Autonomy and Software (AS) Capability Leader

Job Description: Autonomy and Software (AS) Capability Leader

About KrateoSky

KrateoSky's mission is to expand human capability with intelligent aerial robotics.

We are building a Western, at-scale AI perception and actuation platform for robotic flight and aerial intervention spanning defense, national security, infrastructure, public safety, and industrial operations. Our platform combines a common autonomy architecture, advanced perception, and mission software into one connected system—built for operators who need autonomy they can trust, control, and sustain.

What makes KrateoSky different is simple: we bring the leadership, operating discipline, and urgency that this moment demands. Our team has built, led, and scaled multi-billion-dollar global industrial companies, and we are now applying that proven experience to accelerate the deployment of reliable autonomous systems. We are rapidly acquiring proven companies, integrating the best technology and talent, and building a vertically integrated, AI-native platform with speed and scale.

Anchored by a secure, Western-sourced supply chain and advanced manufacturing operations in Denton, Texas, KrateoSky operates from first principles and executes for customers with purpose and pace.

Joining KrateoSky means joining at a formative moment—when the systems, standards, and decisions we make now will shape how autonomous aerial capability scales in the years ahead. This is an opportunity to do consequential work alongside experienced leaders, help build a category-defining platform, and solve hard engineering and operational challenges that matter in the real world. As an AI-native organization, KrateoSky is also building an environment where modern tools, automation, and connected systems help teams move faster, reduce manual work, and focus their energy on the highest-value problems. For people who are motivated by mission, energized by building, and excited by the chance to combine speed, rigor, and intelligent automation, KrateoSky offers the opportunity to have an outsized impact on technology, operations, and the future of trusted autonomy.

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Position Summary

KrateoSky is hiring an Autonomy and Software (AS) Capability Leader accountable for building, governing, and scaling a core technical capability that serves every product line in KrateoSky’s portfolio. This role owns our unified autonomy runtime alongside machine learning (ML) perception models, simulation infrastructure, embedded flight software, and ground control software.

You will establish autonomy runtime standards and algorithmic architectures within defined system interfaces that allow diverse aerial platforms to benefit from a single autonomy stack. Initially operating through matrixed leadership of engineers across portfolio companies, you will transition this function into a formal department with direct staffing authority and ownership of enterprise-wide software maturity.

This is an intensive, high-ownership role that demands deep technical fluency and a builder's mindset. The ideal candidate successfully bridges the gap between strategic organizational leadership and active technical architecture. Since we are establishing this capability from first principles, you must be energized by a high-velocity environment and ready to roll up your sleeves. You will play an active role in establishing our early runtime frameworks, configuring core pipelines, and reviewing code in a lean, highly collaborative environment before scaling the broader department.

You will lead by demonstration, establishing shared engineering methods, reference architectures, toolchains, technical metrics, and rigorous review practices. You will chair capability-specific design reviews, independent technical reviews, and develop talent pathways, ensuring our decentralized product teams pull from—and contribute back to—a world-class, unified autonomy asset.

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Key Responsibilities

• Capability Governance: Establish and maintain shared engineering methods, standards, toolchains, technical metrics, and review practices that strengthen functional excellence across the portfolio.

• Technical Authority: Serve as the functional authority for the capability, setting standards, governing technical quality, and ensuring product teams have access to scalable, reusable technical depth.

• Reference Architectures & Reuse: Define and mature common frameworks, reference architectures, and reusable assets that can be adopted and improved across multiple product lines.

• Design & Technical Reviews: Chair capability-specific design reviews, independent technical reviews, and technical roadmap discussions to improve rigor, reuse, and execution quality.

• Functional Leadership: Build and develop the capability organization through hiring, coaching, training, competency development, and career pathways. Manage capability hiring and resource allocation across the Enterprise.

• Cross-Portfolio Enablement: Partner with product line leaders to ensure teams can effectively pull from—and contribute back to—shared capability assets, methods, and standards.

• Integrity Management: Approve autonomy software releases for integration review and ensure autonomy performance thresholds are met.

• Maturity & Risk Management: Implement iterative development practices, technical risk reduction, and maturity-burndown mechanisms to improve readiness, transparency, and decision-making.

• Unified Autonomy Platform: Architect and own the modular runtime, ensuring modularity, reliability, and reuse patterns apply to the autonomy stack across defense and commercial product lines through configuration, including flight software and GNSS-denied navigation.

• AI-Native Engineering & MLOps: Enforce an AI-native engineering culture (utilizing automated test generation, code synthesis, and generative workflows) to achieve 3-5x productivity gains; lead ML and perception engineering from edge compute deployment to robust MLOps training pipelines.

• Synthetic V&V & Mission Software: Lead simulation architectures for autonomy development, perception model validation, and synthetic data generation; drive mission software requirements. Collaborate with the SEIT (Systems Engineering, Integration & Testing) Capability Leader on system-level verification, validation, and final flight-test evidence.

• Technical Strategy & Scaling: Partner with Product Chief Engineers on the autonomy roadmap and build-vs-buy decisions, while scaling the software organization from early-stage, hands-on work to a specialized department.

• Cross-Functional System Delivery: Partner with peer Capability Leaders to translate product requirements into stack features, manage matrixed engineering allocations, and represent the software domain in formal technical reviews to ensure platform reuse and system integrity.

• Ethical AI Governance: Establish and govern an Ethical AI framework covering model bias, explainability, and adversarial robustness in coordination with Safety and Product Security.

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Required Qualifications

• Proven Systems Delivery: You have personally architected, built, and shipped complex software stacks (autonomy, robotics, computer vision, or safety-critical aerospace) that have been deployed and operated in production or on physical hardware in the field.

• Systems & Software Mastery: You possess deep, first-principles systems thinking and are highly fluent in modern systems programming (such as Rust, C++, or C#) alongside scripting (Python). You can confidently lead deep-dive architectural reviews, write/review code, and design robust system interfaces.

• Autonomy & Edge Fluency: You have practical, working depth in at least two of the following domains: flight control stacks (e.g., PX4, ArduPilot, ROS), perception/ML pipelines, sensor fusion, GNSS-denied navigation, or embedded real-time systems.

• AI-Native Champion: You are an active practitioner of AI-augmented engineering. You have integrated tools like LLMs, automated test generators, and advanced developer environments into your own workflow to drastically compress engineering cycles, and you know how to teach a team to do the same.

• Technical Agency & Leadership: You have a track record of driving technical alignment, establishing robust engineering standards, and mentoring other engineers—whether through direct management or strong matrixed technical leadership (e.g., as a Tech Lead, Principal Architect, or VP).

• Clearance Eligibility: Due to the nature of this role and the work performed, candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense Secret security clearance.

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Desired Capabilities

• Experience taking a chaotic, multi-stack environment and harmonizing it into a clean, shared reference architecture.

• Direct experience with MLOps pipelines (training, optimization, edge deployment, quantization).

• Familiarity with synthetic V&V (simulation-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop testing) at scale.

• Experience in high-velocity, venture-backed tech startups or dual-use defense-tech companies.

• Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) design, development, integration, testing, operation, and maintenance.

• Safety-critical software development experience (DO-178C exposure, formal methods, or equivalent rigor).

• GNSS-denied navigation experience, including visual-inertial odometry (VIO), terrain-relative navigation, and sensor fusion for contested environments.

• Prior involvement in M&A technical due diligence or post-acquisition software architecture harmonization.

• Cost/schedule management experience (agile EVM/EVMS cost account management, IMS development/maintenance).

• Experience with Blue UAS compliance, AS9100, or safety-critical flight hardware standards.

• Experience with AI-enabled Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and engineering workflows (requirements analysis, test generation, log analysis, anomaly detection, and documentation automation).

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Logistics & Compensation

• Reports To: Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

• Location(s): Remote (US-based); with physical collaboration hubs in Reston, VA; Denton, TX; Denver, CO; San Luis Obispo, CA; San Leandro, CA.

• Travel: ~25% (for site visits, physical flight tests, and M&A integration)

• Base Salary Range: $177,000 - $279,000 (Targeted base; total package includes comprehensive benefits).