Senior Engineering Manager, Middleware

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.

At Skydio, the combination of our platform, technology foundation, and team enables our engineers and researchers to develop, deploy, iterate, and improve upon the state of the art in robot autonomy better and faster than anywhere else in the world.

The middleware team sits in between the hardware platform and the autonomy stack and develops abstractions that are used by many of the layers that are higher up in the stack, including customer facing features. The team is small but with a broad impact: we design on-device services for all our drone platforms (X10, R10, F10) and their hardware configurations (Dock, External Radio and Controllers).

Some of the features that we work on are:

- Over The Air Updates

- Inter Process Communication

- Media and Log Management

- Performance of code and systems on the aircraft

- Time Synchronization

- Aircraft Attachments

- Navigation Cameras Streaming Pipeline

- Automated Test Infrastructure

This is a highly impactful team where ownership matters. We work closely with other engineers across the company including Computer Vision, State Estimation, Fleet Management, and Embedded.

We're looking for a hands-on manager — someone who leads a small team, stays close to the code, and is as comfortable in a design review as in a career conversation.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

- Lead, grow, and retain a team of software engineers — running 1:1s, setting expectations, giving direct feedback, and developing engineers at every level.

- Own the team's roadmap and delivery: set technical direction, break down ambiguous problems, and make the tradeoffs that keep the team shipping reliably.

- Stay hands-on. Design and implement high-quality software systems that run on our hardware products and developer workstations, and remain a credible technical voice in reviews and architecture decisions.

- Build analytics tools that help us monitor services and identify, architect, and implement projects that ensure smooth customer experiences, operating at a high state of reliability.

- Identify and lead internal cross-team software projects that substantially improve the customer (internal and external) experience.

- Take ownership of internal services from concept through deployment and monitoring.

- Partner with Computer Vision, State Estimation, Fleet Management, Embedded and Product teams to align priorities and unblock work across organizational boundaries.

- Recruit and hire — build the interview loop, sell candidates on the mission, and raise the bar with every addition to the team.

What Makes You a Good Fit:

- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.

- 3+ years of direct people management experience — you've owned headcount, performance, and career growth for a team of engineers.

- You're a hands-on manager. You still read and write code, and you'd be uncomfortable leading a team whose work you couldn't do yourself.

- You are comfortable navigating and delivering within a complex codebase.

- You are highly proficient in Python and/or C++, implementing features in a Linux environment.

- You enjoy designing and making powerful tools that are used by other engineers.

- You are excited to work on and with modern cutting-edge robotic systems.

- You are experienced in designing features for operating systems that run in resource constrained environments (compute and memory).

- You have experience coordinating and leading improvements to systems with significant organizational usage and impact.

- You've built software for systems with complex hardware in the loop — humanoid robots, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing / warehouse robots, drones, medical devices, IoT devices or similar — and you understand what changes when the bits have to move something physical.

- You thrive in a fast-moving, process-light environment. You bring your own structure where it's needed, tolerate ambiguity, and optimize for impact over ceremony.

- You're strong at stakeholder management. You keep partner teams and leadership informed, negotiate priorities and tradeoffs across organizational boundaries, and build the trust that gets your team unblocked.

Compensation: At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the form of stock options, and comprehensive benefits packages. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. Relocation assistance may also be provided for eligible roles. The annual base salary range for this position is $230,000 - $303,000. Fundamentally, we believe that equity is the key to long-term financial growth, and we ensure all regular, full-time employees have the opportunity to significantly benefit from the company's success. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to enroll in the Company’s group health insurance plans. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive the following benefits: Paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and 401K savings plan. This position and all associated benefits are subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the Company’s policies and eligibility criteria.

*Compensation for certain positions may vary based on the position’s

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