Head of National Security

Aslan; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Aslan seeks a Head of National Security to own the government relationship end to end, operating at the altitude of doctrine, budget, and execution. You will set enterprise strategy, socialise Aslan with senior decision‑makers, and coordinate with capture and resourcing to move campaigns faster than working‑level efforts alone.

Hybrid role with a mandate to land executive support, align priorities across agencies, and establish Aslan as a recognized priority among senior operators.

Qualifications

• Former DoD senior official or flag officer with cross‑domain experience.
• 2-3 lines showing leadership at the executive level.
• Senior DHS executive experience focusing on counter‑threat, cyber, or operational tech.
• Experience dealing with high‑level policy, resource and priority setting.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy for Aslan’s position across mission communities.
• Build and run executive socialization targeting senior agency decision‑makers.
• Shape how requirements are validated and ranked for enterprise priority.
• Provide top‑cover to capture and resourcing efforts and align them into one campaign.
• Open senior‑level doors and use standing to influence decisions.
• Advise leadership on executive decision processes and leverage points.
• Represent Aslan to agencies in coordination with capture, resourcing, and government relations.

Skills

DoD senior official

DHS executive

Executive leadership

Budget ownership

Agency relationships

Executive communication

Job description

About Aslan

Our national security apparatus was designed for an adversary that congregated and operate in the physical world. The threats disrupting our way of life today have gone faceless, borderless, and beyond the reach of any human operator. Aslan builds the autonomous agents that reach them, unmask them, and stop them, before a life can be lost, an innocence can be bankrupted, or our can be nation subverted.

In twelve months we've gone from zero to live operational tasking and pilots across multiple national-security and law enforcement customers. We've proven it works. This role makes it permanent.

We’ve raised $20M to date from Khosla Ventures, XYZ, BoxGroup, 2048, Liquid 2, Precursor Ventures, and others.

Role

We're looking for a Head of National Security to own Aslan's relationship with the government end to end. You operated at the commanding heights of a mission, an operational division, a combatant command directorate, or a policy-and-resourcing shop, where you owned doctrine, budget, people, and execution at once. You know how decisions actually get made at that altitude: which principals have to be convinced, which forum a priority has to clear, how a capability moves from a good idea nobody's heard of to a thing the enterprise decides it needs. You've sat in the chairs where those calls happen, and you carry the judgment and the standing that only comes from having done it.

Aslan needs that altitude. We have a proven capability and a working-level campaign to institutionalize it, but working-level effort alone can't set the agenda, shape how a requirement is perceived by the people who validate it, or open the doors that matter at the executive level. That's what you'll do. You'll set the strategy for how Aslan is understood across the agencies we serve, carry it directly to the senior operators who decide what rises and what waits, and provide the top-cover that lets the working-level campaign move faster and land harder than it could alone.

This is a hybrid role that leans operating. You're not a name on an advisory roster who surfaces once a quarter. You'll build and run the socialization campaign that puts Aslan on the minds and the menus of executive decision-makers, partner day-to-day with our capture and resourcing lead to sequence the enterprise campaign, and know when to spend your own standing to move something the working level can't.

If you want a ceremonial board seat, this isn't it. If you've run a mission from the top and you want to bend the machinery from above one more time, for something that matters, read on.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy for how Aslan is positioned and understood across the mission communities we serve

• Build and run the executive socialization campaign that establishes Aslan as a recognized priority among senior agency decision-makers

• Shape how the requirement is understood by the principals and forums that validate and rank it, so it's seen for what it is rather than left to advance on its own

• Provide executive top-cover to the working-level capture and resourcing effort, and sequence the two into one enterprise campaign

• Open and hold the senior-level doors that the working level cannot, and know when to spend your own standing to move a decision

• Advise leadership on how decisions are really made at the executive altitude, where the leverage points are, and how to time them

• Serve as a senior face of Aslan to the agencies, in coordination with the capture, resourcing, and government-relations efforts

Who You Are

You ran an operational division, a program, a combatant command directorate, or a policy-and-resourcing organization from the top, with ownership of doctrine, budget, personnel, and execution. One or more of the following:

• Former DoD senior official or flag officer operating within or across counter-narcotics, special operations, homeland defense, or special programs missions

• Former DHS senior executive from a component's operational or intelligence leadership, with a particular focus on counter-TCO, cyber and operational technology, and counter-threat finance

What You Bring

• A record of leading a mission, division, or directorate at the executive level, with authority over its people, budget, and execution

• Deep, current standing with the senior operators and principals who set agendas and rank priorities in the relevant mission communities

• Fluency in how requirements are validated, ranked, and resourced at the enterprise level, and instinct for where and when executive weight changes an outcome

• The judgment to operate cleanly within your post-government obligations and to know that credibility, not favors, is the asset

• Active or recent S, TS, or TS/SCI

Bonus Points

• Standing relationships spanning both the DoD and DHS sides of the counter-transnational-threat mission

• Familiarity with the executive-level resourcing and program-review bodies that govern funding and acquisition decisions

• A history of championing non-traditional capability into a legacy enterprise

• SES/flag-equivalent tenure