---
title: 'UK Managing Director at SE3 Labs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/uk-managing-director-se3-labs-united-kingdom-jq3b06m6wvt3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# UK Managing Director at SE3 Labs

- **Company:** SE3 Labs
- **Location:** United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/se3/8a56a52a-b67f-4e3b-893a-9964e9e6c943

## Job description

Join SE3 Labs as UK Managing Director Build SE3 in the UK from the ground up, and turn trusted relationships with UK defence customers into trials and contracts.

## About SE3

SE3 Labs builds spatial intelligence and autonomy software for unmanned systems. We combine 3D computer vision, state estimation and AI to help autonomous platforms perceive their surroundings, know where they are and operate when GPS and other sensors become unreliable. Defence is a core application of our work today. We are growing to a team of 100+ people. Join at a stage where you can shape our UK team, being our 1st hire in the UK and building the team and being a pivotal figure of SE3's international growth.

## About the Role

As UK Managing Director, you'll build and lead SE3's UK operation, reporting directly to our CEO. You'll develop government customers and partnerships, hire a small local team and work closely with our engineering team in Germany to bring SE3's technology to UK customers. You'll take responsibility for the UK business and shape it as it grows.

## What You'll Work On

- UK Operation: Build and lead SE3's UK operation and take responsibility for its results.
- Customers & Partnerships: Develop UK government customers and partners, and build long-term trust with them.
- Trials to Contracts: Turn relationships and opportunities into trials and contracts.
- Local Team: Hire and lead a small UK team, including field engineers.
- Engineering Link: Work closely with our engineering team in Germany to bring SE3's technology to UK customers.

## Your Profile

- You take ownership of outcomes and remove obstacles without waiting for direction. You turn discussions into clear decisions and decisions into deliverables, and you hold yourself and your team to a consistently high standard.
- You know the UK defence market and have relevant customer and procurement relationships.
- You bring relevant commercial and industry experience.
- You can recruit and lead a small team and operate independently.
- You're comfortable with the pace, uncertainty and responsibility of an early-stage company.
- You speak fluent English and are based in the UK. Given the nature of SE3's work in the defence sector, candidates must be eligible to work on defence-related projects and, where required, obtain the relevant security clearance.

Especially Valued Bonus Skills

- A military career followed by industry or startup experience.
- Experience with UK defence procurement and innovation programmes.
- Experience with autonomous systems or UAVs.
- German language skills.

## Perks & Benefits

- Real Ownership: Participate in SE3's growth through our employee participation programme
- Work Environment to Excel at: Find a high-quality and modern toolset, flat hierarchy and a skilled, driven team which will push the limits together with you
- AI-boosted workplace: We empower every employee with best-in-class AI tools and agents, giving you unlimited access to the latest advancements and a true productivity edge
- Team Offsites: We go on 2 company retreats per year, our last ones were in Italy and Greece

Our Process

- Intro Call (30 min): Let's get to know each other.
- Case Study (90 min): We work through a realistic UK market or partnership scenario together.
- Leadership Interview (1 hr): We dive into your UK defence relationships, the deals you have closed and how you build a team.
- Team Dinner / Lunch: Meet the team and see whether it is a strong fit on both sides.

## Equal Opportunity

SE3 is an equal-opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. All qualified candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.

## About SE3 Labs

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SE3 Labs builds next-generation spatial AI for autonomous systems, enabling machines to perceive, reason, and act autonomously in the physical world.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Pre-Seed stage; $3.2M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Munich, Germany
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Lukas Köstler (CEO), Simon Klenk (CTO), Daniel Cremers (CSO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Defence technology, autonomous systems, spatial AI, computer vision
- Target customers: Defence organisations (e.g., German Bundeswehr), defence contractors, operators of unmanned aerial/ground systems (B2G/B2B)
- Mission or purpose: “Laying the foundation for a new generation of resilient, software-defined capabilities” and advancing Europe’s technological sovereignty through spatial intelligence.

## Products & Services
- **Spatial AI Platform**: A hardware-agnostic, on-edge software stack that combines navigation, perception, and AI reasoning. It provides:
  - **GNSS-denied navigation** (visual-inertial odometry, real-time map matching)
  - **Real-time 3D common operating picture** (semantic understanding, sub-metre localisation)
  - **Natural language swarm control** – one operator commands mixed aerial/ground swarms via spoken intent
  - **AI agents** that analyse the environment and reason over objects and movements in real time
  - **Sensor-to-shooter capability** – target-grade coordinate generation for coordinated action

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $3.2M (conflicting reports: $3.15M per PitchBook) [linkedin.com](https://de.linkedin.com/company/se3-labs) [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/542367-37)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lakestar, Seedcamp, EWOR, Sequoia Scout Fund, UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators, SDAC, Magnetic, TwinTrack Ventures, Plug and Play, founders of Flixbus and Ascending Technologies, EUDIS Business Accelerator
- **Growth Signals**: 150% YoY headcount growth (29 employees); active under contract with the German Bundeswehr; multiple defence contracts won; reduced sensor-to-shooter timeline “by an order of magnitude”; presence in Germany, UK, Singapore, Switzerland [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/06/26/backed-by-lakestar-seedcamp-and-ewor-se3-unveils-spatial-ai-platform-for-autonomous-systems/)

## Competitive Advantages
- **World-class research foundation**: Founders and team from TU Munich, with over 400 scientific publications and 87,000+ citations; leadership in computer vision and AI (e.g., Daniel Cremers – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winner)
- **Hardware-agnostic, modular stack**: Integrates with any UAV/UGV or operates as full software stack; runs on-edge, resilient in contested environments
- **GNSS-denied capability**: Enables autonomous navigation and swarming where GPS is jammed or unavailable
- **Natural language interaction**: Lowers operator burden, turning one person into a force multiplier
- **Proven operational deployment**: Technology validated in live military exercises with the Bundeswehr, not just lab demos

## Strategic Focus
- **Defence & sovereign autonomy**: Scaling spatial AI for European defence, strengthening independence from non-European suppliers
- **Multi-domain expansion**: Currently focused on aerial and ground platforms; targeting mixed swarms and potentially maritime systems
- **Continuous operational validation**: Participating in field exercises and innovation centre demonstrations (e.g., Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub, Erding Innovation Centre)
- **Attracting top talent**: 15 open positions (as of mid-2026), including drone engineers, computer vision specialists, and test pilots

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven**: Work on cutting-edge AI that directly impacts national security and autonomous systems
- **Rapid growth**: 150% employee growth in the last year; small, agile team (~29 people) with room for impact
- **World-class peers**: Surround yourself with researchers and engineers from TU Munich, Nvidia, Tesla Autopilot, BMW, etc.
- **Open roles**: 15 active job postings including UAV Test Pilot, Drone Software and Controls Engineer, Mechanical Design Engineer, Technical Project Manager, and more [linkedin.com](https://de.linkedin.com/company/se3-labs)
- **Location & hybrid**: Office in Munich (Ungererstraße 175) with remote/hybrid flexibility for some roles; international presence (UK, Singapore, Switzerland)
- **Perks**: Involvement in live field operations, access to top-tier research networks, and participation in defence innovation ecosystem

## Sources
1. [se3.ai](https://www.se3.ai/)
2. [linkedin.com](https://de.linkedin.com/company/se3-labs)
3. [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/542367-37)
4. [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/06/26/backed-by-lakestar-seedcamp-and-ewor-se3-unveils-spatial-ai-platform-for-autonomous-systems/)
5. [se3.ai/careers](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/se3)

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