Swarmer
defense-tech
HeadofAI
“Head of AI at Swarmer. Skills: AI/ML, computer vision, perception, autonomy, people management, technical leadership, roadmap execution, edge deployment. Own the AI roadmap and execution rhythm across Swarmer’s autonomy, perception, and data stack (LMT, ATR, VISNAV). Consolidate AI/ML efforts into one coherent roadmap with clear owners, priorities, and delivery accountability”
What You'll Achieve.
turn ambitious ideas into shipped, field-ready outcomes; build resilient systems that matter; seeing the direct impact of your work; clear owners, priorities, and delivery accountability; shipped outcomes
Industry & Context.
reasoning about the physical world before defaulting to "let's train a model."
battle-tested in Ukraine, defense sector benefits (reservation, etc)
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
5+ years in a managerial role leading technical teams, Proven experience leading AI/ML, computer vision, perception, or autonomy teams, people management skills: hiring, team structure, accountability, performance management, and leadership of senior ICs, Hands-on technical background in AI/ML, computer vision, robotics, autonomy, or related fields, Ability to supervise technical decisions and challenge senior engineers without needing to act as the CTO, execution discipline, speed over perfectionism, and comfort being judged on shipped outcomes, Real power-user experience with AI engineering tools such as Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or similar and the conviction that the entire engineering team should be using them daily, Solid fundamentals in math and physics — comfortable reasoning about the physical world (wind, ballistics, sensor behavior, drone dynamics) before defaulting to "let's train a model. ", Experience deploying models at the edge / on embedded platforms (e. g. , Jetson, Qualcomm) — not only in the cloud, Upper-Intermediate level of English or higher
Nice to Have
Experience with ATR, object recognition, perception systems, or autonomous systems at depth, Experience with embedded AI, edge deployment, or resource-constrained environments, Hardware-software integration experience, Defense, aerospace, drones, robotics, or operational technology experience, Experience rebuilding or scaling a data team and working directly with founders or CEOs
What You'll Do.
Own the AI roadmap and execution rhythm across Swarmer’s autonomy
Consolidate AI/ML efforts into one coherent roadmap with clear owners
and delivery accountability
Align AI initiatives with product roadmap
combat-ops priorities
and field constraints
Build operating processes for planning
and quarterly delivery
Prioritize ruthlessly: say no
and stop work that should not continue
Architect and integrate the data function into the broader AI organization
Improve team speed through tooling
AI-assisted workflows
and hands-on contribution where needed
Make high-level technical decisions and supervise the architectural choices of senior leads (CV
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Align AI initiatives with product roadmap, combat-ops priorities, and field constraints; Supervise the architectural choices of senior leads (CV, robotics, autonomy, integration); Work directly with founders or CEOs
Communication Scope
Upper-Intermediate level of English or higher
Process & Methodology
roadmap execution, planning, prioritization, ownership, quality, metrics, quarterly delivery, ruthless prioritization, focus defense, conflict surfacing, work stopping
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