driven manufacturing autonomy platform; other times, it involves taking a new product from 0 to 1 to make a program successful. Everything the Forward Deployed team learns working on the front lines with our customers is fed back to our engineering teams to improve Hadrian’s product for all customers.

 Recent projects have included establishing Factories-as-a-Service (FaaS) for the Armed Forces and several major primes, expanding Opus into new manufacturing sectors such as energetics, and growing a product line originally developed for a single program into a programs valued at over $1b.

 The Role

As Director, you lead the Forward Deployed team across one or more programs and are responsible for their technical outcomes. You will oversee the technical aspects of a program larger than most startups ever experience, working directly with government representatives, customers, and Hadrian’s leadership teams.

The team is in its early stages, and the scope is rapidly expanding with Hadrian. Directors will play a key role in scaling the Forward Deployed team and leading multi-billion-dollar programs.

Own the technical roadmap and delivery. Take the program from the first ambiguous conversation to running in production; decide what Opus covers, what gets built, and what we say no to; and hold the team to a very high execution bar. The program hits rate, quality, schedule, and cost, in part because the software and systems behind it work; you own that part.

Bring program learnings to platform teams. Share program learnings at Hadrian to improve the product for all customers and decide which Forward Deployed products should become part of Opus.

Own the executive relationship on the technical side. Be the primary technical contact for customer program leadership, government stakeholders, and prime partners. Run technical reviews, have the hard conversations about scope and schedule yourself, and make the call when scope, schedule, and platform leverage pull against each other and the commercial stakes are real.

Build and lead the team. Hire and grow the engineers, product managers, and designers on your program. You set the standard for how they work, and they bring you their hardest scoping calls.

Stay hands-on. Early in a program, that can mean building the v0 yourself. Later, it means reviewing what your team ships closely enough to ensure it meets Hadrian’s quality bar.

What We’re Looking For

Highly commercial technical leaders with excellent product judgment.

You have a demonstrated history leading engineering and product teams and scaling a product from zero to one.

You are strong with external and internal executives. You have owned senior customer relationships and made commitments on behalf of a company that you then had to deliver on.

You have product taste. You know what’s worth building and what good looks like for the user, and you’ve shipped end-to-end enough times to back that up.

You are hands-on technical. You are just as comfortable supporting your team with architecture and review as you are taking your own idea from design to delivery.

You are AI-native and relentless about it. You use AI to compress everything from discovery to execution, you can show us concretely how it already makes you multiples faster, and you’ve rebuilt how your whole team works around it.

You have hired builders into ambiguous roles and got them productive fast.

You are driven by the mission and the tempo. Rebuilding the industrial base matters to you, and you want to deliver at the pace our customers need.

 What Will Set You Apart

Founder or founding-team experience, especially if you managed customer relationships and business decisions while still building.

Background in aerospace, defense, manufacturing, or anywhere hardware, software, and operations intersect.

Forward-deployed or solutions leadership at a product company.

Benefits for Full-time EmployeesMedical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
401k

Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.

Flexible vacation policy

Equity

 ITAR RequirementsTo conform to U.S. Government export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

 Use of AI in hiringHadrian uses AI-assisted tools in our recruiting and hiring processes to help our team work more efficiently. This may include tools that help organize and analyze recruiting data, as well as an AI-powered notetaker that can record and transcribe interviews and help coordinate feedback. These tools support our team and are not used to make hiring decisions. All candidate evaluations and hiring decisions are performed by humans. If an interview will be recorded, you will be notified in advance and may opt out at any time with no impact on your candidacy. Candidate data processed through these tools is subject to the same protections described in our Privacy Policy.

 Consideration of Criminal HistoryHadrian will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of all applicable laws. We do not ask about criminal history on our application, and we do not consider criminal history before making a conditional offer of employment.

 Hadrian Is An Equal Opportunity EmployerHadrian does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, marital status, mental status, physical disability or any other legally protected status. When necessary, the Company also makes reasonable accommodations for disabled candidates and employees, including for candidates or employees who are disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.