Mission Lead - SOF (Clearance Required)

Vannevarlabs; Raleigh (NC); Remote; USD 150,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Remote-first culture

Unlimited PTO

Lifestyle stipends

Military pay top-up

Parental leave

Travel care reimbursement

WeWork access

Job summary

Vannevarlabs seeks a Mission Lead to own high-impact engagements with government stakeholders. You will translate mission needs into actionable plans, shape pilots, and coordinate across Product, Engineering, Security, and Operations to deliver and scale solutions for critical missions. This role requires autonomy in ambiguous environments and frequent travel on the East Coast.

U.S. Persons with current Top Secret DoD/IC clearance are required.

Qualifications

• 6+ years owning outcomes in complex customer environments (SOF or PSYOPs/IO preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functionally without consistent guidance.
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to synthesize ambiguity into clear plans and execution.
• Ability to scope and articulate a solution credibly: connect mission problems to software capabilities and measurable outcomes.
• Sufficient technical fluency to partner effectively with Product and Engineering and translate complex concepts into mission-relevant narratives.
• Strong operational skills: planning, prioritization, stakeholder management, and follow-through.

Responsibilities

• Lead mission engagements with operational, technical, and leadership stakeholders.
• Translate mission needs into clear problem statements, requirements, milestones, and outcomes.
• Shape pilots and adoption plans to scale into durable programs.
• Create crisp technical narratives mapping agent-based capabilities to mission needs.
• Run weekly customer syncs, standups, QBRs, and risk reviews.
• Coordinate with Product and Engineering to reflect mission context in scope and delivery.
• Navigate contracting, budgeting, and cross-organizational coordination.
• Coordinate onboarding, training, and customer success for sustained capability use.
• Maintain high-signal Notion documentation of stakeholders, use cases, and decisions.
• Identify adjacent use cases and partner with Account teams for expansion.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Strong communication

Technical fluency

Mission outcomes

Stakeholder management

Operational planning

Job description

Vannevar builds AI systems for the Department of War's most consequential missions. We have 125 deployments across every branch and combatant command spanning our core platform and five distinct products. An an example of how we work, when major combat operations started with Iran, we fielded a new product supporting 24/7 operations and 9,000+ users in three months.

How we build is our advantage: we deploy forward with the people who own the mission. Our engineers, product team, and CTO deploy forward to the point of friction, including visiting units in Ukraine. We focus on embedding directly with operational units supporting great power competition with China, combat operations with Iran, and counter-narcotics missions.

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.

This role blends mission credibility with strong execution and technical intuition. You will operate with high autonomy in ambiguous environments, translate mission needs into clear technical narratives, and coordinate across functional teams (Product, Engineering, Mission, Security, and Operations) to deliver and scale.

This is a customer-facing role required to be based on the East Coast (preferably Washington D.C.). Candidates should have experience in the SOF community or PSYOPs/IO community, and work will require time in secure or classified environments and frequent travel.

U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required.This is a customer-facing role required to be based on the East Coast. Work will require time in secure or classified environments and periodic travel.

What you'll do

• Lead mission engagements. Build trusted relationships with operational, technical, and leadership stakeholders to understand mission needs, constraints, and success criteria.
• Translate mission problems into plans. Turn mission needs into clear problem statements, requirements, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
• Shape pilots and pathways to scale. Define objectives, timelines, and adoption plans that convert early wins into sustained programs.
• Communicate the “why” and the “how.” Create crisp technical narratives that map our agent-based capabilities to mission requirements and operational constraints.
• Run the operating cadence. Lead weekly customer syncs, internal standups, executive updates/QBRs, action-item tracking, and risk reviews, as applicable.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery. Partner closely with Product and Engineering to ensure mission context is reflected in scope, tradeoffs, and delivery plans.
• Navigate program realities. Help stakeholders work through requirements development, budgeting cycles, contracting pathways, and coordination across organizations.
• Enable adoption. Coordinate onboarding, training, and customer success so the customer can use and sustain the capability.
• Maintain durable account knowledge. Keep high-signal documentation in Notion: stakeholders, org charts, use cases, timelines, deliverables, decisions, and lessons learned.
• Support expansion. Identify adjacent use cases and partner with Account teams where applicable.

What we're looking for

• 6+ years owning outcomes in complex customer environments (preferably in the SOF or PSYOPs/IO community)
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functionally without consistent guidance
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to synthesize ambiguity into clear plans and execution
• Ability to scope and articulate a solution credibly: connect mission problems to software capabilities and measurable outcomes
• Sufficient technical fluency to partner effectively with Product and Engineering and translate complex concepts into mission-relevant narratives
• Strong operational skills: planning, prioritization, stakeholder management, and follow-through

Nice to have

• Experience with deployments or fielding in secure/regulated environments (e.g., ATO/IL environments, classified workflows, compliance constraints)
• Experience navigating within programs (requirements, budgets, authorities, timelines, contracting pathways)
• Deep expertise in a specific mission or technical domain (e.g., cyber, information warfare, ISR, networks, operations, warfare systems/command and control)
• Experience running executive-level customer updates (QBRs, steering committees)

Benefits

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.

• 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

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!