Technical Strategy Manager H/F

ABOUT ALTA ARES Alta Ares is an air defense Neoprime. We build AI-guided interceptors to counter drones and cruise missiles, along with the software platform that powers them. Our customers are NATO-aligned militaries and defense institutions, and our systems are regularly deployed during live exercises and operational demonstrations across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Founded in 2024, we have grown to 90 people, raised over $60M, and increased revenue 40× this year. We are now entering a new phase of international expansion, industrial scaling, fundraising, and product development. CONTEXT We are looking for hybrid profile, sitting at the intersection of strategy and engineering, able to rigorously evaluate the technology choices made by the R&D and innovation teams, audit our internal capabilities, and challenge product/tech trade-offs with a business lens. This is not a technical team management role, but a role of constructive counter-power and strategic alignment between engineering and business priorities. You will ensure that our technological decisions (R&D, innovation, architecture choices, build vs buy, roadmap prioritization) are aligned with overall strategy, economically sound, and robust by actively challenging the relevant teams rather than rubber-stamping their proposals. ROLE & MISSIONS: Strategic and technical challenge - Challenge the technical choices and roadmaps proposed by R&D and the Innovation team (architecture, stack, prioritization, build vs buy vs partner) - Question the underlying assumptions behind technical projects (feasibility, ROI, strategic alignment, technical debt incurred) - Produce well-argued, independent analyses not rubber-stamped validations Technology and market watch - Run continuous technical and technology watch (competitors, emerging technologies, market trends, new tools, and platforms) to keep the company's decisions informed by the state of the art - Identify technologies or approaches that could create a competitive advantage, or expose the company to being left behind - Turn watch findings into actionable inputs for the R&D/Innovation roadmap and for COMEX-level strategic discussions - Build and maintain a structured watch process (sources, cadence, internal distribution) rather than ad hoc monitoring Capability audit - Regularly map and assess the company's technical capabilities (skills, tools, infrastructure, external dependencies) - Identify areas of risk, over-investment, under-investment, or critical dependency - Benchmark our capabilities against the market and competitors Technology strategy - Contribute to defining the company's technology strategy alongside the Strategy & Operations Director - Assess build, buy, partner, or acquisition opportunities on technology topics - Inform R&D resource allocation decisions with a strategic and financial lens Reporting and governance - Produce syntheses and recommendations for COMEX on tech-strategy topics - Set up tracking indicators on technical execution vs. commitments made - Participate in R&D/Innovation committees as an independent strategic voice CANDIDATE PROFILE Experience - 5-6 years of overall experience, engineering background (degree in engineering or equivalent) - Ideal trajectory: 2-3 years of hands-on technical execution, followed by 2-3 years in a hybrid technical/business role e.g. Engineer → Technical Product Manager, Engineer → tech-focused strategy consulting, or Engineer → Chief of Staff to a CTO/VP Engineering - Profiles with only pure execution experience (no exposure to business trade-offs) or only early technical experience followed by years of generalist consulting (no longer technically credible) are not a fit for this role - Given the seniority level, the candidate should compensate for limited years of experience with either deep, recognized expertise in a specific technical domain (enough to be seen as a peer by R&D on that topic) or a strong, proven track record of challenging senior stakeholders from a strategy/consulting background. Technical skills - Hands-on experience in a technical environment (dev, data, tech product, architecture, not consulting-only exposure) - Demonstrated ability to understand architecture choices and technical trade-offs, and to assess their relevance - Comfortable engaging as a peer with CTOs, tech leads, and senior engineers - Able to speak in concrete, specific terms about a real technical decision they challenged or questioned Strategy / business skills - Ability to translate technical issues into business implications, and vice versa Critical soft skills - Strong critical thinking and independence of judgment - Able to distinguish a genuine technical risk from a mere communication gap - Natural credibility: earns legitimacy through the rigor of the analysis, not through hierarchy SUCCESS INDICATORS (BY MONTH 12) - Technical capability map completed and kept up to date - A structured technology watch process in place, with regular outputs reaching R&D/Innovation and COMEX - Number of R&D/Innovation decisions meaningfully redirected following a well-argued challenge - Perceived quality of recommendations by COMEX and by the technical teams themselves - Measurable reduction in the gap between technical roadmap and strategic priorities