Field Operations Lead

NODA AI•Austin, TX

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

NODA is a veteran-owned, venture-backed technology company that is transforming how unmanned systems collaborate in complex, mission-critical environments. We are developing next-generation solutions that enable the autonomous orchestration of heterogeneous unmanned systems across air, sea, land, and space with vital applications in the defense, intelligence, and commercial sectors. Our Field Operations team plays a critical role in bringing our technology to life through the assembly, integration, deployment, and field testing of unmanned systems that directly support mission-critical testing and operations. Joining NODA means working on meaningful technology that pushes the boundaries of autonomy alongside a team that thrives on innovation, rapid iteration, and collaboration. We are seeking a Field Operations Lead to grow and lead our Field Operations team, a tight, high-trust, high-skill group of five, rapidly scaling to 10+, as it deploys our autonomous orchestration systems in demonstrations, test campaigns, and field exercises alongside Mission Operations and Engineering Operations. This is a player-coach role, not a headquarters role. You will hold real authority over tasking and priorities, but you will exercise it from the shop floor and the field: physically present, hands-on, constantly listening, removing blockers, and pushing decision authority down rather than concentrating it. You will be the voice of Field Operations, shaping tasking horizons, demo lead times, and priorities in partnership with Mission Operations, Engineering, and company leadership. The team's horizontal, collaborative culture is its greatest asset. Your job is to scale that culture, bringing the structure and rhythm a growing team needs while keeping what makes it work. Speed and proclivity to act is the greatest asset, this needs to be harnessed and unleashed, the Field Operations Leader will be at the forefront of making that happen. People are more important than hardware, no plan survives first contact, and no structure eliminates the audible. To mitigate this risk of uncertainty, you will build teams of teams through strong human relationships, across NODA, with clients, and ultimately with the armed forces. As our systems transition to the field, you will develop and deliver hands-on training that turns members of the armed forces into confident, self-sufficient operators of NODA technology, while leading your team to gather observations on pain points and requirements. Travel up to 50%, including evenings/weekends during mission-critical events and demonstrations, and a willingness to deploy to forward locations overseas, including austere environments.

Requirements

U.S. Citizen (required); ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance; active Secret or higher strongly preferred.
5+ years of hands-on technical experience in field, lab, or operational environments, including 5+ years leading technical teams.
Demonstrated player-coach leadership: leading from the front, developing people individually, and earning trust through presence and listening rather than positional authority.
Experience scaling or building a small technical team, ideally in a startup, R&D, or test-and-evaluation environment.
Proven planner with experience organizing complex, rapidly changing operations or logistics efforts.
Self-aware and adaptable; effective under rapidly changing, complex, and ambiguous conditions.
Willing and able to deploy to forward locations overseas, including austere environments.
Comfortable working in both lab and outdoor field environments; ability to lift 60 lbs and work in dynamic field conditions.

Nice To Haves

Leadership experience, with a demonstrated servant-leadership style suited to a flat, high-trust technical team.
FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate or ability to rapidly obtain.
Experience with UAS/robotic platforms, payloads, RF/communications, and multi-domain test events.
Experience establishing safety programs, test SOPs, or demo-readiness processes for hardware in the field.
Familiarity with lightweight project and inventory tooling (e.g., Kanban boards, Confluence, asset tracking) and with right-sizing process to a small team's tempo.
Experience in defense applications of autonomous systems (e.g., DoD programs, test ranges, military exercises), including familiarity with military CONOPS and operations in contested or GPS/comms-denied environments.

Responsibilities

Lead from the Field. Serve as a senior on-site NODA representative and customer point of contact at multi-domain field exercises and demonstrations, directing setup/teardown, troubleshooting, and execution (including at overseas locations).
Grow the Team. Help recruit, hire, and onboard Field Operations Specialists and own the onboarding curriculum that transfers both craft and strategic context.
Develop People and Teams. Build the training program — certification pipelines (e.g., FAA Part 107), cross-training, and knowledge transfer — and coach each team member along distinct career lanes, building depth and redundancy in critical skills as the team scales.
Own the Safety Program. Own flight-worthiness verification, integration timelines, and test review processes that maximize learning from deliberate R&D test attrition; ensure a safe, professional shop and field environment.
Integrate and Plan. Lead operational coordination with Mission Operations and Engineering Operations — setting tasking horizons, demo lead times, and clear points of contact — and plan and adapt complex, multi-site deployment logistics as conditions change.
Build/Run Lean Systems. Run lean operational systems — reporting rhythms, task tracking, inventory, and delegated purchasing — right-sized so the team spends its time building and flying.
Drive a Cycle of Improvement. Own deployment plans, checklists, logs, and after-action reports, and drive lessons learned and customer feedback into improved demo-readiness processes.