Engineering Leadership

About Beacon AI

Beacon AI is developing AI pilot assistant technology to transform aviation, flight safety, operational efficiency, and pilot capabilities. We are on a mission to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to revolutionize the aviation industry. Join us to be at the cutting edge of technological innovation for the second century of aviation.

Role Overview 

Beacon AI is seeking one or more engineering leadership teammates at the Director or higher level to take on large segments of our soon-to-be rapidly growing engineering organization. This job opening is a 'catch all' for all of the engineering leadership roles.

You will help lead our engineering department and build exceptional products that enhance safety and efficiency for the commercial and defense aviation markets. Depending on the organizational division this role may focus on one more products or larger functional areas. This role involves setting the direction for multiple teams, growing and coaching leaders, and translating vision into operational plans.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Lead multiple engineering teams. Examples include infrastructure, applications, edge computing, and artificial intelligence, providing guidance, mentorship, and support.

• Project Management: Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of engineering projects, ensuring they are completed on time, within scope, and budget.

• Technical Oversight: Provide technical direction for the development of software and infrastructure solutions, ensuring best practices are followed.

• Vision and Strategy: Set the direction, translate vision into annual operating plans and goals, and communicate a long-term vision for Beacon's engineering department.

• Collaboration: Work with customers to understand their needs and align engineering efforts with business goals and user needs.

• Innovation: Encourage and facilitate the adoption of innovative technologies and methodologies to improve engineering processes and outcomes.

• Resource Management: Allocate resources effectively, managing team workloads and project priorities to optimize productivity and efficiency.

• Performance Monitoring: Monitor the performance and reliability of systems, identifying and addressing any issues or areas for improvement.

• Security Compliance: Ensure all systems adhere to security best practices and comply with industry standards and regulations.

• Documentation: Maintain comprehensive documentation for engineering processes, standards, and best practices.

• Continuous Improvement: Deploy scalable mechanisms to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

• Audit and Review: Dive deep and audit systems using weekly operational metrics reviews, monthly goals reviews, and quarterly program reviews.

• Recruitment: Hire and develop world-class engineering talent, including L6 managers and technical leaders.

• Culture Contribution: Be a positive contributor to our team culture, fostering a healthy balance and inclusion.

What Will Make You Successful

• Proven Experience: Led multiple engineering teams, preferably in a startup environment, with extensive experience (at least 3 years) in managing diverse engineering departments.

• Technical Expertise: Strong technical background in cloud infrastructure, data engineering, application development, edge computing, aviation software, ML/AI software development, and data pipelines/ML infrastructure (at least 5 years).

• Visionary Leadership: Ability to write vision documents and translate them into multi-year roadmaps and set specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant goals.

• Project Management Skills: Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.

• Leadership Abilities: Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to motivate and guide cross-functional teams.

• Communication Skills: Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts clearly and effectively.

• Security Focus: A strong focus on security best practices and a commitment to maintaining secure and compliant systems.

• Agile Methodologies: Good understanding of agile methodologies and experience in implementing agile practices within development teams.

• Educational Background: BS/MS in computer science, other engineering, or another relevant field.

• Developer Tooling Experience: Experience with developer tooling and infrastructure development workflows.

• Attention to Detail: Attention to detail and a desire to improve processes and systems around you.

• Empathy and Culture: Passion for leading and setting engineering culture to maximize teammate productivity and satisfaction.

Preferred Qualifications

• ML Infrastructure: Built and maintained ML training pipelines at scale and improved ML models for speed and efficiency.

• Distributed Systems: Experience in building and operating large-scale distributed systems.

• AI Expertise: Expertise in natural language processing, probabilistic decision making, and generative AI, specifically in pretraining foundation models, fine-tuning them, and distilling them into smaller models.

This is a hybrid role and requires working from our San Carlos, CA office at least three days a week, with the option to work remotely the remaining days.

Perks & Benefits for Full-Time Employees:

• Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage: Enjoy peace of mind with our generous health benefits, with 80% of medical costs covered by the company for the employee and 25% for their dependents.

• Paid Time Off: Recharge and relax with 3 weeks of paid vacation, in addition to 14 company-paid holidays each year.

• Connectivity Stipend: Stay connected with our cell phone benefit, ensuring you have the tools you need to excel in your role.

• Health and Wellness Allowance: Use this towards a gym membership or subscription to a meditation app, empowering you to prioritize self-care and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

• Financial Planning: Prepare for the future with our 401(k) program. While we currently do not offer matching, we are committed to enhancing this benefit in the future.

For nearly all roles, the following may apply:

At this time, due to United States Department of State regulations, we are only able to hire U.S. Persons. A U.S. Person is a lawful permanent resident (U.S. citizen, legal immigrant with a 'Green Card', or a protected individual who has been granted permanent asylum or refugee status.) These aerospace restrictions mean that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future. All work must be performed in the United States.

Beacon AI provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, employer complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Employer expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.