Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering – State, Local, Educational (SLED) Corrections and Campus Security

About this role

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors https://www.skydio.com/solutions/energy-and-utilities to first responders https://www.skydio.com/solutions/public-safety, soldiers in battlefield scenarios https://www.skydio.com/solutions/national-security/tactical-isr, and beyond https://www.skydio.com/solutions.

About the Role:

Skydio is seeking an experienced Solutions Engineering leader to join our team as Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering for Corrections and Campus Security. This is new coverage: Skydio has done corrections work and campus work, but never with a national team dedicated to it, and the knowledge has lived in individual heads rather than in a function. You will build that function from the ground up.

This is a remote role. Travel of approximately 30% is required to support customer engagements, field activities, deployments, team onsites, and company events.

This role reports to the Director, Solutions Engineering – SLED.

About the Team

The SLED Solutions Engineering team is the technical arm of Skydio's state and local go-to-market motion. We sit between the agency and the product: turning operational problems into program designs, proving capability in the field, and making sure Skydio's products are used, integrated, and flown at scale.

The team is measured on technical win rate, trial and proof of concept outcomes, program expansion, site assessment quality, and the requirements we push back into the product organization.

Solutions Engineers are critical members of the Skydio organization and work closely with Key Account Leaders, Engineering, and Product to support deal progression, customer confidence, successful deployments, and the long-term success of Public Safety sUAS programs.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

LEAD THE TEAM

- Hire, onboard, coach, and retain your team, with clear ownership and coverage across the territories in your segment, and develop people beyond the seat they are in.

- Set the bar for technical quality — demos, trial plans, site assessments, and customer-facing documentation that hold up in front of a chief, a sheriff, or a city council.

- Own capacity across your segment. Decide where Solutions Engineering time goes, say no when it needs to be said, and make the tradeoffs visible to leadership.

DRIVE TECHNICAL WINS

- Own the technical win across corrections and campus security nationally, two problem sets that share a perimeter security motion but very little else.

- Serve as the senior technical escalation point on critical pursuits, deployments, and customer issues. Jump in and work the problem yourself, and be in the field when it matters.

- Partner with Sales leadership on pipeline, forecast, and account planning, and on the land-and-expand motion that turns a first dock into a citywide program.

OWN THE CORRECTIONS AND CAMPUS PROBLEM SET

- Build the practice from nothing. There is no playbook, no reference architecture, and no established discovery motion for either problem set, and creating them is the first year of the job. Contraband interdiction, perimeter surveillance, and emergency response are distinct concepts of operation, and part of the job is being candid about where the technology fits and where it does not.

- Own site assessment quality as a performance measure. Solutions Engineers are the DRI for verifying a dock location before deployment, and the quality of the resulting installation reflects on the team.

- Hold the bar on proofs of concept: structured deployments tied to an active opportunity with measurable operational value, not casual evaluations.

- Guide integration and airspace strategy — CAD and dispatch, video and evidence management, streaming platforms, BVLOS approvals, waivers, COAs, and docked operations.

- Maintain command of the public sector procurement path, including cooperative contracts, grant funded programs, and public sector buying cycles.

REPRESENT THE CUSTOMER INSIDE SKYDIO

- Be the aggregated voice of the customer to Product and Engineering. Turn field observations into prioritized, defensible requirements rather than a list of one-off asks.

- Build the enablement content, reference architectures, and reusable technical assets that let the team scale, and maintain first-hand product knowledge through frequent hands-on use.

What Makes You a Good Fit:

- 5+ years of relevant technical experience, including time in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineering, field engineering, or applications engineering).

- 1+ years leading a technical team, formally or as a technical lead with hiring and mentorship responsibility. First-time managers with a demonstrated record of leading and developing people will be considered.

- Strong understanding of drone technology, Public Safety sUAS operations, and regulatory compliance, including Drone as First Responder concepts of operation and dock based remote operations.

- Working knowledge of Public Safety technologies, including CAD, VMS, and related software platforms, and the ability to lead integration discussions.

- A track record of hiring, onboarding, and developing technical people, and of keeping them.

- Comfort operating inside a Sales organization, including owning a quota, deal strategy, and the judgment to know when to commit technical resources and when to decline.

- Excellent written and verbal communication. You can brief an operator, a program manager, and a senior executive without changing the facts.

- Lead by example. Willing to do whatever is needed to get a customer situation resolved.

Nice to Have

- Prior public safety…