Senior Technical Mission Director — AI/Cloud Delivery Leader

Defense Unicorns; Springfield (VA); Hybrid; CAD 206,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Defense Unicorns seeks a senior Technical Mission Director to embed with a government team and drive a fast-moving AI and software modernization effort. You will own day-to-day execution across government stakeholders, engineering teams, and commercial partners to move from prototype to operational capability.

The ideal candidate combines Agile leadership with deep technical fluency in software delivery, cloud, DevSecOps, AI/ML, and data platforms, and can operate in high-tempo, ambiguous

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• Local to the National Capital Region and able to support regular onsite work at a government facility in Springfield, Virginia.
• 7+ years leading Agile software, technology, or mission programs, preferably in government or mission-critical environments.
• Hands-on experience with Scrum and Agile delivery, including backlog management, sprint planning, dependency management, retrospectives, and release planning.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and coordinating multiple concurrent technical workstreams, government stakeholders, and technology vendors.
• Strong technical fluency in modern software delivery, DevSecOps, cloud, Kubernetes, CI/CD, AI/ML, and data platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day execution for a multidisciplinary government/industry team and establish the Agile operating rhythm, including Scrum ceremonies, backlog management, sprint planning, reviews, retrospectives, and release planning.
• Coordinate government stakeholders and multiple technology vendors, keeping priorities, dependencies, milestones, and technical risks visible and driving blockers to resolution.
• Lead daily cross-vendor synchronization without allowing meetings to replace execution; create clear owners, decisions, and next actions.
• Maintain an integrated delivery plan and communicate updates on mission outcomes, technical risk, resource needs, decisions, and schedule.
• Work with the Technical Solutions Architect and engineering leads to keep execution aligned with evolving architecture.
• Recognize integration, security, data, deployment, or architecture issues early and engage experts quickly.
• Coordinate transition from prototype to classified operational environments with readiness and SCIF collaboration.
• Translate mission needs into executable technical priorities and surface risks as a trusted technical partner.
• Identify follow-on mission needs and expansion opportunities with DU growth leadership.
• Capture lessons learned and repeatable delivery patterns to reduce coordination overhead and improve velocity.
• Build durable customer relationships and represent Defense Unicorns as a technical thought leader.

Skills

TS/SCI clearance

Agile delivery

Scrum/Agile ceremonies

Technical fluency: software/cloud/Dev/

Communication with gov leaders

Leadership of cross-functional teams

Tools

OpenShift

GitLab

NVIDIA AI

Enterprise data platforms

Job description

Defense Unicorns seeks a senior Technical Mission Director to embed with a government team and drive a fast-moving AI and software modernization effort. You will own day-to-day execution across government stakeholders, engineering teams, and commercial partners to move from prototype to operational capability.

The ideal candidate combines Agile leadership with deep technical fluency in software delivery, cloud, DevSecOps, AI/ML, and data platforms, and can operate in high-tempo, ambiguous