Director of Mission Operations

HIDDEN LEVEL INC•Hidden Level - Remote, Remote, US,

22h•$145,000 - $190,000

About The Position

At Hidden Level, we’re building the future of airspace awareness through cutting-edge passive RF sensing technology. Our mission is to make the world safer—protecting military personnel, critical infrastructure, public events, and commercial operations from emerging airborne threats. We design, manufacture, and deploy advanced sensor systems that provide real-time situational awareness for defense and commercial customers around the world. Our team thrives on solving hard technical problems, moving quickly, and delivering mission-critical capabilities where they matter most. If you’re passionate about operational excellence, customer success, and enabling technologies that have real-world impact, we’d love to meet you.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in mission operations, field operations, technical program execution, customer success, military operations, or related disciplines.
Experience deploying and supporting complex hardware/software systems in operational environments.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams in fast-paced, mission-critical situations.
Strong customer engagement skills with the ability to build credibility and trust across technical and operational stakeholders.
Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills under ambiguous or rapidly changing conditions.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to senior customer leadership.
Ability to travel up to 40% in support of customer deployments, demonstrations, and mission activities.
U.S. citizens can be considered for this position.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, Homeland Security, or other government customers.
Military service or experience supporting operational military missions.
Background in RF sensing, radar, ISR, electronic warfare, counter-UAS, autonomy, or related technologies.
Experience with field deployments of distributed sensor systems or mission-critical infrastructure.
Familiarity with systems integration, networking, Linux, or cloud-based operational environments.
Experience working in high-growth startups or rapidly scaling technology organizations.
You are customer-focused and measure success by your customers’ mission outcomes.
You remain calm under pressure and enjoy solving difficult operational challenges.
You communicate clearly across engineering teams, executives, and frontline operators.
You are comfortable taking ownership without waiting for direction.
You continuously improve processes and leave every mission better than you found it.
You enjoy working in the field as much as collaborating with internal technical teams.

Responsibilities

Own the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of Hidden Level’s Mission Operations organization, ensuring successful customer deployments across defense, government, and commercial markets.
Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of Mission Operations engineers and Misson Support Specialists by establishing clear priorities, performance expectations, and career development pathways.
Establish operational standards, mission and readiness frameworks that enable consistent, repeatable, and scalable mission execution for our partners and customers.
Oversee operational planning for customer fielding, system acceptance, and sustainment while ensuring resources are aligned to meet customer and business objectives.
Serve as the executive operational leader for critical customer and mission events. Play a key supporting role to the demonstration team for all major demonstrations.
Provide strategic oversight for customer missions, operational exercises, demonstrations, and evaluations, ensuring successful execution across multiple concurrent programs for the mission operations function.
Develop operational governance, risk management processes, and escalation frameworks to proactively identify and mitigate mission risks.
Partner with Engineering, Product, and Operations leadership to rapidly resolve technical challenges and improve system reliability in operational environments.
Establish mission readiness metrics, operational KPIs, and reporting mechanisms that measure deployment effectiveness, customer adoption, and mission success.
Institutionalize lessons learned from field operations to improve products, operational processes, and future deployments.
Serve as a trusted executive advisor to customer leadership, developing long-term relationships that position Hidden Level as a strategic mission partner.
Work direction with Customer Success, Programs, and Growth for customer onboarding, operational enablement, and long-term mission adoption strategies to ensure customers achieve measurable operational outcomes.
Partner with Customer Success, Programs, and Growth to identify opportunities for capability expansion, follow-on deployments, and long-term customer growth.
Ensure customer feedback, operational insights, and mission requirements are systematically incorporated into product roadmaps and engineering priorities.
Champion a customer-first culture that emphasizes responsiveness, accountability, and mission success.
Work closely with leaders across the company to develop the operational strategy for customer demonstrations, operational evaluations, and proof-of-concept events.
Partner with Growth, Product Management, and Engineering leadership to develop demonstration strategies aligned with customer mission objectives and business priorities.
Represent Hidden Level as an operational subject matter expert with senior government officials, military leaders, strategic partners, and executive customer stakeholders.
Support strategic capture efforts, proposals, and customer engagements by providing operational expertise and mission-focused solution development.
Define the long-term vision, organizational structure, and operating model for the Mission Operations function as Hidden Level continues to scale.
Develop standardized processes, tooling, documentation, and best practices that improve deployment efficiency, operational readiness, and customer satisfaction.
Establish and monitor organizational performance metrics, resource planning, and capacity models to support company growth.
Foster a culture of operational excellence, ownership, continuous improvement, collaboration, and customer obsession across the Mission Operations organization.
Partner closely with executive leadership to align Mission Operations strategy with company objectives, product roadmap, and long-term business growth.