Operations Director (USA)

About the role

DroneShield is seeking a Operations Director with relevant experience to join the team in Warrenton, VA.

The position will report to the Chief Operating Officer.

The Operations Director – USA is accountable for building and running a field-first, delivery-driven operations engine that enables rapid, reliable demonstrations, deployments, and customer outcomes at scale.

This role is not a traditional back-office operations function. It is a front-line execution leadership role, directly responsible for:

• Winning and enabling customer outcomes through demos and deployments
• Delivering projects and defense programs with predictability and speed
• Building a high-velocity field operations capability across the U.S.
• Ensuring operations is a commercial enabler, not a constraint—shifting the organization from reactive execution to planned, repeatable delivery systems.

Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations

Field Operations, Demos & Deployments

• Own and lead a world-class field execution engine across the U.S.
• Accountability: All demonstrations, trials, installations, and field support
• End-to-end execution from customer request → mobilization → delivery → support
• Key Outcomes: 50% reduction in demo and mobilization time, consistent, repeatable demo execution across all regions, improved first-time fix rate (>20%), standardized deployment models and field playbooks, seamless coordination of assets, people, and sites, strategic importance: directly impacts revenue conversion, customer trust, and market influence, transforms field ops from ad hoc execution → repeatable system

Project Delivery

• In concert with the Global Head of PMO build and lead a disciplined, scalable project delivery engine.
• Accountability: Local management of Project Managers to ensure that priorities are met, local coordination of all programs, demos, installations, and complex deliveries
• Key Outcomes: 85% of projects delivered on time and on budget, strong front-end planning replacing downstream recovery, clear ownership across all deployments and programs, reduced execution risk in complex defense and customer programs, strategic importance: moves delivery from heroics → system-driven execution, underpins the company’s ability to scale complex programs safely

Test Sites & Demo Infrastructure

• Establish and operationalize U.S. test sites as core revenue-enabling assets.
• Accountability: Site establishment, readiness, and integration into planning, ensuring test sites are always ready, available, and utilized
• Key Outcomes: Fully operational regional test sites, sites integrated into scheduling (not reactive bookings), reduced setup time and increased utilization, repeatable demo environments, strategic importance: enables speed, consistency, and scale of demonstrations, critical to delivering a globally consistent customer experience

Warehouse & Inventory

• Transform inventory into a deployment-ready, execution-critical capability.
• Key Outcomes: 98% inventory accuracy, 98% kitting accuracy for demos, projects, and field ops, materials always ready for deployment, not just manufacturing, warehouse flow aligned to field demand and project schedules, strategic importance: directly impacts ability to mobilize quickly and deliver reliably, supports the shift to planned execution vs last-minute scrambling

Facilities & Field Infrastructure

• Ensure facilities enable, not constrain, field delivery and growth.
• Key Outcomes: Facilities ready ahead of demand (>90%), infrastructure supports field ops, inventory, and demo capability, no delays due to lack of space, tools, or readiness, strategic importance: enables speed of deployment and operational readiness at scale

Health, Safety & Operational Assurance

• Embed safe, compliant field execution at speed.
• Key Outcomes: Zero major safety or compliance incidents, safety embedded into field, demo, and deployment processes, strong leading indicators and proactive risk mitigation, strategic importance: critical for defense customers and field-based operations, ensures scaling does not introduce risk, measures of success: U.S. becomes a high-performing field delivery engine, demos are faster, repeatable, and reliable, projects are delivered predictably without firefighting, field operations operate as a scalable system, not a reactive function, test sites, inventory, and facilities fully enable execution, operations is seen as a direct driver of revenue and customer success

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• Senior leadership experience in Engineering, Operations, Project Management or similar.
• Background in defence, aerospace, or highly regulated high-tech manufacturing.
• Proven experience operating in global, multi-site environments.
• Engineering or technical qualifications preferred.
• Customer-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Note for recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters unless specifically instructed.