Making autonomy work in the field.
Most recently I led technology at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct, where autonomous systems get tested, proven and shown to industry. Behind that sit twenty years of enterprise sales and business development. I help robotics and autonomy companies take their technology from test site to signed contract to live operations.
From promising technology to paying customers and live operations.
Great technology doesn't sell itself into heavy industry. It has to be proven in the field, shown to the right people, bought through procurement and trusted by operators. I work across the whole journey, technical and commercial.
Business development & sales
Opening doors with Australian miners, energy companies and utilities. I build pipeline, run enterprise sales cycles and set up the strategic partnerships that get you to contract.
Go-to-market strategy
Market entry, positioning, pricing, sales process and channel strategy for robotics and autonomy companies entering Australia, from first customer to repeatable revenue.
Trials, demos & pilots that close
Field trials and demonstrations designed to prove value and win the deal. I supported them day to day as Technology Lead at Australia's leading autonomy test precinct, and once cut a three-month demo cycle to a single day.
Technical deployment & readiness
Taking autonomous vehicles, drones and remote operations from trial into live, high-consequence sites: integration, comms, safety cases, and getting operators and regulators on board.
Technology & commercial assessment
An independent, operator-minded view for operators and investors: what works, what's ready, and whether the commercial model stacks up.
Team & sales capability
Building and coaching regional sales and operations teams, with demo processes, funnel metrics and playbooks that make revenue predictable.
Technical leadership and commercial results.
Most people in this space are either the engineer or the salesperson. I've spent my career as both. I can hold the technical conversation with site engineers, the commercial one with procurement, and the strategic one with executives, and then help deliver what was sold.
Technology Lead, Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct
I led technology at AARP, the precinct north of Perth where autonomous systems are tested, trialled and demonstrated to industry, government and investors.
- Led technical delivery for autonomous vehicles, robotics, UAV operations and advanced sensing across a complex multi-user site
- Developed the Remote Operations Centre, connecting people, machines and live data across ground, air and space-enabled trials
- Drone technical management and airspace planning for CASA-compliant operations
- Ran trials and showcases for vendors, operators and regulators, and drove the precinct's digital infrastructure and technology stack
From UAV trials in 1999 to autonomous road trains
Deep technical roots, not just a commercial overlay.
- Worked on the world's first fully autonomous road trains for MinRes' Onslow Iron project (Autônomo, with Hexagon)
- Deployed Percepto's autonomous drone-in-a-box systems for mining, utilities and energy clients
- Industry 4.0 condition monitoring and cloud analytics at Schaeffler
- Eleven years in UK military aviation test and evaluation: avionics, EMC and early UAV flight trials
Percepto Australia
Set up the Australian sales and operations team for an autonomous drone company. Formed strategic partnerships and built a predictable sales funnel that grew revenue.
Sales cycle redesign
Rebuilt the demo process and assets so evaluations that took three months ran in a single day, supporting 25+ live and 100+ virtual demos a year.
Schaeffler Industry 4.0
Owned the global go-to-market for the mining Industry 4.0 portfolio and helped steer Asia-Pacific strategy, including the award-winning OPTIME platform.
Major project accounts
Won instrumentation and process technology business on some of WA's biggest resource projects, selling to Tier 1 mining and oil & gas clients.
Selected project wins
Both sides of the adoption gap.
Startups & vendors
Robotics, drone and autonomy companies that need to get from prototype to paying enterprise customer.
Operators
Mining, energy, utilities and agriculture teams bringing new technology safely into complex sites.
Investors
Funds and boards that want a practical view of technical and commercial readiness.
Ecosystems & government
Precincts, programs and agencies building regional capability in automation.
Technology leadership, engineering and commercial delivery.
Grounded in military aviation test and evaluation, where I was running UAV trials back in 1999. Then two decades moving between technical and commercial leadership across startups, scale-ups and global industrial technology companies, most recently leading technology at AARP.
- 2020 – now
Principal Consultant
Autonomish.TechIndependent consulting in business development, go-to-market strategy and technology adoption for automation and autonomy.
- 2025 – 2026
Technology Lead
Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP)Led technology across the autonomy test and innovation precinct: technical delivery for autonomous systems, UAV operations and advanced sensing, the Remote Operations Centre, and the precinct's digital infrastructure. Main technical contact for vendors, industry partners and regulators running trials and demonstrations on site.
- 2024 – 2025
Technical Specialist
AutônomoWorked on the world's first fully autonomous road trains, for MinRes' Onslow Iron project.
- 2023
Business Development Executive
RocketDNA (ASX:RKT)Business development across major mining, renewables and oil & gas accounts, selling drone data, AI analytics and survey solutions across the mining value chain.
- 2021 – 2023
Australia Region Manager
Percepto: Autonomous DronesBuilt the Australian sales and operations team from scratch and led sales strategy across mining, power utilities, oil & gas and renewables. Formed strategic partnerships, built predictable sales funnels that grew revenue, and cut the demo cycle from three months to a single day.
- 2020 – 2021
Global Mining Solutions Manager, Industry 4.0
SchaefflerDeveloped the global Industry 4.0 portfolio and go-to-market strategy for mining, helped steer Asia-Pacific strategy, and contributed to the award-winning OPTIME condition-monitoring platform.
- 2017 – 2020
National Manager
Aquip SystemsRan the national business selling flow and energy metering, condition monitoring, and fire, flame and gas detection to Tier 1 oil & gas and mining companies.
- 2013 – 2017
Senior Engineer: Mining, Metals & Primaries WA
Endress+HauserTechnical sales of process instrumentation into WA mining, with project wins including Roy Hill, Gruyere JV, Tropicana, Mungari, Nova Nickel and South32 Worsley.
- 2006 – 2013
State Operations Manager · Senior Account Manager
AMS Instrumentation & Calibration · element14Ran state operations for industrial instrumentation and calibration, after managing electronics OEM accounts.
- 1995 – 2006
Military aviation test & evaluation engineering
DRA · DERA · QinetiQ, UK Ministry of Defence (Boscombe Down & Larkhill)Eleven years in UK defence aerospace. Avionics, comms and weapons-system installations on experimental fast-jet, transport and rotary-wing aircraft. Whole-aircraft electromagnetic compatibility and electrical power quality trials, including safety-critical systems and platform safety cases. Ran a UAV and aircraft weapons trials range, supporting early UAV flight trials (Observer, Phoenix, Desert Hawk) and weapons development (Typhoon, Brimstone, Storm Shadow).
Chris Lane
"The future belongs to organisations that can bridge innovation, operations and safety."
I started out as an avionics engineer in UK military aviation, testing aircraft, weapons and some of the earliest UAVs in environments where safety cases weren't optional. That discipline has shaped how I approach every new technology since.
I then spent twenty years in sales, business development and management, selling technology into Australia's mining, energy and utilities sectors, from process instrumentation to autonomous drones. I understand what buyers in these industries need to hear, and what it takes to get a deal through site, procurement and the boardroom.
Most recently I led technology at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct, where I saw day to day what it takes for autonomous systems to work outside the lab. That combination is what I bring to clients: someone who understands the technology, can prove it in the field, and knows how to sell it.
I've worked alongside founders, operators, executives, engineers, regulators and investors, and my job is usually to line innovation up with operational reality.
Whether it's a startup preparing for its first enterprise customer or an established operator adopting new technology, my focus doesn't change: solutions that work in the field, create measurable value and earn the confidence of the people who use them.
Got a technology that needs to work in the real world?
Whether you need a door opened, a go-to-market plan, or a deployment that sticks, I'm always up for a conversation. Startups, operators and investors all welcome.