Director, Deployment Services

Director, Deployment Services Vecna Robotics is an intelligent flexible material handling automation company that keeps goods moving. With award-winning technology engineered for uninterrupted work between autonomous mobile robots, labor, and systems, we make business go. As a company, we are driven by the same collective vision: an uninterrupted and highly efficient global supply chain where robots do the dirty work and people do the human work. With more than 5 million traditional forklifts moving over 5 billion pallets around the world, there is a ton of work to do to make that vision a reality. Vecna Robotics seeks an experienced Director to lead and scale our deployment services organization. This role is critical to delivering on our promise to customers — getting robots live, performing, and generating value at customer sites on time and in scope. The Director, Deployment Services will own the end-to-end deployment lifecycle for Vecna's autonomous mobile robot solutions, from pre-deployment site readiness through go-live and customer adoption. The Director, Deployment Services is a strategic leader who will build and refine the processes, tools, and talent required to deploy complex robotic systems at scale. This includes direct oversight of deployment project managers and on-site deployment engineers, coordination with Sales Engineering, Product, and Field Service teams, and hands-on partnership with customers to ensure successful outcomes. The ideal candidate brings deep experience deploying hardware-software systems in industrial or logistics environments, thrives in fast-moving customer-facing settings, and has a track record of turning deployment chaos into repeatable, scalable execution. Reporting to the COO, the Director, Deployment Services is a full-time, salaried role based in Waltham, MA. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. In this role, the Director, Deployment Services will oversee: Define and own the end-to-end deployment methodology for Vecna Robotics' AMR solutions, including site assessment, infrastructure readiness, system configuration, integration, testing, and go-live. Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of deployment project managers and on-site deployment engineers, maintaining appropriate staffing levels in alignment with the deployment pipeline. Partner with Sales Engineering during pre-sales to set accurate deployment scope, timelines, and customer expectations — and hold the organization accountable to them. Drive site readiness processes, working directly with customers to ensure facilities, infrastructure, and operational workflows are prepared for robot deployment before teams hit the ground. Own deployment project health across all active engagements: track milestones, proactively surface risks, manage scope changes, and ensure on-time, high-quality go-lives. Establish and maintain deployment playbooks, standardized tooling, and configuration templates that reduce deployment time and increase first-time quality. Lead structured handoffs from Deployment to Field Service, ensuring complete documentation, trained customer staff, and healthy robot fleet status at the point of transition. Coordinate with the engineering and product teams to surface and resolve systemic deployment blockers — feeding field insights back into the product roadmap. Capture and report on deployment performance metrics including deployment cycle time, go-live quality, customer satisfaction, and cost-to-deploy — identifying and driving improvement initiatives. Develop and deliver deployment training programs for internal teams, partners, and customer personnel to drive operational competency and self-sufficiency. Manage third-party deployment partners, ensuring alignment to Vecna's standards for quality, safety, and customer experience.

What we are looking for:

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Operations, or a related technical field; master's degree preferred. 7+ years of experience leading technical deployment, implementation, or professional services operations in a robotics or automation environment. 3-5 years of people management experience in a customer-facing technical function. Demonstrated success deploying complex systems (robotics, automation, industrial equipment, or similar) at customer sites — from pre-deployment through steady-state operations.

Strong project management instincts:

able to manage multiple concurrent deployments, balance competing priorities, and lead teams through ambiguity without losing rigor. Experience building and scaling deployment or professional services processes, including playbooks, tooling, and staffing models. Deep familiarity with electro-mechanical systems, robot software stacks, or warehouse automation technologies. Excellent cross-functional communication skills — equally comfortable presenting deployment status to a customer's VP of Operations and debugging a configuration issue with an engineer on the floor. Strong analytical skills, with experience using data to drive continuous improvement in deployment efficiency and quality. Ability to travel approximately 25%, including to customer sites during critical deployment phases. We are an equal opportunity employer. We encourage and celebrate diversity.