Drone Operations Manager & Systems Lead
Salary: ฿120,000 per month
About the role
DART Systems is expanding its drone business and seeking an experienced, practical and safety-focused Drone Operations Manager & Systems Lead to manage UAV operations and support the deployment of professional and autonomous drone systems. The role combines flight operations, fleet readiness, team coordination, technical configuration, systems integration, regulatory coordination and operational training. The successful candidate will oversee pilots and technical personnel, help keep equipment and procedures ready for use, and work with the software team to connect UAV capabilities with DART and related platforms. The role also supports project deployments and coordinates with customers, project teams, authorities and specialist providers.
Key responsibilities
Plan, schedule and supervise UAV activities, including routine operations, demonstrations, field deployments, surveillance and emergency-response support.
Oversee mission planning, site risk assessments, weather checks, execution and post-flight reporting; make go/no-go recommendations in remote or challenging environments.
Develop and maintain SOPs, checklists and safety procedures, including alert handling, escalation, lost-link, abort, manual-recovery and unsafe-weather scenarios.
Keep accurate flight logs and records of incidents, near misses, defects and corrective actions; ensure flights stay within permissions and operating limits.
Manage readiness of aircraft, thermal and other payloads, batteries, controllers, communications equipment and autonomous docking stations.
Establish preventive-maintenance schedules, inspections and health checks; maintain asset registers and spares inventories.
Lead or coordinate dock-site surveys and prepare site-readiness dossiers.
Configure and commission Dock 3 / 4 and Matrice 4TD / 5TD systems, including firmware baselines, pairing, AL1 spotlight and AS1 speaker payloads and RC Plus 2 controllers.
Work with DART's software team to integrate UAV data into DART.net, and support testing of missions triggered by satellite alerts and AI-assisted fire detection.
Supervise, train and give feedback to pilots, technicians and field personnel; ensure qualifications, certificates and competencies are current.
About you
Bachelor's degree in aviation, aerospace, engineering, robotics, electronics, computer science or a related field (equivalent experience considered).
At least 5 years in professional UAV operations, including at least 2 years with enterprise or dock-based autonomous systems.
Experience supervising pilots, technicians, projects or field operations, and training and assessing adult operators.
Hands-on experience with DJI enterprise platforms (ideally Matrice series and DJI Dock) or comparable systems.
Experience with mission planning, risk assessment, maintenance, SOPs, CONOPS and safety documentation; familiarity with BVLOS and SORA.
Working knowledge of Thai UAV regulations and CAAT/NBTC procedures, or the ability to work effectively with regulatory specialists.
Valid remote-pilot certificate (e.g. CAAT UAS pilot certificate) or an equivalent qualification that can be validated.
Working understanding of IP networking, RTK, bandwidth, latency, cellular connectivity and basic cybersecurity; familiarity with thermal imaging for wildfire and emergency response.
Organised, hands-on, safety-committed and disciplined about documentation; able to work independently and escalate appropriately.
Fluent Thai preferred for local operations and regulatory communication; good working proficiency in English, spoken and written.
Benefits
The opportunity to work with professional UAVs, autonomous docking systems and integrated disaster-management technology.
Direct involvement in projects supporting wildfire detection, disaster response, environmental monitoring and community protection.
Collaboration with colleagues across aviation, software engineering, AI and emergency management.
Opportunities to participate in projects in Thailand and potentially internationally, with scope to develop expertise in autonomous drone systems and related technologies.
About us
DART Systems currently operates 2 drones. One, large 6-rotor drone for monitoring large areas such as wildfire support and a DJI Dock 3 and Matrice used in a drone as a first responder role. The company is based in Chiang Mai where we are working closely with the local authority.