Responsibilities: 

• Own the portfolio. Set the strategy across Scout, Sentinel and Pathfinder — what each platform is for, where they overlap, what gets invested in, what gets a variant and what gets retired. Make the portfolio a coherent set rather than three parallel histories.
• Own the roadmap and the release decisions. Platform variants, payload options and capability releases, prioritised against operational demand, customer commitments and what production can deliver.
• Hold the configuration line. Define the common platform and the permitted configuration space, so new customers and new payloads do not each produce a new aircraft.
• Own the system trade-offs. Endurance, range, payload, signature, survivability, cost and manufacturability — make the calls explicitly, record the reasoning, and keep the company working to one set.
• Drive the approvals pathway. Own the product side of certification and airworthiness, including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) approval in target markets: the evidence, logging, safety-case artefacts and design decisions that make approval achievable rather than aspirational.
• Design for contested environments. Electronic warfare, jamming and GNSS denial are the operating condition, not an edge case. Own what the aircraft does when the link or the navigation solution degrades.
• Own the ground segment. Launch and recovery, docking, charging and unattended operation, and the sustainment picture — spares, maintenance intervals, field repair and turnaround time.
• Integrate air and software as one system. Work with the IRIZI product line and the mission management stack so the aircraft and the software that commands it are designed together, not bolted together.
• Work with production and supply chain. Match roadmap decisions to manufacturability, component availability and cost at the volumes being committed to.
• Build the product function. Lead the product team, set how product decisions are made and recorded, and reduce the number of decisions that need the CEO.
• Represent the portfolio externally. Bids, evaluations, trials, demonstrations and briefings, to operators, programme staff, partners and investors alike.

Essential requirements: 

• At least 5 years in unmanned aerial systems, aerospace or a closely comparable engineering-led product environment, including several years owning a product line or portfolio at executive or near-executive level.
• An engineering background with genuine hands-on depth — aeronautical, mechanical, systems or a related discipline. You must be able to challenge a design decision on the engineering, not only on the schedule.
• Demonstrated ownership of an air vehicle or major subsystem from concept through flight test into series production and fielded service.
• Strong grasp of the core trade space: aerodynamics and airframe, propulsion, energy and battery systems, structures and materials, payload integration, and the weight and power budgets that govern all of it.
• Flight test experience — planning campaigns, reading the data, and turning results into design and product decisions.
• Working knowledge of airworthiness, certification, NDAA-compliance and the regulatory environment for unmanned flight, including what is required to progress BVLOS approvals.
• Substantive experience of AI and machine learning in a product context: what models can be relied on to do, how they are evaluated, and where a deterministic approach is the better engineering answer.
• Experience delivering to defence, security or government customers, including formal evaluation and acceptance.
• Proven ability to build and lead a product team, and to operate credibly at leadership and board level.
• Comfortable working with an engineering team and user base operating under wartime conditions.
• Excellent written and spoken English; willing to travel internationally and work across NATO / EU time zones.

Desirable: 

• RPAS or manned pilot qualification, or substantial operational flying experience.
• Military, police or emergency-services background, or sustained close work with those users.
• Hands-on depth in computer vision, sensor fusion or edge inference on constrained compute.
• Familiarity with NATO interoperability standards, aerospace assurance practice, and high-rate low-cost production methods.
• Experience taking a portfolio from one operational customer to multiple export customers, or integrating a product and team after an acquisition.
• Relevant degree in aeronautical, mechanical or systems engineering.

Reward: 

• Competitive executive base salary benchmarked to location and experience.
• Remote-first working, with company-funded travel to sites, flight test, users and team gatherings.

Abris Design Group is an equal-opportunity employer. We assess candidates on capability and merit.