---
title: 'VP of Engineering at Swarmer'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/vp-of-engineering-swarmer-kyiv-46aep2swkx5q'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# VP of Engineering at Swarmer

- **Company:** Swarmer
- **Location:** Kyiv, Ukraine
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-07-23
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/swarmer/87525c3c-cc44-49be-b456-149cf0598460

## Job description

Swarmer develops software that makes drones autonomous and allows them to operate together, in large, coordinated teams — no pilots needed. Our technology has been battle-tested in Ukraine— the world’s most intense proving ground for drone warfare.

In March 2026, we became the first Ukrainian defense startup to go public on NASDAQ, following a $15M Series A — the largest investment in a Ukrainian defense tech company since the start of the war.

Working at Swarmer means operating at the intersection of engineering rigor and frontline reality. The problems and environments are complex, and the stakes are very real. We built this software to enable democratic nations to defend themselves.

If you are motivated by building resilient systems that matter and by seeing the direct impact of your work, you’ll find purpose here.

## WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

We're looking for a strong technical leader to take ownership of all engineering functions. This is a hands-on, execution-focused role: you'll bring structure to a fast-growing engineering organization, make the architecture decisions that keep a rapidly expanding product coherent, and ensure the team stays focused on scalable, roadmap-driven solutions. You'll report to our CPO and all engineering leads will report to you.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO:

- Set technical strategy and own architecture decisions at the intersection of product and engineering, ensuring the system stays coherent as it scales
- Ensure engineering effort is directed toward scalable, roadmap-aligned solutions rather than one-off work for individual clients or vendors
- Prioritize ruthlessly — align integrations and new initiatives with business value, and be willing to say no or stop work that doesn't serve the roadmap
- Build and own core engineering processes: pipelines, release management, testing, and incident response
- Manage technical debt and align engineering execution with business priorities
- Coordinate across cloud, onboard software, autonomy, QA, hardware integration, product, and field operations
- Scale and lead the engineering organization, including engineering managers, team leads, and senior technical contributors

YOU'LL BE A GOOD FIT IF YOU HAVE:

- Strong engineering leadership experience building complex, mission-critical, life-critical, or high-load enterprise/B2B systems
- Experience managing teams of 50+ people
- Embedded / hardware-close software experience — our systems run in the physical world with real constraints, and this experience is critical to making sound architectural calls in our context
- Solid understanding of Linux-based edge systems, networking, containers, companion computers, and ARM platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson or Raspberry Pi
- Experience with distributed systems and unreliable connectivity, including fault tolerance, recovery, observability, fleet management, and remote updates
- Strong cloud and backend architecture knowledge, including APIs, databases, messaging, infrastructure, security, and production operations
- Good understanding of robotics or embedded system architecture, with familiarity with technologies such as MAVLink, ArduPilot, PX4, or ROS 2 is considered a strong plus
- Experience building reliable, safety-sensitive systems with strong testing, release, and incident-management practices
- Business-minded approach — you understand why we're doing something, not just how to build it
- Ability to define technical strategy, make architecture decisions, manage technical debt, and align engineering execution with business priorities
- Proven experience scaling engineering teams and leading engineering managers, team leads, and senior technical contributors
- Ability to coordinate across cloud, onboard software, autonomy, QA, hardware integration, product, and field operations
- Strong communication skills and professional English

## NICE TO HAVE:

- Miltech experience, especially Ukrainian miltech
- Direct experience with drones, robotics, or autonomous systems
- Experience with Python, C/C++, Podman, Docker, or similar technologies
- Experience with simulation, software-in-the-loop, or hardware-in-the-loop testing
- Knowledge of secure boot, device hardening, signed software, hardware-backed identity, or operation in degraded communication environments

## WHAT YOU’LL GET:

- A chance to shape the core autonomy and perception systems at the heart of Ukraine’s defense tech ecosystem and its international expansion
- Direct impact in a high-stakes industry where security decisions carry real-world consequences
- Professional growth through working with cutting-edge defense technologies and exposure to international security best practices
- Competitive salary, benefits package (insurance, paid sick leaves, 20 paid days off per year)
- Benefits of the defense sector (reservation, etc)

## HOW THE HIRING PROCESS WORKS:

✔️ Recruiter Screen → ✔️ Interview with CPO → ✔️ Technical Interview → ✔️ Managerial Interview → ✔️ Final Interview with CEO → ✔️ Background check → ✔️ Offer

## About Swarmer

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Swarmer develops combat-driven, vendor-agnostic collaborative autonomy software that enables one operator to control hundreds of unmanned systems in real time.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A; has filed for Nasdaq IPO)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, USA (with operations in Ukraine, Poland, and Estonia)
- **Founded**: May 2023
- **Founders**: Serhii Kupriienko (Global CEO) and Alex Fink (President & US CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense technology / Autonomous systems
- **Target customers**: Military and defense organizations (B2G)
- **Mission or purpose**: To provide intelligent swarming software that allows large numbers of low-cost unmanned systems to operate collectively as one coherent, resilient force, keeping humans out of harm’s way.

## Products & Services
- **Swarmer Software Platform**: A modular, platform-agnostic software stack for autonomous navigation, real-time combat data fusion, AI-driven collaboration, and scalable autonomy. Features encrypted over-the-air updates. Deployed on over 100,000 real-world combat missions in Ukraine since April 2024.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company; filed for IPO but terms undisclosed)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $15 million (Series A, first for a Ukrainian startup) – [aviationweek.com](https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/swarmer-takes-15-million-series-first-ukrainian-startup)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not individually named in available sources; has signed MOUs with Powerus and contracts with SkyKnight.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - More than 100,000 combat missions flown by nearly 50 units under active EW/GPS-denied conditions.
  - Filed for Nasdaq IPO in 2025/2026.
  - Rapid headcount growth and active hiring across engineering, sales, operations, and product roles in multiple countries.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Real-world validation**: Software evolved on the battlefield in Ukraine, not in a lab – terabytes of proprietary combat data inform ML models.
- **Vendor-agnostic**: Operates at the intelligence layer, independent of any single hardware supplier or platform.
- **Resilience**: Designed for contested, degraded, GPS-denied environments with continuous over-the-air updates.
- **Scalability**: One operator can control hundreds of autonomous systems simultaneously.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling the platform for multi-domain operations, expanding into new defense markets, and completing a public listing on Nasdaq. Continued investment in AI-driven autonomy and real-time coordination.
- **Direction for growth**: From frontline Ukrainian operations to a global defense technology company, with a focus on collaborative autonomy across air, land, sea, and space.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Combat-tested, mission-driven environment where software directly impacts human safety and national security. Emphasis on "Send drones. Keep humans."
- **Remote/hybrid policy**: Roles available across EU, USA, Ukraine, and Estonia; some positions listed as "Remote Texas" and "Remote" – hybrid likely depending on location.
- **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI and autonomy software that is actively deployed in real-world combat. Rapid growth phase means significant impact and career advancement. Engineering leadership, product, and pilot roles available.
- **Current hiring areas**: Engineering Leadership (EU & USA), Sales & Marketing Leadership (EU & USA), Engineers & Pilots (Ukraine & EU), Operations (Ukraine & EU), Product Roles (EU & Ukraine). Talent pool open for future roles – [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/swarmer)

## Sources
1. [getswarmer.com](https://getswarmer.com/) – Company homepage and capabilities
2. [getswarmer.com/about](https://getswarmer.com/about/) – Company history, leadership, mission
3. [investors.getswarmer.com](https://investors.getswarmer.com/) – Investor relations, news releases, IPO filing
4. [aviationweek.com](https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/swarmer-takes-15-million-series-first-ukrainian-startup) – Series A funding announcement
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/swarmer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/swarmer) – Job listings and hiring areas
6. [swarmer.peopleforce.io/careers](https://swarmer.peopleforce.io/careers) – Alternative careers page with talent pool

## Other roles at Swarmer

- [Principal Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-integration-engineer-swarmer-warsaw-48hagmwxjgqv) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Senior Data Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-swarmer-kyiv-rknh0ef0da68) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [AI-Native Product Design Lead (UX/UI)](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-native-product-design-lead-ux-ui-swarmer-kyiv-8aea83nk3q9f) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Flight Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-program-manager-swarmer-warsaw-67ejqvkk34m3) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Drone Engineer - Software](https://feeny.ai/job/drone-engineer-software-swarmer-warsaw-thgwpfks7cff) — Warsaw, Poland
- [Flight Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-program-manager-swarmer-kyiv-n0h2700ftx2p) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Field Integration Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/field-integration-technician-swarmer-austin-awshd0kye872) — Austin, TX
- [Head of Integration](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-integration-swarmer-kyiv-vft4j8jxexf4) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Head of AI](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-ai-swarmer-kyiv-vzeetc77bcyj) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Talent Pool*](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-pool-swarmer-global-w0ssrqs970z2) — Global