Head of Engineering
About AutoPylot
AutoPylot is one of the largest and most trusted FAA-approved platforms for mission planning and airspace authorization for drone pilots in the United States. As an FAA-authorized UAS Service Supplier (USS)of B4UFLY and LAANC, 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.
The Opportunity
You will:
- Define and own AutoPylot’s technical direction and long-term platform architecture
- Take over and evolve an existing production system
- Strengthen performance, reliability, and scalability
- Lead the transition from outsourced development to internal engineering
- 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.
What You’ll Be Working With
AutoPylot is a modern, TypeScript-based, serverless architecture built on AWS.
High-level stack includes:
- TypeScript (Node.js, ESM)
- Serverless AWS architecture (Lambda, API Gateway)
- DynamoDB (with event-driven patterns)
- SQS/SNS for async processing
- React + Ionic (mobile + web)
- Capacitor (iOS/Android packaging)
- Mapbox (geospatial visualization)
- Auth0 (OAuth2 / OIDC)
- RevenueCat (subscriptions)
- CI/CD via GitHub 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.
What We’re Looking For
Required
- 7+ years building production software systems
- Deep experience with TypeScript 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 in making architecture decisions end-to-end
- 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 (NoSQL and/or relational)
- Ability to transition into technical leadership and build a small engineering team
Strongly Preferred
- 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
Bonus
- Geospatial systems experience
- API platform or developer ecosystem experience
- Experience replacing outsourced teams with in-house engineering
- Experience in aviation, mapping, or infrastructure-heavy domains
- AI/data platform exposure
- UAS Part 107 or another pilot’s license a plus
What This Is Not
- 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.
Compensation
- 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)