Manager, Solutions Engineering – Utilities

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Recruit, develop, and retain a proficient team of Utilities Solutions Engineers.

• Oversee team ramp-up, enablement, career advancement, productivity, engagement, and growth.

• Establish standards for technical discovery and solution design within utility inspection and asset management workflows.

• Manage segment capacity and prioritize resources for Solutions Engineering.

• Create career paths, promotion cases, and succession plans.

• Take responsibility for the technical win rate in the utilities sector and collaborate with Utilities sales leadership on achieving quotas and maintaining pipeline health.

• Oversee paid dock trials and rental processes, including scoping, defining success criteria, execution, and conversion to closed-won.

• Act as the senior technical escalation point for critical pursuits, deployments, and customer-related issues.

• Represent Skydio at utility industry events, customer summits, and executive briefings.

• Lead integration strategy involving ESRI/GIS, DroneDeploy, REST-based APIs, and customer data lakes.

• Maintain expertise in utility regulatory and procurement environments.

• Collaborate with the Utility Solutions Specialist function on strategic accounts.

• Provide direct product feedback to the Inspection and Mapping and Cloud product teams.

• Develop scalable technical assets such as reference architectures, demo scripts, workflow documentation, and playbooks.

• Keep up-to-date with product knowledge and engage with customers and the team.

⛳️ Requirements

• Previous experience as a Solutions Engineer, Solutions Architect, or a similar technical pre-sales position in electric or water utilities.

• Direct experience in the utility industry is highly preferred.

• Knowledge of thermography, LiDAR acquisition and processing, photogrammetry, and survey-grade accuracy requirements.

• Familiarity with GIS and enterprise integrations, including ESRI, DroneDeploy, REST-based APIs, and customer data lake patterns.

• Understanding of utility regulatory and procurement environments, including PUC approval cycles, capital planning, and BVLOS waiver pathways.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.

• Proven leadership abilities, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and team process development.

• FAA Part 107 Certificate or the ability to obtain one within 60 days of hire.

• Willingness to travel up to 50%.

• Capability to lift up to 60 lbs without assistance.

• Previous experience managing utility UAS programs from the customer side is a plus.

• Experience with condition-based maintenance programs and asset health analytics is advantageous.

• Familiarity with dock-based, remote, and BVLOS operations at scale is beneficial.

• Knowledge of NERC, FERC, or state PUC reporting obligations is preferred.

• Proficiency with Salesforce, Jira, Databricks, or similar tools is a plus.

• A history of building and scaling a technical team during rapid growth phases is advantageous.

🏝️ Benefits

• Equity in the form of stock options.

• Comprehensive benefits packages.

• Relocation assistance may be available for eligible positions.

• Group health insurance plans.

• Paid vacation time.

• Sick leave.

• Holiday pay.

• 401K savings plan.

• An inclusive, multidisciplinary work environment.

• Equal employment opportunity.