Sr. Director, Forward Deployed Engineering

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

We embed Forward Deployed teams on Hadrian’s largest and most critical programs with the U.S. Government, the Armed Forces, and major defense primes. The Forward Deployed org works alongside programs and engineering teams on everything from scoping to execution.

Forward Deployed adapts our product to fulfill customer needs. Sometimes that involves extending Opus, Hadrian’s AI-driven manufacturing autonomy platform; other times, it involves taking a new product from 0 to 1 to make a program successful. Everything the Forward Deployed team learns working on the front lines with our customers is fed back to our engineering teams to improve Hadrian’s product for all customers.

Recent projects have included establishing Factories-as-a-Service (FaaS) for the Armed Forces and several major primes, expanding Opus into new manufacturing sectors such as energetics, and growing a product line originally developed for a single program into a programs valued at over $1b.

As a Senior Director, you lead the Forward Deployed team across one or more programs and are responsible for their technical outcomes. You will oversee the technical aspects of a program larger than most startups ever experience, working directly with government representatives, customers, and Hadrian’s leadership teams.

The team is in its early stages, and the scope is rapidly expanding with Hadrian. You will play a key role in scaling the Forward Deployed team and leading multi-billion-dollar programs.

• Own the technical roadmap and delivery end‑to‑end. Drive programs from ambiguous first conversations to production deployment—defining scope, determining what gets built, and making clear, decisive calls on what we ship.

• Share program learnings across the business to improve the product and determine which Forward Deployed products are shipped to both current and future programs and customers.

• Executive ownership: serve as primary technical owner for customer program leadership, government stakeholders, and prime partners. Lead technical reviews, oversee discussions regarding scope and scheduling, and drive technical decisions across programs.

• Build and lead the team. Hire and grow engineers, product managers, and designers across programs. You set the standard for how they work.

• Remain hands‑on as programs evolve—build the early foundation, then drive quality, set the bar for excellence, and ensure the team delivers to that standard.

• Highly commercial technical leaders with excellent product judgment.

• You have a demonstrated history leading engineering and product…