Defense Startup Jobs in Ohio (NOW HIRING)

We are an innovative aerospace startup seeking a VP / Head of Operations to build and lead Maple Aviation’s customer-facing drone operations organization. At Maple Aviation we develop a unique Tail-Sitter Drone that flies with one propeller only and is controlled in position via a flap-thrust-vectoring system. We are preparing for commercial rollout with customers. In this role, you will be responsible for turning our technology into a reliable operational service. You will build the team, processes, tools, and operational culture required to deploy, operate, maintain, and scale our drone systems in real customer environments. This is a hands‑on leadership role for someone who has built real operations before: field operations, fleet operations, logistics operations, aviation operations, delivery operations, or other safety‑critical technical operations. You will work directly with the founders and lead the organization that makes sure our customers receive a safe, reliable, efficient, and professional service every day.

What you'll do

• Build and lead Maple Aviation’s operational organization for customer rollout, drone deployment, field operations, fleet operations, maintenance operations, and service delivery
• Own the operational readiness of customer projects from contract signature to launch and ongoing daily operations
• Design and implement the operating model for commercial drone delivery operations, including staffing, scheduling, roles, responsibilities, KPIs, and escalation paths
• Build strong field teams including operations managers, remote pilots, technicians, maintenance staff, trainers, and customer support roles
• Ensure that customer deployments are launched safely, professionally, on time, and with clear ownership across all workstreams
• Establish scalable standard operating procedures for daily drone operations, route preparation, fleet checks, handover processes, dispatching, monitoring, incident handling, maintenance, and customer reporting
• Own operational performance metrics such as uptime, mission success rate, on‑time performance, fleet availability, turnaround time, maintenance efficiency, customer satisfaction, and cost per delivery
• Build processes for fleet monitoring, preventive maintenance, spare parts availability, field repairs, battery handling, ground equipment, logistics, and site readiness
• Lead the training and qualification system for pilots, technicians, field operators, and customer‑facing operational staff
• Work closely with engineering and product teams to feed operational learnings back into aircraft reliability, maintainability, ground systems, software tools, and customer usability
• Build the customer onboarding and launch playbook for new sites, new routes, and new operational environments
• Coordinate with customers, local partners, authorities, airports, landowners, and service providers to ensure smooth day‑to‑day operations
• Create a strong safety and reliability culture without slowing down execution
• Introduce operational systems for planning, dispatch, fleet management, maintenance tracking, spare parts, incident reporting, customer reporting, and performance dashboards
• Scale operations from the first customer deployments to a repeatable multi‑site operating model

What you bring

• 8+ years of experience leading real‑world operations in aviation, drones, logistics, delivery, mobility, field service, robotics, manufacturing service operations, defense, emergency services, or another safety‑critical technical environment
• Proven experience building operational teams that deliver measurable performance in the field, not only project plans or internal processes
• Strong understanding of fleet operations, field operations, service delivery, maintenance operations, customer rollout, and operational KPIs
• Experience with drone operations, aviation operations, delivery networks, autonomous systems, or technical fleet operations is a strong advantage
• Demonstrated ability to build SOPs, training systems, staffing models, shift plans, escalation routines, and operating dashboards from scratch
• Strong customer orientation and ability to manage demanding customer launches with professionalism, structure, and urgency
• Practical leadership style: you are comfortable in the field, close to the team, close to the customer, and close to the product
• Excellent ability to coordinate across operations, engineering, assembly, supply chain, software, sales, and management
• Strong safety mindset combined with commercial pragmatism and speed of execution
• Experience with fleet management tools, maintenance management systems, dispatching tools, ERP systems, or operational control centers is desirable
• Highly self‑motivated, structured, hands‑on, and able to create order in a fast‑growing startup environment
• We are an international team communicating in English; German language skills are an advantage

What we offer

We offer the opportunity to build the operational engine of a new drone delivery company at the moment of commercial rollout. If you want to lead the team that brings autonomous drone delivery from certified aircraft to reliable customer operations, we would love to hear from you.