Mission Operations Lead, Special Projects

Distributed Spectrum; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Above-market salary

Early Series A equity

Health, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) match up to 4%

Flexible PTO

Daily office lunches in NYC

Job summary

Distributed Spectrum is looking for a Mission Operations Lead to deploy and operate AI-driven RF sensors in various environments. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience in SIGINT or electronic warfare, holds a TS/SCI clearance, and is comfortable briefing senior leaders on performance and capabilities. The position offers above-market salary, equity, and a comprehensive benefits package, including flexible PTO and daily lunches in NYC. U.S. citizenship is required.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in SIGINT, CNO, electronic warfare, or a related discipline.
• Strong foundation in RF and signals analysis.
• Experience briefing senior leaders on intelligence.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and operate AI-driven RF sensors in real-world environments.
• Lead missions and act as operational voice between field and headquarters.
• Build RF‑to‑cyber targeting workflows for structured intelligence products.

Skills

TS/SCI clearance

SIGINT

Electronic warfare

Communication skills

Team leadership

Job description

DS creates systems that power the next generation of radio spectrum intelligence. We collect radio data from all over the world, train neural networks to decipher it, and run them on the smallest chips we can. We’re solving a new, technically hard problem where nothing from other fields works out of the box, and along the way, we’ve built our own stack from scratch, including entirely new embedding model architectures, custom GPU kernels, and much more.

Joining DS means owning major parts of a fast-growing AI research organization, joining a collaborative, talent-dense team with decades of experience in probabilistic ML, accelerated computing, embedded systems, and signal theory, and growing your career in the areas that interest you. You’ll fit in if you want to come to work for the problem itself and don’t want to choose between technical rigor, business value, and real-world impact.

We work with high ownership and trust, and we do it together in the office 5 days/week.

What This Role Is

Distributed Spectrum uses edge AI to make sense of the electromagnetic environment at machine speed. We deploy small, smart sensors that detect, classify, and characterize RF activity for application across many domains.

As our Mission Operations Lead, you'll own the operational seam between what our sensors see and what operators do about it. That means deploying systems, running operations, building targeting workflows, and briefing the people who make decisions.

You won't be watching from a TOC. You'll be forward, in the field, turning spectrum data into something the operators can act on.

What You'll Do

• Deploy and operate AI-driven RF sensors in real-world environments where you’ll configure, validate, troubleshoot, and keep systems healthy across distributed networks.
• Lead missions across multiple theaters and authorities, serving as the primary operational voice between the field and headquarters.
• Build RF‑to‑cyber targeting workflows that translate signal detections, anomaly patterns, and emitter behavior into structured intelligence products for downstream effects.
• Brief senior officials on performance results, technical capabilities, and insights derived from the RF environment.
• Drive the product forward by feeding mission lessons, operator needs, and edge cases directly into our engineering team's iteration cycle.
• Train and lead teams of operators, analysts, and engineers to build playbooks that make complex systems usable by non-specialists.

Who You Are

• You hold an active TS/SCI clearance. CI Poly is strongly preferred.
• You have 8+ years in SIGINT, CNO, electronic warfare, CEMA, or a closely related operational discipline.
• You bring a strong foundation in RF and signals; survey, direction finding, waveform analysis, collection planning.
• You’ve briefed senior leaders on sensitive intelligence and can communicate across classification levels and interagency lines.
• You’ve led multi-disciplined teams of operators, analysts, targeters in both deployed and garrison settings.
• You’re willing to travel up to 50%, including to austere and forward environments.
• U.S. citizenship required.

Who Thrives at Distributed Spectrum

• Fast learners over specific backgrounds – We care more about how quickly you can pick up new skills than where you’ve worked before.
• Intellectual honesty – The right answer matters more than being right. You challenge assumptions, test ideas, and pivot when needed.
• Adaptability – We’re organized, but sometimes things change quickly. You find a way to make it work and balance short-term deliverables with long-term goals.
• Ownership of outcomes – You optimize your own time, focus on what matters to deliver quickly, and cut out inefficiencies.
• Not building in a vacuum – You stay connected to the rest of our teams and our customers to make sure all the pieces fit together.

What We Offer

• Above‑market salary, equity, and benefits package.
• Early Series A Equity
• Excellent health, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) match – up to 4% of your salary
• Flexible PTO
• Daily office lunches in NYC

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.