SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 150,000 - 170,000 / annual
Vannevar Labs builds AI systems for the Department of Defense's most consequential missions, with 125 deployments across every branch and combatant command. The company deploys forward with operational units, including engineers and product teams embedded in the field to address real mission friction.
As a Mission Lead, you will own customer-facing mission outcomes and lead engagements with government stakeholders to identify high-value problems, shape pilots and deployments, and convert demonstrated mission value into durable, funded programs. This role blends mission credibility with strong execution and technical intuition, requiring you to operate with high autonomy in ambiguous environments.
Key responsibilities include:
- Building trusted relationships with operational, technical, and leadership stakeholders to understand mission needs, constraints, and success criteria
- Translating mission problems into clear problem statements, requirements, milestones, and measurable outcomes
- Defining pilot objectives, timelines, and adoption plans that convert early wins into sustained programs
- Creating technical narratives that map agent-based capabilities to mission requirements and operational constraints
- Leading weekly customer syncs, internal standups, executive updates/QBRs, action-item tracking, and risk reviews
- Partnering closely with Product and Engineering to ensure mission context is reflected in scope, tradeoffs, and delivery plans
- Helping stakeholders navigate requirements development, budgeting cycles, contracting pathways, and cross-organizational coordination
- Coordinating onboarding, training, and customer success to enable adoption and sustained capability use
- Maintaining durable account knowledge in documentation systems (stakeholders, org charts, use cases, timelines, deliverables, decisions, lessons learned)
- Identifying adjacent use cases and supporting account expansion
This is a customer-facing role based on the East Coast (preferably Washington, D.C.), requiring time in secure or classified environments and frequent travel. U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 6+ years owning outcomes in complex customer environments, preferably in the SOF or PSYOPs/IO community
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functionally without consistent guidance
- Strong written and verbal communication; able to synthesize ambiguity into clear plans and execution
- Ability to scope and articulate solutions credibly: connecting mission problems to software capabilities and measurable outcomes
- Sufficient technical fluency to partner effectively with Product and Engineering and translate complex concepts into mission-relevant narratives
- Strong operational skills: planning, prioritization, stakeholder management, and follow-through
- U.S. Persons status with current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance
NICE TO HAVE:
- Experience with deployments or fielding in secure/regulated environments (ATO/IL environments, classified workflows, compliance constraints)
- Experience navigating within programs (requirements, budgets, authorities, timelines, contracting pathways)
- Deep expertise in a specific mission or technical domain (cyber, information warfare, ISR, networks, operations, warfare systems/command and control)
- Experience running executive-level customer updates (QBRs, steering committees)
