Autonomous Operations Director (Buildings Industry)

About the role

This is a career-defining opportunity to play a crucial role in a hyper-scale AI company that is transforming the future of autonomous systems, energy, and the built environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead global deployment operations for autonomous HVAC and building systems.
• Lead both Application Engineering and Deployment teams, including oversight of external deployment contractors.
• Establish structured rollout plans, deployment phases, and operational playbooks.
• Ensure deployments meet schedule, quality, and performance targets.
• Identify operational risks early and coordinate cross-team mitigation.
• Plan phased deployments across customer sites.
• Coordinate deployment and commissioning sequencing with the Applied Engineering team while interfacing with customers and driving contractors.
• Think in terms of autonomy skill rollouts, validation loops, and structured field learning, shifting away from traditional controls installs.
• Identify, vet, hire, and manage local installers and contractors globally.
• Create the building’s digital twin by modeling spaces, equipment, and system relationships using PassiveLogic’s ontology framework.
• Connect the digital twin to building infrastructure including HVAC systems, sensors, and meters.
• Configure and deploy PassiveLogic control models to optimize building performance, energy use, and occupant comfort.
• Validate, calibrate, and continuously refine the digital twin to ensure accurate building behavior and improved operational efficiency.
• Ensure clean technical coordination between field teams, contractors, and engineering.
• Translate field constraints into actionable feedback for AI and product engineering teams.
• Guide commissioning efforts and system performance validation.
• Help customers understand how autonomy operates in practice and build trust in the system.
• Coordinate issue triage and ensure problems are resolved systematically, not reactively.
• Track and improve performance, operational metrics, and service reliability.
• Close the loop between field operations and product engineering.
• Identify recurring issues and deployment friction.
• Build repeatable deployment playbooks that improve with each rollout.
• Help shape the long-term managed services operating model as the product scales.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in the buildings industry or leading large-scale operational autonomous systems rollouts.
• Hands-on experience in robotics systems, mechanical engineering, building automation, retro-commissioning, HVAC systems, or building science.
• Leadership experience managing technical field teams or deployment organizations.
• Field deployment or commissioning experience in commercial or industrial environments.
• Ability to read mechanical drawings and control schematics.
• Comfort working directly with customers, contractors, and technical stakeholders.
• Strong operational leadership and coordination skills.
• Comfort operating in fast-moving, early-stage environments.
• An ability to travel to the EU at least on a quarterly basis.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree, or equivalent experience, in engineering and management.
• Experience deploying complex hardware/software systems.
• Experience in managed services, field engineering, or technical operations.
• Experience coordinating cross-disciplinary teams (engineering, construction, operations).
• A structured, research-minded approach to field rollout.

Skills

• Understanding of buildings, building science, HVAC, or controls.
• Confidence operating in mechanical rooms and deep technical discussions.
• Motivation by autonomy, robotics, and the future of intelligent infrastructure.
• Leadership under field pressure and bringing structure to complex deployments.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Generous equity share package
• Medical, dental and vision coverage
• Disability and life Insurance options
• Flex PTO
• Team-building events
• Free catered lunch in the office Monday — Friday
• Free ski pass (We are at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon)
• Free National Park pass
• Onsite Gym

Pay

Competitive compensation

Schedule

Full-time

Department

Commercialisation & Customer Management

Locations

Salt Lake City