Mission Lead - Clearance Required

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.

Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.

About the role

We are looking for a Mission Lead to execute on our deployments and deliver truly impactful mission outcomes to our defense and national security partners. The successful candidate must be located in El Paso or willing to travel there regularly (>50%). We're looking for someone who brings experience and intuition to deploying new defense products with the Department of Defense. You are a mission domain expert with mission user experience, domain knowledge, or military service. You understand our partners' needs and challenges because you lived them. You are a motivated problem solver who takes ownership, acts with urgency, and is comfortable with ambiguity. You like a challenge, and you don’t quit.  As a Mission Lead, you will execute on the delivery strategy on our current deployments, and you will identify DoD mission groups that need our technology and develop partnerships with them to drive deployments of our software in support of their mission.

U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required.

What you’ll do

• Own the delivery of capabilities outlined within contracted periods of performances (POPs); whether it be a 6-month pilot, 12-month period of performance, or multi-year program of record.

• Get our software into the hands of mission users who need it by identifying mission groups with a problem our technology can solve and enabling them to understand the technology's value

• Go above and beyond to exceed customer expectations, and over-deliver to the point where continuing to partner with us is a no-brainer.

• Deeply understand the mission sets and pain points of our users so that we can tackle their challenges using a combination of Vannevar’s capabilities.

• Go to where the users are. To best understand how Vannevar can provide value, we need to sit in the same spaces as our users.

• Help us build world-class software. While product and engineering teams speak with customers directly, mission success is often our eyes and ears for on-the-ground reality. You will bring this expertise back to the rest of the company to ensure we are developing disruptive capabilities for our user base.

• Direct resources as needed, whether that be onsite embedded personnel, product managers, engineers or other mission personnel. You will need to be able to influence cross-team members to direct the appropriate resources to customer objectives.

What we’re looking for

• 2+ years experience deploying SaaS software.

• A mission domain expert with 5+ years of mission user experience, intelligence domain knowledge, or military service. You understand our partners' needs and challenges because you lived them.

• A motivated problem solver who takes ownership, acts with urgency, and is comfortable with ambiguity. You like a challenge, and you don’t quit.

• Previous experience owning customer renewal and expansion cycles

What we offer

The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $170,000 + equity. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Remote friendly with WeWork access

• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year

• 401(k) match

• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends

• Salary top-up during military reserve duty

• Fully paid parental leave

• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!

IMPORTANT NOTICE
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams.