---
title: 'Head of Finance – Civilian and Defense Operations at Orb Aerospace'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-civilian-and-defense-operations-orb-aerospace-lowell-mqf2r7x9e5c7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Head of Finance – Civilian and Defense Operations at Orb Aerospace

- **Company:** Orb Aerospace
- **Location:** Lowell, MI
- **Compensation:** $80k–$135k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2024-12-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/orbaerospace/36d4fb73-224f-46e2-9c71-6bf88a3560f5

## Job description

US Citizen or Permanent Resident In-Person Starts Immediately

Join us in building the Worlds’s Humanitarian Air Force. Orb is turning autonomous aircraft into infrastructure. We’re a small mission-driven team where your initiative, creativity, and dedication will be used to reach every village on the planet with power, logistics, and communications.

Your Role at Orb: Orb needs a key player to assist on the operations side of finance, DoD contracts, partner relations, customer engagement and more. Scale a hardware business with us and learn to run a business with a world class team from the inside out.

If you’re ready to take ownership, embrace complexity, and thrive in a role where your work truly matters, we’d love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities:

- Financial Leadership & Strategy
- Lead financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow management.
- Develop long-term financial models to support growth strategy, capital planning, and program execution.
- Partner with the CEO and CFO on runway management, capital allocation, and board/investor communications.
- Support fundraising activities including diligence materials, financial models, and investor reporting.
- Accounting, Reporting & Compliance
- Oversee accounting operations, financial close, and GAAP-compliant reporting.
- Manage external accounting firms, auditors, and tax advisors.
- Ensure compliance with applicable regulations (e.g., government cost allowability, audit readiness, internal controls).
- Contracts & Commercial Management
- Own the full contract lifecycle including review, negotiation, execution, and administration.
- Support commercial, government, and strategic partnership contracts (e.g., NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, purchase orders, and government-funded agreements).
- Partner with business development and legal counsel to evaluate contract terms, financial exposure, and risk.
- Track contract performance, milestones, invoicing, and revenue recognition.
- Ensure alignment between contract obligations and financial forecasts.
- Operational Finance & Program Support
- Establish systems and processes for purchasing, vendor management, and program cost tracking.
- Monitor program margins, cost performance, and contract profitability.
- Support pricing strategy and proposal development for new customer and government opportunities.
- Team & Infrastructure Building
- Build scalable finance and contracts processes as the company grows.
- Hire and mentor finance and contracts team members over time.
- Implement financial systems and tools appropriate for a regulated aerospace environment.
- Represent the Orb brand, service to others through aviation, to customers and stakeholders.

What You'll Need:

- Resilience, critical thinking, communication and a commitment to transparency.
- Exceptional organizational and project management abilities with a focus on execution.
- Advanced in Microsoft suite
- Ability to obtain and maintain Secret Security Clearance.
- A genuine curiosity and desire for continuous learning and professional growth.
- Unwavering integrity and a commitment to serving others with empathy and purpose.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a knack for translating ideas into action.

About Orb Aerospace: Orb was started with the mission to bring aviation to the 80% of the world that’s never had it; turning autonomous aircraft into tools to decentralize infrastructure, connect continents, protect soldiers, provide for families, and run economies.“Less like the flying taxis, more like the flying cowboys,”Orb is at the intersection of manned and unmanned aviation, reindustrializing the Midwest, and building the future we know is possible and want to live in.

About Node One: Node One is a small team of engineers and operators who have dedicated their lives to solving some of the world’s hardest problems through a new kind of aviation. Orb’s live-work-fly R&D HQ. Node One is all about reducing the cycle time to design, build, and fly aircraft from years to months and building the systems and platforms we’ll use to reach every village on the planet.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Their great work allows us to accomplish ours. If you’vebeen a rocket/airplane nerdand have a passion for designing, building, and flying airframes, autopilots, power systems, and embedded systems, or you love to push a new product through new manufacturing methods to a new market, come join the team at Node One and make history.

Orb Employees Are: High Agency and Biased Towards Action Have a History of Self-Starting, Pacing, and Finishing Projects Thrive with Autonomy to Design New Solutions to Partially Defined Problems Are Curious and Continue Learning Have Integrity and a Desire to Serve Others

Standard Benefits Package: Orb provides a monthly flat rate towards medical, dental, and vision $500 flat rate for individuals; $850 flat rate for married/family Medical, Vision, Dental, Short/Long Term Disability, and Group/Voluntary Life Insurance Opt-In 401K Options (Pre-Tax or Roth) with a 3% Employer Match

Perks: Support in Getting your Pilots License and Ratings Support for Continuing Education Annual Customer Demos all over the World

## About Orb Aerospace

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Orb Aerospace develops autonomous aerial systems and resilient communications networks to serve as critical infrastructure in peacetime, disaster response, and conflict, with a focus on humanitarian and defense missions.
- **Entity Type**: Private (late-stage venture capital; conflicting total funding reports: $15.6M per Growjo vs. $11.1M per Simplify Jobs)
- **Headquarters**: Lowell, Michigan, United States
- **Founded**: 2019 (Growjo data; Simplify Jobs lists 2017, source conflict noted)
- **Founders**: Not explicitly identified in public sources; early leadership included Cody Copus (former CEO). As of July 2026, Brian Davis serves as CEO.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Aviation & Aerospace Component Manufacturing / Defense Technology
- **Target customers**: Government agencies (defense, disaster response, border security), humanitarian organizations, and commercial operators needing resilient communications and autonomous aircraft.
- **Mission**: Accelerate human flourishing in peacetime, reestablish critical infrastructure, and protect the vulnerable in times of crisis.

## Products & Services
- **Lassie**: A VTOL-to-fixed‑wing autonomous aircraft designed for real missions, not demonstrations. Used for cargo delivery, surveillance, and infrastructure support.
- **ARC Edge**: A resilient, interoperable, and secure communications backbone for autonomous systems and distributed operations in denied or damaged environments. Combines embedded robotics with tactical communications.
- **Large‑Scale Additive Manufacturing**: In‑house capability (partnering with Massive Dimension) for producing aircraft components and tooling.
- **Orbship Fellowship**: A merit‑based program that selects high‑skill individuals through portfolio review, video interviews, and live “Battle Royale” pitches to work on real aerospace projects.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue ~$772K (Growjo estimate) | Total funding ~$11.1M–$15.6M across 4–6 rounds (conflicting sources)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: No specific lead investors publicly named; earlier rounds included angel and seed investors. Recent Navy SBIR grant ($240,000 for Orb ARC, October 2025). Past partners include NASA (alumni source).
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: 13 employees (+5.6% YoY)
  - New CEO (Brian Davis) announced July 2026, emphasizing delivery and program wins
  - Active job postings for senior engineering, finance, and technical roles (Fall 2026)
  - Navy SBIR award for resilient communications technology
  - Launched large‑scale additive manufacturing capability in 2026
  - Demonstrated at XPONENTIAL Show (May 2026)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Resilient communications-first design**: ARC Edge provides backhaul and COP (Common Operating Picture) for autonomous systems without relying on existing infrastructure.
- **Humanitarian focus with defense credibility**: Positions itself as a non‑weapons builder that still serves national security and disaster response.
- **Michigan manufacturing base**: Leverages strong industrial talent pipeline (e.g., from Steelcase, NASA, Embry-Riddle).
- **Orbship fellowship**: Sources engineering talent based on proven skills and project work, not traditional degrees.

## Strategic Focus
- Transition from technology development to program execution – winning government contracts, delivering field‑ready systems, and scaling production.
- Expanding autonomous communications for maritime and global operations.
- Building a humanitarian “air force” that can operate in environments where connectivity has been destroyed.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Mission**: Described as “less like the flying taxis, more like the flying cowboys.” Emphasis on solving hard problems for the good of the world. Branding: “Rebuilding America’s industrial backbone.”
- **Work Policy**: All current job postings are on‑site in Lowell, Michigan. No remote or hybrid positions listed.
- **Benefits**: Health (incl. dental & vision), life, disability insurance, 401(k) company match, professional development budget.
- **Engineering Environment**: “Cracked Engineers” job posting invites outliers to tackle first‑principles autonomy problems. Small team (13 people) allows broad ownership.
- **Growth Trajectory**: Recent funding, new CEO, and active hiring signal a push from R&D into production and deployment.

## Sources
1. [orb.aero (homepage)](https://orbaerospace.com)
2. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://linkedin.com/company/orbaerospace)
3. [Growjo Profile](https://growjo.com/company/Orb_Aerospace) (financials, headcount, funding)
4. [Simplify Jobs Company Profile](https://simplify.jobs/c/Orb-Aerospace) (funding, benefits, stage)
5. [Lever Careers Page (openings)](https://jobs.lever.co/orbaerospace)
6. [LinkedIn Post – CEO Announcement (July 2026)](https://linkedin.com/company/orbaerospace) (mission, leadership change)
7. [LinkedIn Post – XPONENTIAL (May 2026)](https://linkedin.com/company/orbaerospace) (product demonstration)
8. [LinkedIn Post – Mission Statement](https://linkedin.com/company/orbaerospace) (rebuilding industrial backbone)
9. [Navy SBIR Award (Oct 2025)](https://simplify.jobs/c/Orb-Aerospace) (contract win)
10. [Lever Open Application](https://jobs.lever.co/orbaerospace/5efe843f-7ec9-4044-92e4-b5467ad59bb4) (talent philosophy, salary range)

## Other roles at Orb Aerospace

- [Cracked Engineers](https://feeny.ai/job/cracked-engineers-orb-aerospace-lowell-k3m81djr1pd2) — Lowell, MI
- [Autonomous Resilient Communications - Full-Time Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/autonomous-resilient-communications-full-time-technician-orb-aerospace-lowell-27ek89cqvedv) — Lowell, MI
- [Autonomous Resilient Communications (Embedded Robotics / Tactical Communications) Product Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/autonomous-resilient-communications-embedded-robotics-tactical-communications-w4kafkdj0pn6) — Lowell, MI
- [Principal Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-electrical-engineer-orb-aerospace-lowell-jt0y02x7p563) — Lowell, MI
- [Senior Software Engineer – Autonomous Air Systems (Avionics)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-autonomous-air-systems-avionics-orb-aerospace-lowell-nfyh9pn56y56) — Lowell, MI
- [Senior Aero-Mechanical Engineer - Advanced Systems Engineering Integration and Design Optimization](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-aero-mechanical-engineer-advanced-systems-engineering-integration-and-78t46a96k4ne) — Lowell, MI
- [Open Application](https://feeny.ai/job/open-application-orb-aerospace-lowell-fhmt63txscp7) — Lowell, MI
- [AeroMechanical/Composite Structures Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/aeromechanical-composite-structures-engineer-orb-aerospace-lowell-3serka01xy9k) — Lowell, MI