Actively Building the Team

Come Build
The Future
With Us

Area51.Technology is not a team yet. It's a founder, a vision, a proving ground strategy, and a $2.5M raise in progress. That means you have the chance to be the second person in the room — and own a piece of something that doesn't exist anywhere else.

Honest Assessment

This Is Not For Everyone

We're pre-revenue, pre-funding, and operating from a mobile lab in the Nevada desert. The work is real. The vision is real. The upside is real. But this is not a safe, comfortable company yet — it's a startup in the truest sense, and we need people who are energized by that, not scared of it.

If you want to build something that has never existed, in a location that gives you an unfair advantage, with technology that will matter — this is the place.

This Is You →
You've shipped hardware that had to work in the real world
You're restless in big-company environments
You hold or recently held an active clearance
You've operated, validated, or maintained drone / UAS systems
You want equity, not just a salary
You can move fast and document as you go
Probably Not →
You need a fully built infrastructure before you can produce
Your expertise is purely academic or simulation-based
You're looking for a risk-free W2 with full benefits on day one
You've never had to make hardware work in the field
You need bureaucratic process to feel productive
Open Roles

The Team We're Building

Senior Autonomy Engineer
Contract → Full Time Priority Hire Nevada / Remote
ROS 2, behavior trees, motion planning, sensor fusion. Experience with field-deployed autonomous systems — mining, defense, ag, or construction. You've shipped something that drove itself in conditions that were trying to break it.
Embedded Systems / RTOS Engineer
Contract → Full Time Priority Hire Nevada / Remote
FreeRTOS, RTOS architecture, CAN bus, hardware abstraction layers, Jetson Orin or FPGA experience. You design for determinism, not just performance. Latency is a hard constraint, not a suggestion.
RPA / Drone Systems Operator (Transitioning Military)
Contract Creech / Nellis Alumni Clearance Value
You flew MQ-9s, worked in ISR, operated counter-UAS systems, or maintained RPAS avionics at Creech or similar. You're transitioning out and want to apply what you know to something that moves faster than the DoD. Your clearance, your operator intuition, and your peer network are the asset.
V&V / Safety Engineer
Contract → Full Time Remote Eligible
STPA, ISO 26262, MIL-STD-882, HIL test experience. You build safety cases that pass real audits. You've worked in automotive, aerospace, or defense safety programs. You understand the difference between checking a box and actually making a system safe.
Business Development / Defense Partnerships
Part Time → Full Time Bay Area / Remote
You have existing relationships with defense prime contractors, DoD program offices, or defense-focused VC. You understand SBIR/STTR pathways, OTA vehicles, and what it takes to get a startup into a defense contractor's supply chain. You open doors we can't open cold.
NextGen Sports — Exoskeleton Systems Engineer
Future Role — 2027 NextGen Sports Track
Powered exoskeleton actuation, biomechanics, human-worn robotics. Military exosuit programs (ONYX, TALOS) or commercial exoskeleton background. You want to build the suit that plays football. We're not joking.
Sports Tech Co-Founder / Partner
Equity Partnership NextGen Sports Track Co-Founder Level
NFL, NBA, sports media, or performance technology background. You understand leagues, media rights, and what it takes to build a new sport category. Area51.Technology builds the tech. You build the league. This is the conversation that starts everything.
Special Callout — Creech AFB / Nellis Alumni

The People We
Want Most Are
45 Minutes Away

Creech Air Force Base is 45 minutes from Las Vegas. Area51.Technology is the only commercial autonomous systems R&D company operating out of this corridor. The people transitioning out of Creech — MQ-9 operators, EW specialists, avionics technicians, ISR analysts — carry knowledge and clearances that no university produces.

We're building a recruiting pipeline from the RPA community. If you're transitioning out, know someone who is, or are connected to veteran employment programs in Southern Nevada — we want to talk.

Connect With Us →
Creech AFB to Las Vegas
45 min
Nevada Drone Corridor
Largest US Airspace
Clearance Holders in Network
Target: Day 1
Talent Other Startups Miss
RPA Operators
What They Bring
Clearance + Domain Intel
Culture & Operations

How We Work

01
Field First

The desert is the office. Testing happens in the environment that matters, not the one that's convenient. We bring the lab to the field, not the field to the lab.

02
Document Everything

Every test, every failure, every fix generates a documented artifact. V&V discipline is not overhead — it's the product that customers pay for and the IP that investors are buying.

03
Ship Fast, Certify Properly

Startup speed with safety engineering discipline. We move fast on prototype iterations. We don't move fast on safety cases. Both are non-negotiable.

04
Equity Upside

Early team members get meaningful equity. We're building something worth owning. If you're building it with us, you should own part of it. Compensation scales with company milestones.

Ready?

Send One Email.
Tell Us What You Build.

No formal application. No HR portal. Send an email with what you've built, what you know, and why you want to be in the Nevada desert building autonomous systems and powered exoskeletons for the most dangerous frontiers on Earth and beyond.

join@area51.technology →