Vice President, Applied Technologies

Orbis Operations; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 260,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Orbis Operations is seeking a Vice President, Applied Technologies to own the service line end‑to‑end, directing technical strategy, delivery performance, staffing, and financial health. The role combines hands‑on architecture with leadership, translating complex mission problems into executable approaches that blend Orbis products, commercial tech, and purpose‑built solutions.

Frequent travel up to 30% CONUS & OCONUS, and collaboration with government customers and partners are required.

Qualifications

• Twelve or more years delivering technology solutions in national security, defense, or intelligence.
• Five+ years leading engineering or delivery organizations.
• Ownership of a service line or program P&L including staffing, pricing, and utilization decisions.
• Technical depth to challenge architecture, assess estimates, and earn engineers' trust.
• Proven track record standing up new initiatives rather than only running existing units.
• Ability to define scope from ambiguous customer requirements without a formal spec.
• Experience integrating third‑party and open‑source technology with internal capabilities.
• Proven senior technical presence with government customers and partners.
• Experience hiring, developing, and retaining talent in a cleared market.
• Strong written communication; documentation, memos, and reports for executives.

Responsibilities

• Own the service line: define the offering, delivery model, standards, P&L, utilization, and staffing.
• Architect the solution with hands‑on design and delivery alongside the team.
• Deliver programs on schedule, with quality, security, and contractual obligations, surfacing risk early.
• Incubate new efforts from concept to first delivery and advise on bespoke vs product transitions.
• Build and lead the team: hire, develop, and retain engineers and technical leads.
• Own the customer relationship on technical ground, shaping requirements with government customers and partners.
• Integrate across Orbis: work with Product & Engineering to leverage Catalyst, Pulse, Discovery, and platform AI.
• Keep the economics honest: cost, pricing, and sustainable approaches.
• Institutionalize best practices: document architectures and operating procedures for reuse.
• Report with substance: provide delivery status, financial performance, staffing health, and risks.

Skills

Leadership

Staffing management

Written communication

Strategic thinking

Project management

Technical depth

Customer engagement

Cross‑functional collaboration

Sales/support (capture)

Public sector/cleared environment

Job description

Company Overview

Orbis Operations is a technology company that delivers sovereign intelligence and decision capabilities to the United States Government and its allies. We convert complex information and operational systems into decisive outcomes, giving public institutions and critical enterprises the tools to move faster, see clearer, and act first in an increasingly contested world.

Job Summary

The Applied Technology Service Line delivers tailored technology solutions to address complex, customer-specific challenges by combining Orbis capabilities, third-party technologies, and purpose-built solutions based on the unique requirements of the mission. The Vice President, Applied Technologies owns that service line end to end: its technical direction, its delivery performance, its staffing, and its financial health.

Travel: Frequent (up to 30%) CONUS & OCONUS

Key Responsibilities

The Vice President, Applied Technologies owns the following:

• Own the service line. Define the offering, the delivery model, and the standards the line is held to. Own the P&L, utilization, and staffing plan, including engineers charging directly to programs within the line.
• Architect the solution, not just the schedule. Stay hands‑on in design and delivery, working directly in the technical detail alongside the team rather than managing from a distance. Lead the translation of ambiguous mission problems into executable technical approaches that combine Orbis products, commercial and open‑source technology, and purpose‑built development where nothing suitable exists. Hold a defensible position on build, buy, and integrate.
• Deliver. Hold programs in the line to schedule, quality, security, and contractual obligations, including work performed in accredited and customer‑controlled environments. Surface risk early and with a recommendation attached.
• Incubate new efforts. Take concepts with no scope of work and carry them through definition, staffing, and first delivery. Recommend clearly when an effort should remain a bespoke engagement, graduate into a product, or be declined.
• Build and lead the team. Hire, develop, and retain engineers and technical leads assigned to the line. Establish the right role construct for each effort rather than defaulting to one shape, and grow people into work that is harder than what they arrived doing.
• Own the customer relationship on technical ground. Serve as the senior technical voice with customers and partners, shaping requirements, informing pursuits, and converting delivered trust into follow‑on work.
• Integrate across Orbis. Work with Product & Engineering so the line exploits Catalyst, Pulse, Discovery, and platform AI rather than rebuilding them, and feed real mission requirements back into the product roadmap. Coordinate with the forward‑deployed engineering model where engineers remain matrixed to programs for product delivery.
• Keep the economics honest. Track what solutions cost to build and to operate, price and staff realistically, and retire approaches that cannot be sustained at scale.
• Institutionalize what works. Ensure architectures, decisions, and operating procedures are documented well enough for another team to run them. Nothing critical lives only in one person's head.
• Report with substance. Deliver the recurring picture leadership depends on: delivery status, financial performance, staffing health, technical risk, and growth opportunity, with the judgment behind the numbers.

Required Qualifications

Orbis weighs what a candidate has built over tenure or credentials. The following are true minimum requirements for this role:

• Twelve or more years delivering technology solutions in national security, defense, or intelligence, including five or more years leading engineering or delivery organizations
• Demonstrated ownership of a service line, portfolio, or program P&L, including staffing, pricing, and utilization decisions
• Technical depth in software or systems engineering sufficient to challenge an architecture, assess an estimate, and earn the trust of the engineers being led
• Proven record of standing something up rather than only running an established organization, with the ability to walk through what was built, what failed, and what was changed
• Demonstrated ability to define scope and deliver against an ambiguous or incomplete problem statement from a customer who cannot hand over a specification
• Experience integrating third‑party and open‑source technology alongside internally developed capability, and defending the trade‑offs
• Proven ability to serve as the senior technical presence with government customers and partners, including shaping requirements and supporting capture
• Experience hiring, developing, and retaining technical talent in a competitive cleared market
• Strong written communication. This role produces the documentation, decision memos, and reports that executives and customers rely on
• Active TS/SCI and eligibility for CI polygraph
• Authorization to work in the United States

Desired Qualifications

Strong candidates will bring depth in one or more of the following. Do not screen yourself out for lacking items on this list.

• Mission environment: operational or field experience supporting intelligence, special operations, or defense missions; familiarity with DIGINT, OSINT, or targeting workflows
• Data and platform depth: data movement and transformation across network and domain boundaries, data governance, federated access control, or zero‑trust architectures
• Modern engineering practice: cloud and hybrid deployment, containerized delivery, CI/CD, and delivery into disconnected or edge environments
• AI and automation: delivering AI‑enabled capability into production, including where the output has to be trusted by an operator
• Compliance and accreditation: delivering within CMMC, FedRAMP, ATO, or equivalent accreditation regimes
• Business growth: contributing to or leading capture, proposal, and pricing work for services and solution engagements
• International delivery: standing up or supporting technical work with allied partners, including in Indo‑Pacific or UK environments

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Participation in virtual and in‑person meetings
• Ability to attend planned meetings and/or work in classified spaces for extended periods within the specified work regions
• Domestic and international travel to customer, program, and office locations

Orbis Benefits

Beyond the opportunity to work alongside practitioners who have operated at the mission edge, joining Orbis means real ownership over outcomes that matter - the chance to build technology that gives the United States Government and its allies a genuine decision advantage, not just another dashboard. From competitive retirement matching to a PTO policy that encourages real time off, we're committed to creating an environment where our team can do their best work and still have a life outside of it.

Our comprehensive benefits package is designed to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. A full list of benefits is shared with candidates following an initial conversation with our HR team, so you'll have a clear picture of the support and resources available to you as part of the Orbis team.

Orbis Locations

Orbis works in whatever arrangement the mission requires. Depending on the role, that might mean five days a week on a customer site, full‑time in one of our offices, a hybrid schedule, or fully remote work - our team is spread across 25 states and four countries to match. We make sure every team member has the tools and access needed to do the work, wherever that work happens.

Travel is common across many Orbis roles, particularly those supporting customer missions in the field.

Orbis is headquartered in McLean, VA, with additional office locations in Taipei, Taiwan, and Canberra, Australia.

Orbis Operations is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We are committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination and harassment, and we make employment decisions based on merit,

qualifications, and business need. Orbis does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Orbis complies with all applicable equal opportunity and non‑discrimination laws in every jurisdiction in which we operate. Reasonable accommodation is available to applicants and employees with disabilities upon request.