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Salary: USD 145,000 - 185,000 / annual
Defense Unicorns is seeking a Mission Director - Space to lead full-lifecycle business development and program execution within the Air Force, with focus areas in Enterprise Cloud, Nuclear & NC3 (Nuclear Command, Control & Communications), or AOCs/C2 (Air Operations Centers/Command & Control).
As Mission Director, you will be a quota-carrying business owner responsible for identifying and developing net-new business opportunities, building trusted relationships with Air Force stakeholders (referred to internally as "Mission Heroes"), and shaping solutions using Defense Unicorns' cloud-native software delivery products. You will lead opportunities from initial discovery through proposal, negotiation, and contract award. Once contracts are awarded, you remain accountable for full lifecycle execution, including cost, schedule, performance, staffing, margin, and customer satisfaction.
Key responsibilities include:
**Build the Business:** Identify and develop net-new Air Force business, own a revenue quota, and grow a diversified portfolio.
**Shape and Close Opportunities:** Define customer problems and desired outcomes, scope solutions using Defense Unicorns products, and lead through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
**Own Contract Execution:** Serve as program leader for contracts you close, managing delivery risks, scope changes, and mission outcomes. As your portfolio grows, you will lead program managers and delivery leaders while retaining accountability.
**Build and Lead the Team:** Define and build teams required for each contract, personally leading execution and scaling to manage multiple program managers as the portfolio expands.
**Grow the Portfolio:** Maintain an active pipeline, identify follow-on work and adjacent opportunities, own customer retention and gross margin, and transition from individual contract ownership into broader portfolio leadership.
Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery for defense and civil agencies. The company specializes in secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery, working with Kubernetes, cloud environments (AWS/GCP/Azure), infrastructure-as-code, DevSecOps, and modern cloud-native technologies.
Candidates located near Air Force customer and acquisition hubs (Boston, Dayton, Denver, or the National Capital Region) are preferred but not required. Travel of 25–40% is required, including regular visits to customer locations.
**Requirements:**
- Experience within Air Force Enterprise Cloud, Nuclear & NC3, AOCs/C2, or closely related defense environments
- Strong understanding of culture, mission, stakeholders, and terminology within your domain
- Experience in military operations, government program management, acquisition, contracting, business development, or defense industry program leadership
- Working knowledge of federal acquisition, including contract vehicles, acquisition strategies, and contract negotiations
- Strong commercial judgment and comfort owning revenue-generating activities
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams and hold accountability for outcomes
- Willingness to operate across business development, contracting, staffing, and execution, personally driving critical work while building and leading teams to scale
- Comfort operating with ambiguity, identifying opportunities, and creating paths forward without predefined playbooks
- Technical fluency sufficient to understand and communicate Defense Unicorns products, cloud-native technologies, DevSecOps, Kubernetes, and modern software delivery concepts
