Director of Product Compliance

Skydio•San Mateo, CA

5d•$230,000 - $347,500

About The Position

Skydio is seeking a Director of Product Compliance to oversee product compliance across its entire portfolio. As the company's product families and markets expand, compliance is being established as a core product capability. The role involves building the operational framework for compliance, including policy, risk frameworks, requirements inventory, and certification gates designed from the concept stage. The Director will lead a team of portfolio compliance engineers, each responsible for program certifications, and collaborate with various departments such as Hardware Ops, Engineering, Product, Security, Supply Chain, Sales, Government, Aviation Regulatory, and Legal to make critical decisions. This is a build role with significant decision-making authority, including launch readiness sign-off.

Requirements

10+ years in product compliance, certification, or regulatory engineering.
Experience leading a team.
Deep technical grounding in EMC, radio, and product safety.
Working knowledge of adjacent domains including cellular and carrier certification, battery, aviation, cybersecurity, and supply chain and export controls.
Ability to know when a requirement applies, which expert to pull in, and whether the answer received is valid.
Track record of building process and governance where it did not exist and getting an organization to adopt it.
Comfortable holding decision rights, including informing a program if its launch date is at risk.
Strong cross-functional operator, effective with engineering, legal, supply chain, and executive stakeholders.
Willingness to work outside the scope of your role to cover gaps in ownership.

Nice To Haves

Battery, cellular including PTCRB and MNO, or NRTL compliance experience.
Familiarity with UAS regulatory frameworks such as FAA, Remote ID, and EASA.
Experience with federal supply chain, export control, or cybersecurity requirements.
Regulatory advocacy or standards body engagement experience.
Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged for all Skydio employees and required for certain positions.

Responsibilities

Own product compliance for the company, setting policy, arbitrating cross-program tradeoffs, and owning launch readiness recommendations and sign-off.
Act as the single point of accountability for compliance issues, especially when requirements are contested or launches are at risk.
Lead and grow the compliance team, developing compliance engineers embedded in program teams and balancing their capacity against an 18-month roadmap.
Ensure each program has a tailored compliance plan rather than a generic checklist.
Translate unclear or evolving requirements into a clear compliance strategy, maintaining program momentum and making defensible decisions.
Partner with Product and Engineering on launch timelines that reflect real certification lead times, dependencies, and external constraints.
Escalate launch-critical risks early enough to allow for action.
Direct the SME bench and external strategy, ensuring the right experts are engaged at the right time across various domains.
Work with cross-functional partners to shape policy and regulation, rather than solely reacting to it.