---
title: 'Founding Field Operations Lead at voltairlabs.com'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-field-operations-lead-voltairlabs-com-pacific-northwest-08p122eextxs'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Founding Field Operations Lead at voltairlabs.com

- **Company:** voltairlabs.com
- **Location:** Pacific Northwest
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2025-12-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/voltairlabs-com/am9icG9zdDopZ8rOwYfZ1DESFrAPhJ2n

## Job description

Company Overview Voltair is engineering, manufacturing, and deploying autonomous drones that charge on solid state inductive charging pads installed in the field, enabling unlimited range and continuous inspections of critical infrastructure. We are a technology company funded by Y Combinator (W26), and our mission is to assist operators of America’s critical infrastructure with inspections and other information services on-demand, 10x as fast, and for a fraction of the cost.

## Compensation

This is a salaried position, with a salary range of $ 58,125 /yr to $ 123,125 /yr and a 0.25-0.50% equity stake in the company, issued with a standard vesting schedule.

Job Summary Voltair is hiring a Field Operations Lead to support nationwide utility inspection work. The position offers the opportunity to directly influence how a global field operations team is developed, managed, and scaled. Throughout all stages of growth, Voltair will need strong field operational proficiency. This role will evolve to lead and manage all field operations, first manual operations and R&D testing, and later supporting and maintaining all deployed autonomous assets.

The Field Operations Lead will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day drone operations and effectively leading and mentoring a team. The lead is expected to be a major contributor to the leadership and growth of Voltair. This position will need to display exceptional management and organizational skills to effectively plan, direct, coordinate, and measure the success of the Field Operations department. This position will be responsible for the strategic and tactical management of a significant portion of Voltair.

Reporting The Field Operations Lead will report directly to the President & COO, Warren Weissbluth.

## Key Responsibilities

Firstly, this role is responsible for carrying out all company policies in compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations governing drone operations and activities. Additional responsibilities include:

- Field Operations & Mission Execution- Field Operations Lead - lead and support field execution by deploying and flying drones for power line inspections across varied terrain.
- Mission Planning - account for weather, terrain, airspace, and other operational constraints.
- Expense Projections - calculate operating expenses to deliver quotes to clients.
- Documentation - maintain consistent field documentation and follow defined safety procedures, serving as a safety leader to ensure zero incidents in the field.
- Procurement - support operations and procurement by managing equipment and identifying high ROI investments.
- Testing - support Voltair’s hardware engineering team with operational help and field support when testing Voltair’s hardware in the field.
- Team Leadership & Development- Hiring - Participate in the hiring, onboarding, and training of future drone pilots, technicians, and remote pilots - and exercise discretion and independent judgment with matters of significance and have the authority to recommend hiring, firing, advancement, or any other change in employee status.
- Workforce Compensation - Strategize with the executive team on ideal per diem and other compensation policies for full time or contract labor
- Disciplinary Matters & Evaluations - Handle pilot disciplinary matters, including terminations, and conduct performance evaluations.
- SOPs - Contribute to establishing standards, workflows, and best practices for a scalable, nationwide drone operations organization.
- Internal Collaboration & System Improvement- Mission Planning Software - Work closely with internal software teams to automate work products, minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency.
- Inspection Delivery Software - Refine how inspection data is delivered
- Stakeholder Management & Customer Service- Customer Coordination - Coordinate with customer operations teams regarding inspection schedules, on-sites, and day-of logistics.
- On-site Presentation - Communicate quickly and professionally with all power utility operations stakeholders to provide situational awareness for ongoing inspection activities.
- Rate Payer Engagement - Stay calm and composed when engaging curious rate payers during on-sites.

Travel Voltair will service power utilities across the United States and abroad. The Field Operations Lead should expect frequent travel and deployments in remote locations for extended periods of time.

Location & Office Voltair expects relocation to our HQ in San Francisco, California.

Typical Qualifications Experience:

- Experience leading teams.
- Experience in construction, utility operations, telecom, agriculture, forestry, military, or other field-based work.
- Comfort with technical topics such as camera settings, resolution, file formats, sensor behavior, and battery systems.
- Interest in increasing operational efficiency.
- Experience with commercial UAS industry or aviation safety experience
- Risk-averse operating style: reliable field judgment and adherence to safety standards. Physical/Logistical:
- Ability to travel frequently across the United States.
- Valid Driver’s License.
- Ability to work in volatile weather conditions.
- Ability to lift up to 50 pounds, stand/walk for 8-10 hours.

## Benefits

- Healthcare: Gold PPO plan, plus Dental and Vision coverage. Voltair covers 80% of costs for individuals and 70% for families.
- Retirement: 401(k) with up to 3.5% match
- Paid Time Off: 5 days of PTO provided at start. PTO accrues at a rate of 0.5 days per 2-week pay period.

## About voltairlabs.com

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Voltair builds and deploys a globally distributed network of autonomous, self-charging drones to provide millimeter-scale inspection data for power utilities and, eventually, other critical infrastructure.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed-stage startup; backed by Y Combinator)
- **Headquarters**: Pullman, Washington, United States (with an office in Chicago, Illinois)
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Ronan Nopp (CEO), Hayden Gosch (CTO), Avi Gotskind (CGO), Warren Weissbluth (COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Drone-based infrastructure inspection / Energy technology (utility grid monitoring)
- **Target customers**: B2B – electric utilities, cooperatives, and energy companies (e.g., Avangrid, Fairfield Electric Cooperative); future expansion into road, rail, telecom, forestry, construction, search & rescue, and insurance.
- **Mission or purpose**: To enable linemen and grid operators with “eyes in the sky” by delivering drone inspection data in minutes, not days, and to build the world's first globally distributed network of autonomous drones for Earth observation.

## Products & Services
- **Faraday-1 (Drone)**: Autonomous, long-range hybrid fixed-wing drone with 85-mile flight range, 135-minute flight time, and 12-minute average response time. Equipped with RGB, radiometric thermal, and LiDAR sensors. Capable of live video streaming (<500 ms latency) and continuous proactive missions (asset inspection at 35-60 mph, LiDAR mapping) as well as rapid reactive missions (post-storm damage assessment, fault localization).
- **Lighthouse-1 (Ground Infrastructure)**: Charging pads installed on utility poles that enable Faraday-1 to recharge in the field while providing GNSS RTK corrections and data uplink. Each pad unlocks ~1,000 square miles of coverage.
- **Inspection Services**: Full-stack service offering including asset inspection, LiDAR mapping, post-storm damage assessment, and rapid fault localization. Data is delivered through a platform with high-priority alerts (e.g., emergency notifications for frayed conductors).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – conflicting reports: $125K per LinkedIn (Pre-Seed led by Y Combinator + Seed round of $125K from 1 investor + Grant from Toloka.vc) **or** $500K per Tracxn. Both sources agree on at least two funding rounds (Pre-Seed and Seed).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (lead investor in Pre-Seed), Toloka.vc (Grant). Pilot customer: Avangrid (a leading energy company serving 3.4M customers, part of Iberdrola Group). Also working with Fairfield Electric Cooperative.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 7 employees as of mid-2026, with +12.5% monthly headcount growth.
  - 1,526 LinkedIn followers (+4.2% monthly).
  - Landed a pilot with Avangrid (announced July 2026).
  - Demonstrated real-world impact: detected a frayed neutral conductor for Fairfield Electric Cooperative, preventing an outage.
  - Y Combinator batch company (Launch YC in 2026).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Full-stack approach**: Voltair owns both the drone hardware (Faraday-1) and the ground charging infrastructure (Lighthouse-1), delivering a turnkey service rather than just selling drones.
- **Long-range, weatherized drones**: Hybrid fixed-wing design with 85-mile range and 135-minute endurance, capable of inspecting 35-60 mph along power lines.
- **Charging network on utility poles**: By installing charging pads directly on the grid, Voltair achieves persistent coverage without human intervention – each pad unlocks 1,000 sq miles.
- **YC backing & early utility traction**: Pilots with major utilities (Avangrid, Fairfield) provide credibility and a path to scale.
- **Multi-sensor payload**: RGB, thermal, and LiDAR in a single platform, enabling both visual and quantitative inspection data.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale utility inspection**: Expand pilot deployments with more utilities, targeting the $10B+ annual utility inspection market.
- **Network effect**: As more charging pads are deployed, coverage area grows, lowering cost per square mile and enabling new use cases.
- **Horizontal expansion**: Use the same distributed drone network to serve adjacent markets: road, rail, telecom inspection, hyperlocal weather monitoring, forestry, construction, search & rescue, and insurance – all at 10x lower prices than current methods.
- **On-demand drone instances**: Build a platform where customers can request drone “instances” on-demand without operating hardware.

## Why Work Here
- **Early-stage impact**: Join a 7-person team (as of 2026) where every hire has outsized influence on product, culture, and strategy.
- **Cutting-edge hardware + software**: Work on autonomous flight, computer vision, power electronics, and distributed systems – all in one company.
- **YC-backed startup**: Access to Y Combinator’s network and resources, with a clear path to Series A.
- **Mission-driven**: Directly contribute to grid resilience, preventing outages, and enabling cleaner energy infrastructure.
- **Culture**: High-agility environment; founders are hands-on and come from engineering backgrounds (controls systems, power electronics, operations research). Recent LinkedIn posts show a customer-obsessed, problem-solving ethos.
- **Location**: HQ in Pullman, WA (with Chicago office) – offers a mix of rural/hardware-friendly environment and urban presence. Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated, but likely flexible given small team.

## Sources
1. [voltairlabs.com](https://www.voltairlabs.com/)
2. [linkedin.com/company/voltair-labs](https://linkedin.com/company/voltair-labs)
3. [ycombinator.com/companies/voltair](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/voltair)
4. [tracxn.com/d/companies/voltair](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/voltair/__kYVMaFVNOo8jvbI1bCUZszm48O14NFSPzFsVNOdU9oE)
5. [ycombinator.com/launches/PhE-voltair](https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/PhE-voltair-network-of-distributed-autonomous-drones-for-earth-observation)
6. [jobs.gem.com/voltairlabs-com](https://jobs.gem.com/voltairlabs-com)

## Other roles at voltairlabs.com

- [Founding Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-mechanical-engineer-voltairlabs-com-san-francisco-anevcwj19f9e) — San Francisco, CA
- [Inspection Data Review (Contractor)](https://feeny.ai/job/inspection-data-review-contractor-voltairlabs-com-pacific-northwest-2myppkq5ashb) — Pacific Northwest
- [Drone Pilot & Field Technician (Contractor)](https://feeny.ai/job/drone-pilot-field-technician-contractor-voltairlabs-com-san-francisco-44znt3bj5pht) — San Francisco, CA