Staff Product Manager, Vehicle AI

About the role

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors https://www.skydio.com/solutions/energy-and-utilities to first responders https://www.skydio.com/solutions/public-safety, soldiers in battlefield scenarios https://www.skydio.com/solutions/national-security/tactical-isr, and beyond https://www.skydio.com/solutions. Skydio's flying robots are designed to behave less like tools and more like intelligent teammates - systems that can understand their environment, interpret goals, make decisions, and safely execute complex tasks with human oversight but not constant human input. As Staff Product Manager for Vehicle AI, you will help shape this transformation. You will own the roadmap for advancing vehicle intelligence, working closely with our world-class autonomy team spanning foundation models, machine learning, perception, planning, simulation, and autonomy UX, with algorithms running both at the edge on the vehicle and in the cloud. You will partner closely with engineering, design, and customers to define and deliver what autonomous systems should do, how they should interact with humans, and the infrastructure required to continuously improve their capabilities. From data collection and training to evaluation and deployment, you will help shape the future of autonomous robotics at Skydio.

LOCATION

This position is based onsite 5 days/week at our HQ in San Mateo, CA. We offer relocation assistance if needed.

What you'll do

• Own the roadmap for advancing Skydio's autonomous capabilities and vehicle intelligence.
• Define how autonomous systems should perceive, reason, plan, communicate, and act in real-world environments.
• Work with customers and field teams to understand operational workflows and translate them into autonomy requirements.
• Drive the end-to-end autonomy development lifecycle, including data collection, labeling, training, simulation, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Define benchmarks, success metrics, and validation frameworks for autonomy performance, safety, and reliability.
• Own the user experience of autonomy, including how operators specify goals, understand system intent, and collaborate with autonomous systems.
• Partner across machine learning, perception, planning, simulation, data platform, and software engineering teams to deliver new capabilities.
• Evaluate and apply emerging technologies, including foundation models, multimodal AI, and agentic systems.
• Establish feedback loops with field operations to refine autonomy behavior in varied operational contexts.
• Collaborate with design researchers to translate complex workflows into intuitive interaction models for aerial systems.
• Partner with the data platform team to ensure high quality, diverse, and representative datasets inform model training.
• Work with safety and reliability engineers to integrate fault detection, mitigation strategies, and safe fallback behaviors.
• Define and track key performance indicators that reflect real-world operational success for customers using Skydio vehicles.
• Contribute to open source and internal tools that enable scalable experimentation and rapid iteration on autonomy features.
• Engage with academic and industry research communities to identify opportunities for incorporating cutting edge techniques into product roadmaps.
• Support product launches and field trials, analyzing results to inform subsequent iterations of vehicle autonomy.

Requirements

• 7+ years building deeply technical products in robotics, AI/ML, autonomous systems, or other complex software domains.
• Strong technical fluency and comfort working closely with engineers on system architecture, model performance, and technical tradeoffs.
• Experience building products that improve through data, machine learning, or continuous feedback loops.
• Experience and aptitude for large scale data analytics skills and ability to generate data-driven insights.
• Passion for understanding real-world customer workflows and translating them into product strategy.
• Excellent judgment in ambiguous environments and the ability to prioritize high-impact opportunities.
• Strong ownership mindset and a track record of driving cross-functional initiatives from concept to deployment.
• Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged for all Skydio employees and required for certain positions.
• Ability to work onsite 5 days a week in San Mateo, California, with flexibility to occasionally engage with field teams and customer locations as needed.
• Willingness to relocate to the San Mateo, California area if required for the role, with support available.
• Commitment to working collaboratively within a fast-paced, mission-critical environment where safety and reliability are paramount.
• Willingness to engage with evolving regulatory landscapes and ensure autonomy solutions adhere to applicable standards.
• Capacity to interpret technical documentation and translate it into actionable product requirements for diverse stakeholders.
• Readiness to participate in hands-on evaluation of autonomy stack components during development cycles.

Nice to have

• Experience with drone or aerial vehicle platforms and their unique operational constraints.
• Background in defense, public safety, or energy and utilities sectors.
• Familiarity with simulation frameworks used for autonomy validation.
• Understanding of data collection and labeling strategies for machine learning in physical systems.
• Knowledge of emerging practices around foundation models applied to robotics.
• Experience defining metrics and evaluation frameworks for safety critical systems.
• Exposure to human robot interaction design principles.

Practical notes

This position requires onsite presence at our San Mateo headquarters five days per week. Occasional travel to field locations or customer sites may be required to validate autonomy behaviors and gather contextual insights. Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role, and any necessary work authorization must be obtained within the specified timeframe. Relocation assistance is available for qualified candidates as outlined in the compensation section.