Forward-Deployed Mission Strategist in San Diego

Vannevar Labs; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision

WeWork access

Unlimited PTO

401(k) match

Wellbeing stipends

Military reserve pay top-up

Parental leave

Travel reimbursements

Job summary

Vannevar Labs in San Diego is hiring a forward-deployed Mission Strategist to embed with Navy users. You will identify mission problems, break into hypotheses, and build configurations and prototypes on a classified platform.

This is an in-person role on government networks. You will run discovery, plan sprints with engineers, demo to leadership, and iterate until operations prove the value.

Qualifications

• An active Secret clearance at minimum. TS/SCI preferred.
• Based in San Diego or willing to relocate. This role is in person.
• Experience using technology to solve hard operational problems, either from building products or fielding new technology in the military.
• A track record of creatively scoping ambiguous problems and generating strong hypotheses when the path isn't clear.
• Comfort with hands-on technical work. You will rewrite a prompt ten times, dig into why a configuration isn't behaving, and keep going until it works.
• Curiosity about agentic AI and how to apply it to real workflows.
• High ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes and operate independently.
• Clear writing. You can turn a messy week on site into a short update that engineers and leadership can act on.
• Professional presence with operators and senior leaders alike

Responsibilities

• Embed with users on watch floors, at schoolhouses, and during fleet exercises.
• Turn ambiguous problems into hypotheses you can test in days.
• Configure and prove workflows. Write and tune prompts, agent workflows, databases, and dashboards.
• Test and troubleshoot releases on classified networks and provide reproducible feedback.
• Run funded prototypes from discovery through final demo with planning and status reporting.
• Build demos quickly to show new user groups what's possible.
• Partner with Mission Leads and business development on scoping and follow-on work

Skills

Security clearance

San Diego based

Operational problem solving

Hypothesis-driven

Hands-on technical work

Agentic AI curiosity

Ownership

Clear writing

Professional presence

Tools

LLM-based tools

Scripting basics

Job description

Vannevar Labs in San Diego is hiring a forward-deployed Mission Strategist to embed with Navy users. You will identify mission problems, break into hypotheses, and build configurations and prototypes on a classified platform.

This is an in-person role on government networks. You will run discovery, plan sprints with engineers, demo to leadership, and iterate until operations prove the value.