Mission Director Defense Unicorns – IC BD & PM Role

Defense Unicorns; United States; A distancia; USD 145.000 - 185.000; Jornada completa

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

Health insurance

Stock options

Home office budget

Descripción de la vacante

Defense Unicorns seeks a Mission Director for the Intelligence Community, blending business development, program management, and portfolio leadership. You will own end-to-end opportunities, shape solutions with our products, and drive contracts from discovery through award, while later guiding program delivery as the portfolio grows.

You’ll operate with ambiguity, travel 25–40%, and grow from individual contributor to a portfolio leader, with equity options and a strong benefits package.

Formación

• Experience within the Intelligence Community or related defense environment.
• Strong understanding of culture, mission, stakeholders, and terminology in the domain.
• Experience in military operations, federal acquisition, government program mgmt, contracting, BD, or defense leadership.
• Working knowledge of federal acquisition, contract vehicles, acquisition strategies, and contract negotiations.
• Commercial judgment and comfort owning revenue-generating activities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and hold accountability for outcomes.
• Willingness to operate across BD, contracting, staffing, and execution, driving critical work.
• Technical fluency to understand Defense Unicorns products, cloud-native tech, Kubernetes, and delivery concepts.

Responsabilidades

• Build the business by identifying IC opportunities and developing trusted relationships with Mission Heroes and stakeholders.
• Own a quota and grow a diversified portfolio of business.
• Define customer problems and shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products and acquisition approaches.
• Lead opportunities through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
• Serve as program lead for new contracts and manage execution until scaling warrants more PM support.
• Build and lead the team required to execute each contract and scale the portfolio.

Conocimientos

IC experience

Domain knowledge

Government program mgmt

Federal acquisition

Business acumen

Leadership

Cross-functional

Ambiguity tolerance

Cloud/Kubernetes

Herramientas

Kubernetes

GitOps

CI/CD

Descripción del empleo

Mission Director Defense Unicorns – IC BD & PM Role — Remote

This is a high-ceiling, high-accountability role that blends business development, program management, and portfolio leadership — a rare combination in the defense tech space that commands premium compensation.

Compensation vs. market: The OTE range of $290,000–$370,000 is well above market for a traditional government BD or program manager role (typically $120,000–$180,000). It reflects the dual expectation of closing deals and owning execution. If you can hit quota consistently, this is elite-tier defense industry pay.

• Full-lifecycle federal business development — a skill set that transfers directly to VP/Chief Growth Officer tracks
• IC-specific relationship management and acquisition strategy
• Cloud-native and DevSecOps fluency (Kubernetes, GitOps, CI/CD) — in extremely high demand across defense and commercial sectors
• P&L ownership at the portfolio level — a direct path to GM or executive leadership

Green flags: Flexible time off, 100% company-paid health premiums, stock options at a growth-stage defense startup, and a home office budget all signal a modern, employee-friendly culture. The role is designed to scale with you — moving from individual contributor to portfolio leader.

Red flags to consider: Quota-carrying roles in federal BD can have long sales cycles (12–24 months), meaning variable pay may be unpredictable early on. Ambiguity is explicitly mentioned — this is a "build it yourself" environment, not a structured enterprise with established playbooks. Best suited for self-starters with existing IC networks.

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 Intelligence Community.

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.

1. Build the Business

• Identify and develop net-new Intelligence Community opportunities and build trusted relationships with Mission Heroes and key stakeholders.
• Own a quota and grow a diversified portfolio of business.

2. Shape and Close Opportunities

• Define 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.

3. Own Contract Execution

• Serve 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.

4. Build and Lead the Team

• Define 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.

5. Grow the Portfolio

• Maintain 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 Intelligence Community, 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 Intelligence Community 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

• Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
• Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
• GitOps
• Containers
• CNCF projects and open source products and packages
• Building and improving security delivery
• Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Company Stock Options
• Home Office Budget

Leave:

• Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year's

Learning:

• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (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.

Is the Mission Director role fully remote? The role is home-based with no fixed office requirement, but candidates near major Intelligence Community hubs are preferred and 25–40% travel is required for customer engagement. What is the total compensation for this role? The base salary is $145,000–$185,000, with total on-target earnings (OTE) of $290,000–$370,000 including variable/commission components. Do I need a security clearance for this position? The job description does not explicitly state a clearance requirement, but the role focuses exclusively on the Intelligence Community, so an active or obtainable U.S. security clearance is almost certainly expected. What experience is required for the Mission Director role? Defense Unicorns prefers candidates with experience in the Intelligence Community or related defense environments, including backgrounds in military operations, federal acquisition, government program management, or defense industry business development. Does Defense Unicorns offer equity or stock options? Yes, the company offers stock options as part of the financial benefits package, alongside a 401(k) retirement plan, and home office budget.

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