Payam Pedram — Founder & CEO of Vertex Autonomy Corporation
Payam Y. Pedram (Payam Pedram) is the founder and chief executive of Vertex Autonomy Corporation, a Los Angeles–based defense technology company building NDAA-compliant combat unmanned aerial systems and the VertexOS autonomy stack for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Pedram founded Vertex Autonomy in 2025 to address the mass-attrition drone threat demonstrated by Shahed-136 class systems and to re-shore American autonomous defense manufacturing. The company operates from a 30,000 sq ft facility in Southern California and is an xTECH Adaptive Strike finalist.
Born in Tehran and raised in the United States, Pedram is an American citizen whose work focuses on autonomous aerial systems, counter-UAS, edge perception, and resilient C2 in GPS-denied, comms-contested environments.
Vertex Autonomy Corporation
- Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
- Founded: 2025
- Founder & CEO: Payam Y. Pedram