Head of Engineering

As an FAA-authorized UAS Service Supplier (USS), we operate infrastructure that directly interfaces with federal aviation systems and processes a meaningful share of U.S. drone airspace authorizations every month.

We are venture-backed, revenue-generating, and operating real infrastructure used by drone pilots nationwide. Now we’re bringing engineering fully in-house and looking for a Technical Co-Founder to own the next phase of platform scale.

This is not a standard engineering role. This is a builder-leader position with meaningful ownership.

You will:

• Define and own Auto Pylot’s technical direction and long‑term platform architecture
• Take over and evolve an existing production system
• Strengthen performance, reliability, and scalability
• Establish long‑term engineering standards and best practices
• Hire and mentor additional engineers as we grow

You’ll work directly with the founder on roadmap, product evolution, infrastructure decisions, and long‑term platform strategy.

This is a hands‑on role. You will be writing code.

Auto Pylot is a modern, Type Script‑based, serverless architecture built on AWS.

• Type Script (Node.js, ESM)
• Serverless AWS architecture (Lambda, API Gateway)
• Dynamo
  
  DB (with event‑driven patterns)
• SQS/SNS for async processing
• React + Ionic (mobile + web)
• Auth0 (OAuth2 / OIDC)
• Revenue Cat (subscriptions)
• CI/CD via Git Hub Actions
• Automated end‑to‑end testing
• Event‑driven FAA system integrations

You do not need prior aviation experience, but you must be comfortable working in regulated, reliability‑sensitive environments.

• 7+ years building production software systems
• Deep experience with Type Script or strongly typed backend systems
• Experience designing and scaling serverless or cloud‑native architectures (AWS preferred)
• Strong understanding of:
  Distributed systems, Event‑driven architectures, Asynchronous workflows, API design (REST)
• Experience taking a system from its current state to a materially higher scale (performance, reliability, or complexity).
• Comfort operating in environments where uptime, reliability, and correctness matter
• Strong database design experience (No
  
  SQL and/or relational)
• Ability to transition into technical leadership and build a small engineering team

• Experience scaling SaaS platforms from growth stage to scale stage
• Experience working with regulated or compliance‑heavy systems (fintech, healthcare, gov, aviation)
• Experience building mobile/web hybrid applications
• Familiarity with authentication systems (OAuth2 / JWT)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated test coverage
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading small teams
• Experience leveraging AI‑assisted development tools to increase engineer velocity while maintaining code quality and architectural integrity.

• Experience replacing outsourced teams with in‑house engineering
• Experience in aviation, mapping, or infrastructure‑heavy domains
• UAS Part 107 or another pilot’s license a plus

• Not a pure management role
• Not a “CTO who doesn’t code” role
• Not a corporate process‑heavy environment

We are looking for a technical owner who can both design the system and ship features. This is an opportunity to build and scale infrastructure that directly interfaces with federal aviation systems and supports a rapidly growing drone ecosystem.

• Competitive base compensation plus meaningful founder‑level equity. Structured to align long‑term incentives and ownership.
• Fully remote, Northeast preferred (U.S. only due to FAA requirements)