00 About AVP · Founder-operated boutique

Who runs AVP.

A founder-operated boutique. Twelve-plus years inside engineering hiring for mobility, aerospace, defense, and autonomy. The Warfront taxonomy and the bench behind it are the operating record.

The principal

Alex Rennie.

Twelve-plus years inside technical recruitment and engineering placement. The career has been anchored in mobility, aerospace, defense, and autonomous systems — the segments where the work has actually happened. The Warfront taxonomy is the methodological output of that decade-plus of placements, distilled.

Engineering placements across eVTOL, hydrogen propulsion, electromagnetic systems, autonomous ground systems, and defense-prime adjacency. Most of that work was led personally during prior agency tenure; CycloTech and Daedalean were under Alex's own Ascension brand. The distinction between Ascension-branded engagements and prior agency-led placements is named explicitly because integrity in this segment is undersold.

Beyond AVP's recruitment work, Alex currently serves as Founding Commercial Director at Biospan — a UHNW culinary services business effectively re-founded since January 2026. Different segment from autonomy, but the role exercises the same execution-infrastructure muscles AVP sells: org design, growth-stage commercial scaling, hiring sequence, operating cadence.

Why AVP exists: most US Series A–B autonomous-systems companies don't need another generalist recruiter. They need someone with the taxonomy, the bench, and the operator instincts to run hiring as execution infrastructure. AVP is built for that customer specifically. No team page, by deliberate design — the boutique is the position.

AVP-branded prior client engagements

Engagements run under Ascension's own named brand.

Two prior client engagements run under Ascension International — the brand that became AVP. Different shapes, different outcomes, both AVP-branded.

Warfront 04 — eVTOL & advanced air mobility

CycloTech.

AVP closed engineering placements across power systems, autonomy stack, and hardware leadership at CycloTech — an Austrian eVTOL company developing the CycloRotor propulsion technology. Engagement structured as a multi-role retained search across two hiring cycles. The work covered senior IC through head-of-engineering scope, against a brief that required candidates fluent in low-TRL aerospace propulsion physics. The placements closed inside an aggressive timeline against an unusually narrow specialist talent pool.

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Hanna Romenska · Head of HR, CycloTech

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Nicolas Bamberg · Head of Hardware/Software Engineering, CycloTech

Warfront 09 — edge ML & embedded inference / autonomy stack-adjacent

Daedalean.

Prior client engagement on autonomy AI for aviation. Substantive work delivered on apex-difficulty autonomy AI talent brief. Daedalean develops certifiable AI for autonomous flight — among the hardest specialist hiring profiles in the broader autonomy ecosystem. The engagement produced market mapping, candidate longlists, and senior-IC pattern recognition that continues to inform AVP's bench in edge ML and embedded inference.

Operator track record

Engineering placements led personally — prior agency tenure.

Engineering placements led personally during prior agency tenure. Named here as operator history with deliberate framing — these clients were not engaged under the AVP or Ascension brands.

Client engagements disclosed in private scoping — out of professional courtesy to prior agency relationships.

Warfront 03 — ground autonomy / 10 — simulation & safety case / cybersecurity intersection

HORIBA MIRA.

Engineering placements across autonomous ground systems, vehicle cybersecurity, and functional safety engineering at HORIBA MIRA — a UK proving ground and engineering services group serving automotive and defense ground autonomy programs. The work mapped to three Warfront sub-segments simultaneously: ground autonomy, simulation and safety case engineering, and the cybersecurity intersection that increasingly gates production deployment. The strongest on-thesis operator credit — defense-relevant ground autonomy, certification-bound, with safety-case fluency.

Autonomous ground systems · cybersecurity · functional safety

Warfront 04 — eVTOL & advanced air mobility

Heart Aerospace.

Power systems specialist placements at Heart Aerospace — a Swedish electric regional aircraft developer building the ES-30 hybrid-electric platform. The brief required candidates fluent in high-voltage propulsion, battery systems, and certification-aware electrical engineering. Heart's program is among the more advanced electric regional aircraft efforts in the European mobility ecosystem; the placements supported the engineering team through a critical scaling phase between Series A and Series B.

Power systems · high-voltage propulsion · electric regional aircraft

Defense-prime adjacency — UK MoD contracts

Rolls Royce Electrical.

Multiple senior engineering placements at Rolls Royce Electrical, supporting UK Ministry of Defence contracts. The closest defense-prime credential in the operator track record — work executed in classified-context-aware environments with the security and procurement complexity that comes with prime-tier defense contracting. Pattern recognition built across the placements applies directly to AVP's positioning around US dual-use and cleared-eligible scope.

Defense-prime · classified context · UK MoD

Warfront 04 — eVTOL (propulsion) / low-TRL specialism

GKN Aerospace.

Research scientist placements in hydrogen propulsion at GKN Aerospace — supporting low-TRL research programs that sit at the leading edge of zero-emission aviation propulsion. The brief required candidates with deep specialism in hydrogen storage, cryogenic systems, and propulsion physics — talent profiles narrow enough that conventional sourcing approaches fail. Operator credibility for the Warfront sub-segments where the talent pool is bench-deep but candidate-thin.

Hydrogen propulsion · low-TRL research · cryogenics

Warfront 05 — counter-UAS / 08 — autonomy stack-adjacent

Safran.

Electromagnetic specialist placements at Safran — a French aerospace and defense supplier with deep specialism in electronic warfare, propulsion, and equipment systems. The brief targeted senior engineers at the intersection of electromagnetic systems and counter-unmanned-aerial-systems applications. Defense-supplier specialism credentialed against the Warfront counter-UAS and autonomy-stack-adjacent sub-segments — the talent profiles map directly to several US dual-use programs in scope for AVP's v1 work.

Electromagnetic systems · counter-UAS · defense supplier

Current operator portfolio

Active operator role outside AVP.

Adjacent — UHNW culinary services / commercial scaling

Biospan.

Alex currently serves as Founding Commercial Director at Biospan — a UHNW culinary services business effectively re-founded since January 2026. Different segment from autonomy; the role doesn't credential the autonomy thesis directly. What it credentials is current operator depth: org design, growth-stage commercial leadership, and hiring-sequence execution at a business in active scale. Biospan exercises the same Strategic Scaling muscles AVP sells to autonomy customers — applied to a different vertical.

Active · Founding Commercial Director · Re-founded January 2026

The credibility stack is the architecture. The Warfront taxonomy is the methodological output. The engagement page is where the conversation begins.

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