Mission Lead - San Diego (Clearance Required)

About the role

Mission Leads are customer-facing owners of mission outcomes. You will lead engagements with government stakeholders to identify high-value mission problems, shape pilots and deployments, and turn demonstrated mission value into durable, funded programs.

What you'll do

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with stakeholders across Navy program offices, PAEs, SYSCOMs, warfare centers, and operational commands.
• Identify and develop new mission opportunities by understanding capability gaps, operational requirements, and acquisition priorities across the Navy enterprise.
• Lead customer-facing engagements, including mission discovery, capability demonstrations, operational assessments, and strategic account planning.
• Serve as the primary customer-facing owner for Navy mission and program engagements, helping drive successful pilot execution, operational adoption, and long-term program transition.
• Translate operational challenges and technical requirements into actionable solutions leveraging Vannevar's software capabilities.
• Partner closely with government program managers, engineers, operators, and acquisition professionals to support capability development and transition strategies.
• Help customers navigate Navy acquisition, budgeting, requirements, experimentation, and transition-to-program pathways.
• Support operational demonstrations, exercises, prototypes, and field deployments in partnership with Navy stakeholders.
• Collaborate closely with internal product, engineering, and mission teams to ensure customer feedback informs product development and roadmap priorities.
• Represent Vannevar at Navy industry events, technical exchanges, exercises, conferences, and customer engagements.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of experience supporting the Department of the Navy, defense acquisition, government technology, or national security programs.
• Experience working within or alongside Navy program offices, PEOs, SYSCOMs, warfare centers, or operational commands.
• Experience with defense acquisition, capability development, requirements generation, program management, systems engineering, or technical program execution.
• Familiarity with Navy budgeting, acquisition, experimentation, and transition pathways, including organizations such as PEOs, NAVWAR, NAVAIR, NAVSEA, NIWC, or related commands.
• Strong technical intuition and the ability to engage credibly with engineers, operators, acquisition professionals, and senior government leaders.
• Experience leading customer engagements involving complex technical systems, software platforms, or operational capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust, influence stakeholders, and drive outcomes across large government organizations.
• Able to operate independently in ambiguous environments and translate strategic objectives into executable plans.
• Willingness to travel frequently in support of customer engagements and operational activities.

Nice to have

• A track record of transitioning new technologies from experimentation, prototyping, or operational evaluation into funded programs of record.
• Experience serving as a translator between operators, acquisition professionals, engineers, and senior leaders to drive complex programs forward.
• Technical fluency combined with strong mission instincts, including experience evaluating, deploying, or advocating for software-enabled capabilities in operational environments.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $150,000-$170,000 + equity + 401K match. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 100% remote first culture. You can work from anywhere in the US and all full time employees have WeWork access
• Unlimited PTO including competitive vacation and holiday schedules
• Lifestyle stipends - Monthly mental health, wellness & fitness stipend, in-home office setup stipend and family planning assistance
• Salary top-up during military reserve duty
• Fully paid parental leave
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel