Take Off With Iris
Explore our team and what a career at Iris looks like
Team Values
Our culture revolves around the core values that drive work at Iris every day. A focus on collaboration, growth, hard work, and keeping active and healthy drives everyone to better themselves in and out of the office.
Accountability
We prioritize safety and trust each other to take on responsibilities, follow through, and ask for support when we need it.
Continuous Learning
We are curious people with broad interests who cultivate a learning environment.
Recognition
We celebrate and create space for each other’s work, differences, and humaness.
Pragmatism
We work hard, work smart, and stay calm and positive under pressure.
Collaboration
We build connections not only with each other, but with regulators, customers, and the aviation industry.
Open Communication
We are approachable and give and accept feedback, input, and help from all teammates.
Leadership
Jon Damush
Chief Executive Officer
James Howard
Co-founder & VP of Technology + Innovation
Gabrielle Wain
VP of Global Policy and Government Affairs
Jason Hardy-Smith
VP of Product
Lori DeMatteis
VP of Sales & Marketing
Mark Genung
VP of Flight Operations
Board of Directors
Alexander Harmsen
Celeste
Ford
David
Cowan
James Howard
Jon
Damush
Tess
Hatch
Jon Damush
Philip Walker
Alexander Harmsen
James Howard
James is a mechatronics engineer, roboticist and entrepreneur. He is recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30, and draws on a diverse background across the unmanned systems industry, and previous ventures. James worked at Boeing and Insitu Pacific on computer vision research for drones such as the Scaneagle. At Spire Global, he helped build and launch their first four commercial satellites, seeing first hand the insides of a successful, highly technical aerospace startup. Additionally, in his first year of university he co-founded AniRevo Events as Director of Sales and has helped it grow successfully to a 14,000+ attendee annual event that is expanding globally.
Dr. Alejandro Galindo
Alejandro gained expertise at France’s INRIA institute, known world-wide for its expertise in computer vision. After years of cutting edge research and after finishing his PhD he joined the initial team of a French startup where he successfully led the development of its core product and built his R&D team of scientists and engineers from fields like computer vision, physical simulation, rendering and computer aided design. At Iris, he built the core of our technology and he is now leading the R&D team on taking that solution to the next level, making it more robust and expanding its capabilities. For his work on autonomous drones at Iris Automation he received the MIT Innovators Under 35 Award at the end of 2017.
Gabrielle Wain
Gabrielle is a specialist in public policy development and international government relations. After supporting Ministers in the UK Government, Gabrielle moved to advise multinational companies on global policy issues affecting their businesses. She has led the political strategy for a large trade association, cutting through red tape and securing $10bn investment for the 1,000 businesses she represented. At Iris, Gabrielle is leading the company’s work to make BVLOS flights a reality for our customers. Her team engages with governments around the world, and is shaping policy and standards at both the national and multi-national level. She is also building out Iris’ offer to customers around BVLOS waiver writing.
Mark Genung
Mark has a Masters degree in Systems Engineering and a BSME. He served in the US Navy for 30 years as a Surface Warfare Officer where he commanded two warships, and employed and coordinated crewed and unmanned aircraft for a variety of missions including maritime security. Mark is a FAA qualified private pilot and remote pilot. An enthusiastic recreational radio control pilot since 2002, he started his post-naval career in the commercial sUAS industry in 2012. He was a founding member of HAZON Solutions where he served as Chief Pilot and Chief Engineer responsible for developing procedures, integrating aircraft, training and leading sUAS flight crews that conducted precision infrastructure inspections of high voltage power transmission lines, railroad bridges and telecommunication towers. In 2016, Mark joined Flirtey, one of the world’s first drone delivery companies as the Field Operations Manager. While at Flirtey, Mark executed the first FAA approved shore-ship-shore drone deliveries, the first FAA approved business to home deliveries in the US, and the first CAA approved Dominos Pizza drone deliveries to homes in New Zealand. Mark is responsible for the safe and efficient testing of Iris Automation’s Casia DAA technology on our fleet of drones.
Jason Hardy-Smith
Jason Hardy-Smith is a proven Product Management executive with 20 years of experience defining and driving product strategies and roadmaps in technology industries. Jason has owned the end-to-end product lifecycle of successful first-to-market products for companies including Oracle, Blueroads, Brightidea and Isomorphic Software. He has built efficient, scalable, global product organizations from the ground up.
Before starting his product management career, Jason was a software developer and received his Bachelor of Electronic & Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow.
David Cowan
Russ Muzzolini
John Walker
Geoff Ralston
Tess Hatch
Tess earned a Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from Stanford. She went on to work for Boeing and then SpaceX where she worked with the government on integrating its payloads with the Falcon9 rocket. She remains close to her alma mater by co-teaching a class at Stanford for professors interested in commercializing their research, serving on the board of advisors for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and founding the Stanford Aero/Astro Alumni Association. Tess was recently named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital.
Tess is passionate about space exploration and imagines a future where we all travel to space. She hopes to one day take a trip herself.
Lori DeMatteis
Lori’s product background and expertise: IIoT/AI /Industrial/Analytics, Big Data, Security and Cloud solutions. Throughout her career, she has been recruited and called upon to tackle extremely challenging obstacles, including 180-degree turnarounds and demanding go-to-market transformation initiatives in multiple startups across large as well as early-stage companies. Repeatedly, she has delivered above expectations and positioned companies for both immediate and long-term success, earning recognition from C-level and boards.
Celeste Ford
Ford was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, and inducted to the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. She is a board member for multiple private and public organizations, a community advocate, and contributes regularly to leadership initiatives focusing on entrepreneurship and women in business. Celeste received her BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University.
More reasons to love working at Iris
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Monthly learning events
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Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage
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Flexible time off
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Company stock options
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401k
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Workspace and wellness stipend
San Francisco, California
Reno-Tahoe, Nevada
