VP Field Autonomy

About us

Bling Automated is building automated drone delivery infrastructure: software, DronePorts, drones, and the systems that connect them into one operational service. The drones themselves are not the product; the product is the automated delivery system around them.

About the role

We are looking for a VP Field Autonomy in Oslo to join as a co-founder and help shape the technical direction of the company from an early stage. This person will own the autonomy layer between the drone, the payload, the Flight Management Unit (FMU), the DronePort, and Bling’s backend systems.

This is a hands on leadership role. The right person will help define architecture, build early systems, make technical tradeoffs, participate in real-world testing, and eventually build the autonomy team around them.

This is not a role where everything is already decided. The person will help form the company, the technology, the culture, the technical roadmap, and the product itself, so here lies a good opportunity to shape the future of the role and the company's capabilities.

The right person will also receive equity as part of joining the founding team.

Responsibility areas

• FMU and edge autonomy: Own the development of Bling’s Flight Management Unit: the onboard companion system that sits close to the drone and connects it to Bling’s software, sensors, payload systems, and operational data flows. This includes compute platform, operating system, connectivity, sensor interfaces, data logging, reliability, diagnostics, software services, and update mechanisms.
• Drone and payload integration: Work closely with professional drone platforms without developing the drones themselves. The role includes integrating with drone SDKs, payload systems, telemetry streams, command channels, and mission workflows. The goal is to make the drone a reliable part of Bling’s larger automated delivery system.
• Edge decision making: Develop the first layers of onboard intelligence. This will go from simple logic, mission-state awareness, fallback handling, ... to advanced decisions, anomaly detection, sensor/RW interpretation, and operational autonomy.
• Data capture from flights and telemetry: The FMU should capture the data Bling needs to improve safety, performance, routing, reliability, customer experience, and regulatory confidence. This may include telemetry, positioning, communication quality, environmental data, payload data, camera/video streams, and operational events. This is a big data game.
• Safety and security for the FMU: Make sure the FMU improves operational safety and does not become a new risk source. This includes watchdogs, degraded modes, fail safe thinking, secure communication, software update discipline, access control, data integrity, and the ability to reconstruct what happened after a flight or incident. It is very important to us that the person has the correct mindset here.
• Technical leadership: The person should be able to make architecture decisions, work with the software, hardware and ops teams, build early prototypes personally, support flight testing, and later recruit and lead a small autonomy/edge systems team.

Qualifications

• Autonomous systems, drone, robotics, connected hardware experience
• Strong software capability
• Linux based edge systems knowledge
• C# and C++ knowledge
• Systems and architecture thinking
• Field testing mindset

We think this is a very exciting position that is on the cutting edge (pun not intended) of systems that are being developed today. The position offers an opportunity to not just to be on the development side but also to influence the company.