Senior Engineering Manager, Solutions Engineering

You will lead the Solutions Engineering team at NODA AI, managing a growing team of Solution Engineers and Architects across Austin and DC. You own people, delivery quality, and hiring bar, partnering with Product Management, Mission Leads, and Field Operations to deploy autonomous systems into customer environments. This is a hands-on role requiring code reading, customer technical reviews, and travel during key engagements.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and performance-manage Solution Engineers and Architects across levels; own hiring, promotions, and the calibrated hiring bar.
• Own engagement staffing and delivery quality across active customer programs.
• Lead the Solutions Engineering team through the full deployment lifecycle: ConOps and deployment design → field execution → customer handoff → After Action Review (AAR).
• Maintain exceptional technical standards on all customer-facing deliverables: deployment runbooks, ConOps documentation, and post-engagement debriefs.
• Partner with Product Management, Mission Leads, Field Operations, Business Dev, and engineering counterparts on cross-functional delivery.
• Funnel customer signal back to Product Management and Core Engineering with prioritized specificity.

Requirements

• 6+ years of engineering experience, including 3+ years directly managing engineers.
• Track record leading customer-facing or forward-deployed engineering teams in defense, autonomy, or comparable high-stakes B2B environments.
• Strong technical credibility, can read Python, C++, or Rust and evaluate integration architecture decisions.
• Excellent written communication.
• U.S. citizenship with the ability to obtain a security clearance.

Nice to have

• Background at leading defense tech companies or in the federal/defense arm of major tech companies.
• Direct experience with autonomous vehicles or unmanned systems (UAS, UGV, USV, UUV).
• Prior DoD, classified, ITAR, or CMMC-scoped delivery experience.
• Has performance-managed senior engineers, including at least one cleanly handled managed-out.
• Active security clearance.

Benefits

• We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals + Company match
• Equity grants for new hires
• Unlimited PTO
• 11 Paid holidays
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in November, & December.
• Generous Parental Leave
• Military Leave for annual training or service requirements
• FSA
• DCFSA
• HSA
• Professional Development Opportunities
• Access to One Medical
• Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well.