WHO ARE WE
Lykos is a U.S.-based advanced materials and manufacturing company building a qualification-led repair & sustainment network for defense and aerospace industries. Lykos is focused on enabling rapid repair and sustainment for critical systems through advanced materials manufacturing, distributed and modular capacity, and our secure data-layer.
THE OPPORTUNITY
In the role of Data + Software Lead, you will construct the secure digital infrastructure that enables Lykos’repair and sustainment model to be secure, repeatable, and scalable. You will have ownership of the digital system that serves as an immutable thread from intake, configuration, and qualification, through to process and readiness.
This position demands a senior technical builder with a solid grasp of defense manufacturing and sustainment, quality assurance systems, immutable traceability, controlled data, and industrial-grade software. This is not a high-level strategy, vendor-management, or traditional CTO role. You must be prepared to write, deploy, and own every single line of code yourself before beginning to scale the engineering team.
WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING
- Build and own Lykos’ secure digital stack for dBOMs, digital passports, process-BOMs, qualification evidence, repair records, inspection data, and release workflows.
- Translate Lykos’ operating model into software: one named part family, one defined damage mode, one repair/protection process, one acceptance matrix, one digital qualification package, and one measured return-to-service delta.
- Develop the first production-grade system directly, including database architecture, backend APIs, operator interfaces, authentication, permissions, evidence storage, audit logs, deployment, and documentation.
- Build the CUI-ready data layer required to make process-BOM and qualification data structured, searchable, traceable, and audit-ready for defense customers.
- Create digital workflows for intake, triage, repair/protection, selective reproduction, inspection, qualification, release, quarantine, revocation, and requalification.
- Build the evidence backend for NDT records, inspection results, photos, machine logs, material lots, calibration records, certificates, work instructions, acceptance criteria, and return-to-service documentation.
- Support Lykos’ M0 / H0+H1 prototype cell by capturing the data required to prove repair quality, process repeatability, qualification readiness, and readiness improvement.
- Integrate Lykos’ digital layer with internal and partner systems, including QMS, MES, PLM, NDT labs, coatings facilities, heat-treat providers, MRO partners, depot workflows, and customer data environments.
- Create dashboards for lead-time reduction, repair-versus-replace economics, yield, rework, acceptance status, qualified part-family growth, readiness impact, and recurring work packages.
- Establish data controls aligned with CUI, ITAR/EAR, AS9100/Nadcap-adjacent quality environments, customer proprietary information, and future GovCloud or classified-enclave requirements.
- Partner with manufacturing, process engineering, quality, business development, and government stakeholders to ensure the digital system matches how parts are actually repaired, inspected, approved, and returned to service.
- Build the foundation for AI-ready sustainment datasets by ensuring records are attributable, classifiable, versioned, permissioned, and tied to real process evidence.
REQUIRED SKILLS
- 10+ years of experience building production software or data systems, preferably in industrial, aerospace, defense, manufacturing, logistics, MRO, supply chain, or regulated environments.
- Proven ability to build full-stack systems independently, including database design, backend services, APIs, user interfaces, authentication, infrastructure, testing, and deployment.
- Strong understanding of data architecture, physical-asset traceability, configuration management, evidence records, audit trails, event logs, and release-state workflows.
- Experience with manufacturing, sustainment, or quality systems such as QMS, MES, PLM, ERP, LIMS, SCADA, historians, maintenance systems, or digital work instruction platforms.
- Ability to design data models for part families, serialized components, material lots, process windows, machines, work orders, inspection events, nonconformances, release decisions, and readiness metrics.
- Strong security and compliance mindset, including role-based access, attribute-based access, encryption, audit logging, identity management, controlled data environments, and secure partner access.
- Familiarity with defense or aerospace compliance expectations such as CUI, CMMC/NIST 800-171, ITAR/EAR, AS9100, Nadcap, DFARS, or equivalent regulated environments.
- Comfort working directly with operators, inspectors, engineers, quality teams, depot stakeholders, government customers, and commercial partners.
- Demonstrated ability to operate in early-stage, fast-moving environments where the first version must be built directly, not delegated.
- Strong written communication skills and ability to create clear technical documentation for internal teams, customers, auditors, and government stakeholders.
PREFERRED SKILLS
- Background in defense sustainment, depot operations, aviation MRO, autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, or critical infrastructure.
- Experience building digital thread, digital passport, asset genealogy, dBOM/xBOM, SBOM, evidence vault, or supply-chain traceability systems.
- Familiarity with IUID, MIL-STD-130, GS1/DataMatrix, serialized part tracking, release certificates, counterfeit-risk workflows, or controlled technical data.
- Experience with PostgreSQL, Python, TypeScript, FastAPI, Next.js, object storage, OIDC, Keycloak, OPA, event buses, audit ledgers, or similar modern architecture.
- Experience supporting government, defense prime, depot, or regulated commercial customer integrations.
- Prior founding engineer, principal engineer, staff engineer, technical architect, or zero-to-one product leadership experience.
- Ability to grow into broader technical leadership after personally building the first working digital qualification system.
