Field Operations Lead (Federal)

FieldAI • Irvine, CA

3d • $190,000 - $240,000

About The Position

FieldAI is seeking a Field Operations Lead for its Large Autonomy Group and Federal Team. The role leads operations for large autonomous systems in complex, remote, and challenging environments, including developmental and operational testing, customer deployments, hardware integration, by-wire installation, and field test execution strategy. The ideal candidate combines people leadership, hands-on technical judgment, and field operations experience, and works closely with Field Application Engineers, technical leads, and customer stakeholders in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.

The position is part of FieldAI’s Federal Team, which works on projects connected to the U.S. government and therefore requires U.S. Person eligibility. A U.S. Person, as defined by 22 C.F.R. §120.62, includes a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee. The listed salary range is $190,000–$240,000 per year. Final base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market. The role requires domestic and international travel as business needs require.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in robotics, engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Significant experience in field applications engineering, robotics deployment, systems integration, technical operations, or a comparable customer-facing engineering function.
• Demonstrated experience leading, developing, and managing technical field teams.
• Experience building or scaling field operations across multiple customers, sites, or geographic regions.
• Strong understanding of complex hardware and software systems, ideally involving robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, technical infrastructure, or other deployed advanced technology.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent deployments and balance customer urgency, technical complexity, staffing constraints, and business priorities.
• Strong troubleshooting and systems-thinking skills, including the ability to lead teams through ambiguous and high-pressure field situations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including communicating with technical teams, frontline operators, customer executives, and internal leadership.
• Strong organizational and operational discipline, including experience developing processes, documentation, training programs, and performance metrics.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.
• U.S. Person eligibility, as required for projects connected to the U.S. government.

Nice To Haves

• Experience deploying robotic or autonomous systems in challenging, complex environments.
• Experience supporting customers in energy, manufacturing, construction, mining, agriculture, logistics, aerospace, defense, or infrastructure.
• Familiarity with Linux, networking, sensors, robotic hardware, autonomy software, and system-level diagnostics.
• Experience managing distributed or international technical teams.
• Experience operating within a high-growth technology company where products and processes are evolving rapidly.
• Knowledge of industrial site safety, commissioning practices, and customer acceptance procedures.
• Experience supporting the transition from early-stage pilots and demonstrations to repeatable, production-scale deployments.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day field operations, including test planning, experimentation, and execution.
• Manage the ground vehicle fleet to maximize uptime through preventative and operational maintenance and equipment recovery.
• Own safe field operations by setting and enforcing safety practices.
• Plan and manage parts inventory for anticipated repairs, particularly long-lead and hard-to-source components.
• Organize field equipment and coordinate deployment logistics.
• Lead integration of hardware components onto customer vehicles, including complex by-wire development, testing, and installation.
• Support customer deployments in the field.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager