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Harmattan AI

Director of Engineering - US Region

Austin
Level
Lead
Work type
On-site · Austin

Not stated in the posting: salary, visa.

Open. First seen 2 October 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

About Us

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.

Harmattan AI's standard text

Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

About the Role

As the Director of Engineering at Harmattan AI, you will build and lead an engineering organisation with various engineering modules from the ground up.

You will own the full technical chain, take the system through qualification and into series production, and build a supplier base and engineering ecosystem that sustains it.

Responsibilities

  • Organisation Building: Stand up the engineering group including hiring key engineering roles.
  • Project Management: Act as a project manager handling the delivery of key milestones.
  • Technical Ownership: Own the full technical chain across airframe, propulsion, avionics, launcher and ground segment, through to flight test and trials.
  • People Management & Mentorship: Manage managers while staying close to the engineering, run regular design reviews across multiple disciplines.
  • Supplier Ecosystem: Develop a supplier base.

Candidate Requirements

  • Educational Background: An MSc in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical or a strongly related engineering field. A track record of building organisations will outweigh the degree.
  • Proven Leadership: An engineer who moved into management and then into managing managers.
  • Experience: 10+ years, with at least 4 in engineering management. You have stood up or materially scaled an engineering site, including hiring at pace.
  • Track Record: You have taken a hardware system through qualification and into series production. Background in UAV, autonomous systems or advanced robotics.
  • Technical Engagement: While this is a leadership role, you remain credible across every discipline in the group without claiming depth in any, and you take written positions on the cross-module questions no one else will close.
  • Commitment: 100% dedication to Harmattan AI's mission of building autonomous defence systems
Harmattan AI's standard text

We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.

What this role asks for

83% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Harmattan AI's standard text, folded away below.

Read against Harmattan AI's other open postings on this site.

The team: R&D HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 96 open in R&D. 37 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in January: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

Python (39 of 96), C++ (38 of 96), Embedded Systems (37 of 96), C (17 of 96), Computer Vision (16 of 96), Linux (15 of 96), Machine Learning (14 of 96)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Harmattan AI's own job board.

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