Vannevar

Mission Lead - San Diego (Clearance

San Diego, California · Full-time

No sponsorship$150k-$170kDetected 14 days ago

Agentic AIA/B TestingBudgetingSystems Engineering

About the role

This role blends mission credibility with strong execution and technical intuition.
Work will require time in secure or classified environments and periodic travel.

Build and maintain trusted relationships with stakeholders across Navy program offices, PAEs, SYSCOMs, warfare centers, and operational commands.
Identify and develop new mission opportunities by understanding capability gaps, operational requirements, and acquisition priorities across the Navy enterprise.
Lead customer-facing engagements, including mission discovery, capability demonstrations, operational assessments, and strategic account planning.
Serve as the primary customer-facing owner for Navy mission and program engagements, helping drive successful pilot execution, operational adoption, and long-term program transition.
Partner closely with government program managers, engineers, operators, and acquisition professionals to support capability development and transition strategies.
Support operational demonstrations, exercises, prototypes, and field deployments in partnership with Navy stakeholders.
Collaborate closely with internal product, engineering, and mission teams to ensure customer feedback informs product development and roadmap priorities.

5+ years of experience supporting the Department of the Navy, defense acquisition, government technology, or national security programs.
Experience working within or alongside Navy program offices, PEOs, SYSCOMs, warfare centers, or operational commands.
Experience with defense acquisition, capability development, requirements generation, program management, systems engineering, or technical program execution.
Familiarity with Navy budgeting, acquisition, experimentation, and transition pathways, including organizations such as PEOs, NAVWAR, NAVAIR, NAVSEA, NIWC, or related commands.
Strong technical intuition and the ability to engage credibly with engineers, operators, acquisition professionals, and senior government leaders.
Experience leading customer engagements involving complex technical systems, software platforms, or operational capabilities.
Ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments and translate strategic objectives into executable plans.
U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret clearance in required.
This is a customer-facing role required to be based in San Diego.

A track record of transitioning new technologies from experimentation, prototyping, or operational evaluation into funded programs of record.
Technical fluency combined with strong mission instincts, including experience evaluating, deploying, or advocating for software-enabled capabilities in operational environments.
You can work from anywhere in the US and all full time employees have WeWork access
We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit.
Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain.
Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data.
Please be vigilant of potential scams.
Lifestyle stipends

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries.
In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower.
Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China-from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion.
Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers.
Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.
Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people.
Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft.
We're building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth.
In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status-proving that disruption doesn't require an ego, and staying power doesn't mean standing still.
Help customers navigate Navy acquisition, budgeting, requirements, experimentation, and transition-to-program pathways.
What we're looking for

This listing is sourced directly from Vannevar's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.