Mission Director - Cyber

Archer is collaborating with Defense Unicorns to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role. This position offers a base salary of $145,000 - $185,000. (Total on-target earnings of $290,000 to $370,000) Role Description The Mission Director is a quota-carrying, full-lifecycle business owner responsible for identifying, shaping, closing, and executing new business within the Cyber operations domain. You will build trusted relationships with Mission Heroes (our customers), identify meaningful problems, shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products, and lead opportunities from initial discovery through contract award. Once awarded, you will remain accountable for the contract throughout its lifecycle, including cost, schedule, performance, staffing, margin, and customer satisfaction. This role is designed for someone who wants broad ownership. As the portfolio grows in size and complexity, Mission Directors will increasingly lead through program managers and delivery leaders while retaining accountability for portfolio outcomes. Responsibilities The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise. Build the BusinessIdentify and develop net-new Cyber operations opportunities and build trusted relationships with Mission Heroes and key stakeholders.Own a quota and grow a diversified portfolio of business. Shape and Close OpportunitiesDefine customer problems, scope, and desired outcomes to shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products and the right acquisition approach.Lead opportunities through proposal, negotiation, and contract award. Own Contract ExecutionServe as the program leader for new contracts you close, with direct responsibility for execution until the portfolio reaches the scale where additional program management support is warranted.Manage delivery risks, scope changes, and mission outcomes. Build and Lead the TeamDefine and build the team required to execute each contract. Personally lead contract execution and, as the portfolio grows, lead program managers and other delivery leaders across the portfolio. Grow the PortfolioMaintain an active pipeline and continue developing new opportunities while executing existing contracts by identifying follow-on work, expansions, and adjacent opportunities.Own customer retention, portfolio growth, and gross margin.Grow from individual contract ownership into a broader portfolio leadership role. Preferred Experience And Qualifications Experience within the Cyber operations domain, or a closely related defense environment.Strong understanding of the culture, mission, stakeholders, and terminology within the domain you support.Experience in one or more of the following: 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 the teams required to scale.Comfortable operating with ambiguity, identifying opportunities, and creating a path forward without a predefined playbook.Technical fluency sufficient to understand and communicate Defense Unicorns products, cloud-native technologies, DevSecOps, Kubernetes, and modern software delivery concepts. Candidates Located Near Major Cyber Hubs Are Preferred. Ability to travel approximately 25-40%. Who We Are Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market. What We Do We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily. Who We Serve Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products. What We Work On KubernetesCloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)Continuous Delivery and automation toolingGitOpsContainersCNCF projects and open source products and packagesHelm/Kustomize-Value Stream MappingBuilding and improving security deliveryBuilding Kubernetes and cloud native applications Health Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy Medical/Dental/VisionPremiums are 100% Company PaidHealth Savings AccountLife InsuranceDisability Insurance Financial 401k Retirement PlanCompany Stock OptionsHome Office Budget Leave We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’sPaid Parental Leave Learning Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptionsConferences (travel, lodging, and fees) Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed. At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. CCPA DISCLOSURE