Director, Mission Operations

Who We Are:

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.

Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.

In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

We need an operationally credible military training and field support leader who can build plans of instruction, train end users, support demos and deployments, capture operator feedback, and translate real-world operational needs into action for engineering, product, and growth. This is a foundational MOPs role. You will be the company's primary bridge between the warfighter and the build team. The fielding of Archimedes will rise or fall on how well this loop runs.

• Build and own training plans, plans of instruction, and user enablement for military operators

• Lead field training and support during demonstrations, pilots, and deployed use

• Ensure operators can use the system confidently and correctly in real-world conditions

• Act as the primary bridge between end users and internal teams, translating operator experience into engineering and product feedback

• Reduce cognitive load and improve usability by informing setup, displacement, interface, and training design

• Support growth and business development by bringing operational credibility, user insight, and relevant field relationships into customer engagements

• Participate in test events, lab reviews, and field exercises to represent the operator perspective throughout product iteration

• Special operations or equivalent operational background, with train-the-trainer experience strongly preferred

• Experience preparing military or foreign users to operate systems independently in high-stakes environments

• Demonstrated ability to build trust quickly with operators and translate field realities into practical internal action

• Comfort operating across training, deployment support, customer interface, and internal technical collaboration

• Track record working alongside engineers and product teams on novel technology

SOF community with train-the-trainer experience, foreign internal defense, technology integration cells, JSOC tech / SMU staff, NSWDG / DEVGRU, ISA, RRC, or equivalent. Defense industry candidates with deep field training experience also considered.

You've stood in front of operators using something brand new and gotten them proficient. You've taken what they said, what they did, and what broke, and turned it into changes engineers could act on.

Your operational experience is conventional only, you haven't supported novel technology fielding, or you're looking for a desk role.

• Counter-UAS or directed energy familiarity

• Experience inside a defense startup or non-traditional vendor

• Active TS/SCI clearance

• Experience authoring system requirements, TTPs, capability documents, or after-action frameworks

No specific degree required. Operational track record matters more than credentials.

• Extreme bias for action. You'd rather be at the test or with the operator than in a planning meeting

• You translate ambiguity into a plan and a plan into reps

• Comfortable with the tempo of real-world operations, including OCONUS travel on short notice

• Clear communicator across operators, engineers, and senior leadership

• Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

• Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a…