Deployment Strategist Washington, DC Apply →

Scale AI, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 250,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Scale AI, Inc. seeks a Deployment Strategist to lead end-to-end capture, deployment, and growth within the Intelligence Community, specifically for NRO and NGA.

You will own a multi-million dollar revenue quota and manage executive relationships, navigating IC acquisition vehicles and senior sponsor engagement. You will translate mission needs into buildable technical specs for Scale's engineers, orchestrate teaming with primes, and guide programs from prototype to production in classified

Qualifications

• Requires 10+ years in enterprise technology sales, business development, or program capture within the IC, with NRO/NGA as primary accounts.
• Proven success closing multi-year IC contracts exceeding $25M and having a line item in an IC budget with fingerprints.
• Speaks GEOINT and understands overhead collection, imagery exploitation, and multi-INT fusion within the IC.
• Direct experience with NGA BAAs, IC OTAs, NRO acquisition vehicles, and IC Program of Record integration.

Responsibilities

• Own full-spectrum capture and quota ownership across NRO and NGA, shaping requirements before RFPs and influencing acquisition strategy.
• Develop and execute deep account strategies with SES-level sponsors, mission-area leads, and technical evaluators.
• Navigate IC-specific acquisition vehicles and shape white papers, RFIs, and deal structures for IC oversight.
• Co-design Agentic AI workflows with analysts and mission engineers to translate operational needs into technical specs for Scale's engineering team.
• Negotiate teaming arrangements with Tier 1 primes and protect Scale's programmatic position through contract awards.
• Lead account through delivery post-contract, ensuring alignment for renewals, expansions, and future use cases.

Skills

Enterprise sales

IC/domain fluency

Executive engagement

Deal negotiation

Program capture

Relationship management

Education

BS/BA

MS/MBA preferred

Job description

Scale is building AI for the world's most consequential decisions. In the Intelligence Community, that means deploying Agentic AI into the workflows that power overhead intelligence, geospatial analysis, and imagery exploitation - the systems that give the United States and its allies an irreplaceable strategic edge.

As the Defense Deployment Strategist for NRO and NGA, you are Scale's point of presence at the intersection of AI and national intelligence. You will lead the end-to-end effort to land, deploy, and scale Agentic AI capabilities inside two of the most technically sophisticated and mission-critical agencies in the U.S. government. This is not a sales role. This is a full-spectrum capture, deployment, and growth role - and you are the one running it.

Deployment Strategist

NRO and NGA represent the frontier of AI adoption within the IC. NGA's GEOINT Pathfinder, Foundation GEOINT Services, and data modernization programs are actively seeking agentic AI capabilities that can automate imagery exploitation, fuse multi-source intelligence, and accelerate analyst workflows. NRO's Ground Enterprise and Systems Acquisition Directorate are investing in AI-enabled data pipelines and autonomous processing at scale. Your job is to ensure Scale is embedded in both.

Winning here means navigating IC acquisition authorities - not just standard DoD contracting. You understand the difference between an NGA BAA, an IC OTA, and a Program of Record. You know that the path from prototype to production inside the IC requires executive sponsorship at the SES/Flag level, and you know how to earn it.

Responsibilities:

This is an individual contributor role with heavy leadership expectations. You are the "CEO of the Account," responsible for the following:

• Full-Spectrum Capture & Quota Ownership Carry and exceed a multi-million dollar annual revenue quota across NRO and NGA. You own the entire lifecycle: shaping requirements before the RFP drops, influencing the acquisition strategy, navigating source selection, and closing. You are not waiting for inbound leads - you are building the funnel.
• Mission Partner Engagement Develop and execute deep account strategies for NRO and NGA. You will maintain active, trusted relationships with SES-level sponsors, PEOs, mission area leads, and technical evaluators. You understand their modernization roadmaps - GEOINT Pathfinder, the Ground Enterprise, IC IT Enterprise - and you position Scale at the center of their most ambitious programs.
• IC Acquisition Navigation You know how to leverage IC-specific acquisition vehicles: NGA's research BAAs, NRO's OTAs, and classified program vehicles. You can shape a white paper, respond to an RFI, and architect a deal structure that survives IC oversight. You have navigated the Valley of Death before and helped a program cross it.
• Agentic Solutioning for GEOINT & Overhead Intelligence Work directly with analysts, mission engineers, and imagery exploitation teams to co-design Agentic AI workflows. Whether the mission need is automating change detection, accelerating multi-INT fusion, or deploying foundation models against geospatial data pipelines - you can translate the operational requirement into a buildable technical specification for Scale's engineering team.
• SI & Prime Orchestration The IC does not buy software directly from startups at scale. You will manage and negotiate teaming agreements with Tier 1 primes - Leidos, Booz Allen, Northrop Grumman, Maxar, L3Harris - ensuring Scale is the agentic AI engine inside their winning proposals. You are the lead negotiator for sub-contracting arrangements and you protect Scale's programmatic position through contract award.
• Operational Transition & Scale When the contract is signed, your job deepens. You lead the account through delivery, ensuring Engagement Managers, Technical PMs, and Engineers have the customer context and executive backing to succeed. You own renewal, expansion, and the next use case - turning a single GEOINT workflow into a department-wide enterprise standard.

Requirements:

• Experience: 10+ years in enterprise technology sales, business development, or program capture specifically within the IC - with NRO and/or NGA as primary accounts.
• Proven Wins: You have successfully closed and implemented multi-year IC contracts exceeding $25M. You have a line item in an IC budget with your fingerprints on it.
• Domain Fluency: You speak GEOINT. You understand overhead collection, imagery exploitation, Foundation GEOINT Services, ISR data pipelines, and the multi-INT fusion challenges that NRO and NGA mission partners face daily. You don't need a glossary.
• IC Acquisition Expertise: You have direct experience with NGA BAAs, IC OTAs, NRO acquisition vehicles, and the political dynamics of IC Program of Record integration. You understand how the DNI and IC CIO equities affect technology decisions.
• IC Network: You have existing, active relationships at NRO and NGA - not just name recognition. SES-level sponsors, PEO staff, and mission-area technical leads who will take your call.
• Clearance: Active TS/SI; Full Scope Polygraph strongly preferred
• Education: BS/BA required; technical degree, Master's, or MBA preferred.
• Geography: Based in the National Capital Region (Springfield/Bethesda corridor preferred), with the ability to operate in classified environments. 20-30% travel.

Who you are:

• IC Native: You have lived in this world. You know the difference between NGA's GEOINT Services directorate and its Analysis directorate. You know what the Ground Enterprise means to the NRO's customers. You don't learn this customer set - you bring it.
• The Closer-Operator: You can brief a Senior National Intelligence Officer in the morning and spend the afternoon in a SCIF working a proposal. Executive presence and tactical execution are the same skill to you.
• Valley of Death Veteran: You have personally transitioned a technology from cool demo to deployed IC capability. You know who to call, which budget line to pursue, and how to keep a program alive through a continuing resolution.
• Technically Credible: You are not a software engineer, but you can credibly