VP of Operations

Job description

We are looking for a highly skilled and strategic VP of Operations to join our fast-paced, mission-driven team. You will be instrumental in scaling Corvus by owning manufacturing, supply chain, and hardware operations end-to-end as we deploy autonomous drones across the world's largest warehouses. We need a leader who has lived and breathed hardware - electronics, robotics, and production at scale - and is committed to building an operations engine that matches the ambition of our product. ## About Corvus Corvus Robotics builds fully autonomous, infrastructure-free drones that give Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises real-time inventory visibility inside their warehouses and distribution centers. Founded out of MIT and headquartered in Mountain View, CA, our systems are purpose-built in America and deployed through a Robots-as-a-Service model. Hardware quality, manufacturing reliability, and deployment logistics are core to our business. ## What You'll Do - Own end-to-end hardware operations: supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, and logistics. - Scale our production processes without sacrificing quality or reliability. - Build and manage relationships with contract manufacturers, component suppliers, and logistics partners. - Increase manufacturing velocity while navigating component sourcing, lead times, and supply chain risk. - Establish quality systems, testing protocols, and reliability standards for robots that operate 24/7 in active industrial environments. - Partner closely with engineering on DFM (design for manufacturability), NPI (new product introduction), and hardware revision cycles - Build and lead the operations team as we grow - Own operational metrics: unit economics, yield, on-time deployment, and hardware uptime. ## What We're Looking For - 5+ years of operations experience in hardware, with significant time in robotics, electronics, or complex electromechanical products. - Hands-on familiarity with electronics manufacturing - you must know the difference between a PCB and a machined part, and dealt with the suppliers who make them. - Proven track record scaling production of a hardware product. - Experience managing contract manufacturers and multi-tier supply chains, ideally including overseas and domestic production. - Fluency in the language of hardware: BOMs, EVT/DVT/PVT, yield, MTBF, ECOs, and factory ramps. - Strong first-principles thinker who is comfortable operating with ambiguity at a fast-moving startup. - Willingness to be hands-on - on the factory floor, at supplier sites, and in customer warehouses when needed. ## Nice to Have - Experience with drones, UAVs, or autonomous mobile robots. - Experience with Robots-as-a-Service or other hardware-enabled recurring revenue models. - Background in regulated or safety-critical hardware environments. - Experience deploying hardware fleets into industrial or logistics environments. ## Why Join Us You'll join a team solving some of the hardest problems in physical AI - autonomy, reliability, and real-world deployment at national scale - with a product already trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises across retail, manufacturing, logistics, and distribution. This is a rare opportunity to own the operational backbone of a category-defining robotics company at the inflection point of its growth.