Mission Operations Lead

Location

New York City

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

BD/Mission

As a Mission Operations Engineer at Distributed Spectrum, you will be at the heart of transforming raw RF data into actionable intelligence in operational environments. Empowered by AI-driven sensing, you’ll ensure operators can detect, understand, and respond to emerging threats at the edge. You’ll work on everything from deploying sensors in the field, integrating systems, and building operational tool chains to supporting customer missions in real time.

• Operate and support live mission deployments, working with edge‑AI sensors to detect and classify threats from RF environments.

• Lead hands-on field operations, including deployment planning, sensor configuration, testing, troubleshooting, and data validation.

• Design and improve mission workflows, translating operator needs into technical specifications, products, and real-world capabilities.

• Collaborate closely with engineering teams, feeding customer insights back to drive rapid iteration on sensor hardware, software, and AI models.

• Drive training and documentation efforts, ensuring that internal teams and customers have the tools and knowledge to operate efficiently.

• Support mission planning and execution, including preparing test scenarios, overseeing data collection during deployments, and coordinating post-mission debriefs.

• Ensure data integrity and operational readiness, maintaining system health, monitoring performance, and contributing to continued development of our core platform.

• Experience in mission operations or field engineering roles, ideally in RF, sensing, autonomy, or related domains.

• Background in signal processing, communications engineering, or similar technical fields.

• Proficiency with data collection workflows, operational tooling, dashboards, or field instrumentation.

• Strong troubleshooting, adaptability, and an edge-case mindset.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, comfortable with both technical teams and field operators.

• Willingness to travel extensively and work in diverse, sometimes austere, environments.

• Eligible for US security clearance

• Military or government experience working with RF systems

• Familiarity with tools for autonomous system integration

• Experience with AI-informed, edge‑deployed sensors, or autonomy platforms.

• Fast learners over specific backgrounds – We care more about how quickly you can pick up new skills than where you’ve worked before.

• Intellectual honesty – The right answer matters more than being right. You challenge assumptions, test ideas, and pivot when needed.

• Adaptability – We’re organized, but sometimes things change quickly. You find a way to make it work and balance short term deliverables with long term goals.

• Ownership of outcomes – You optimize your own time, focus on what matters to deliver quickly, and cut out inefficiencies.

• Not building in a vacuum – You stay connected to the rest of our teams and our customers to make sure all the pieces fit together.

• Above-market salary, equity, and benefits package. In accordance with NY regulations, the salary range for this position is $100,000-$300,000 to cover a broad range of candidate experience.

• Early Series A Equity

• Excellent health, dental, and vision coverage

• 401(k) match - up to 4% of your salary

• Unlimited PTO

• Daily office lunches in NYC