Senior Director, Collaborative Autonomy and Swarms Systems

True Anomaly•Long Beach, CA

3d•$265,000 - $360,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a visionary engineering leader to establish and lead a new organizational pillar focused on Collaborative Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). This role introduces a new layer of intelligence that enables heterogeneous vehicles to coordinate, reason, and act as a single, resilient, distributed organism. Your mandate is to fundamentally change the unit of operation—from the vehicle to the swarm. You will operate at the intersection of embedded firmware, flight software, and high-performance control theory—bridging these domains with a system-of-systems architecture that scales autonomy beyond the single agent. In this role, you will build and lead a deeply technical organization responsible for collaborative autonomy across a heterogeneous fleet, recruiting senior engineers in robotics software, distributed systems, estimation, and control. You will remain personally accountable for the architectural coherence and technical correctness of the swarm stack, defining the mathematical and computational foundations that govern multi-agent behavior at scale. You will own the architecture of the Swarm Executive, defining how agents represent and exchange state, maintain shared beliefs, and converge on decisions under asynchronous communication, partial observability, and degraded network conditions. This includes the design of distributed coordination mechanisms—such as leader election and auction-based task allocation—implemented with explicit consideration for latency, packet loss, and failure modes, and composed to preserve estimation and control stability. You will design the collaborative agent abstraction layer that decouples swarm-level logic from vehicle-specific dynamics, enabling invariant interfaces and unified control laws across heterogeneous platforms while preserving controllability, observability, and stability. You will partner closely with GNC, Flight Software, and Firmware teams to define strict interfaces and control contracts, ensuring swarm-level decisions decompose safely into vehicle-level autonomy without introducing hidden dynamics or unsafe emergent behavior. Finally, you will define and enforce swarm-level safety and assurance, advancing beyond test-based verification toward formal methods, compositional guarantees, and runtime monitoring for non-deterministic, distributed systems. You will establish the conditions under which swarm behavior is provably safe, stable, and mission-effective in the presence of uncertainty, failures, and environmental complexity.

Requirements

Advanced degree (PhD strongly preferred; MS acceptable with equivalent experience) in Robotics, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related field.
12+ years of progressive experience designing and deploying complex autonomous or distributed systems, with demonstrated ownership of system-level architecture.
Deep expertise in multi-agent systems, distributed control, or networked robotics, including practical experience with consensus, task allocation, formation control, or cooperative estimation.
Strong foundation in control theory and estimation, with hands-on experience ensuring stability, robustness, and performance in closed-loop systems operating under uncertainty.
Proven experience architecting and integrating real-time software across embedded, flight, and autonomy layers, including well-defined APIs and control contracts.
Demonstrated ability to lead and scale highly technical teams, while remaining an active technical contributor and architectural authority.
Experience delivering safety-critical systems where correctness, fault tolerance, and deterministic behavior are mission-essential.
Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, high-consequence environments and translate theoretical concepts into deployable, testable systems.
Ability to maintain or obtain TS//SCI clearance
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

PhD with research contributions in multi-agent systems, distributed optimization, cooperative control, or formal methods, evidenced by publications, patents, or fielded systems.
Direct experience with swarm or collaborative autonomy in operationally relevant environments (e.g., contested RF, GNSS-denied, adversarial or safety-critical domains).
Expertise in advanced control and systems theory, such as passivity-based control, input-to-state stability, hybrid systems, or Lyapunov-based analysis for networked systems.
Experience applying formal verification, model checking, or runtime assurance techniques to distributed or non-deterministic systems.
Background in designing autonomy for heterogeneous platforms (air, space, maritime, or ground) under shared mission objectives.
Familiarity with defense, aerospace, or regulated autonomy environments, including interaction with certification authorities or government R&D organizations.
Track record of shaping technical strategy at the executive level and influencing product or mission outcomes beyond a single program.
Direct experience with Missile Defense Elements, Ground Based Interceptors, C2BMC, fire control systems, or battle management architectures.
Prior role as a Program Executive, Vice President, Deputy PM, or Chief Engineer on major defense programs.
Experience supporting or leading DoD acquisition strategy, milestone reviews, and senior-level briefings.
Track record of successful capture and transition from proposal to execution on large defense programs.
Recognized technical or operational credibility within the missile defense or space defense community.

Responsibilities

Build and lead a deeply technical organization responsible for collaborative autonomy across a heterogeneous fleet, recruiting senior engineers in robotics software, distributed systems, estimation, and control.
Remain personally accountable for the architectural coherence and technical correctness of the swarm stack, defining the mathematical and computational foundations that govern multi-agent behavior at scale.
Own the architecture of the Swarm Executive, defining how agents represent and exchange state, maintain shared beliefs, and converge on decisions under asynchronous communication, partial observability, and degraded network conditions.
Design the collaborative agent abstraction layer that decouples swarm-level logic from vehicle-specific dynamics, enabling invariant interfaces and unified control laws across heterogeneous platforms while preserving controllability, observability, and stability.
Partner closely with GNC, Flight Software, and Firmware teams to define strict interfaces and control contracts, ensuring swarm-level decisions decompose safely into vehicle-level autonomy without introducing hidden dynamics or unsafe emergent behavior.
Define and enforce swarm-level safety and assurance, advancing beyond test-based verification toward formal methods, compositional guarantees, and runtime monitoring for non-deterministic, distributed systems.
Establish the conditions under which swarm behavior is provably safe, stable, and mission-effective in the presence of uncertainty, failures, and environmental complexity.