As the Mission Director for a DoW platform modernization program, you will lead a Defense Unicorns delivery team supporting our Mission Hero through a DoW prime contractor partner. You will serve as the primary point of contact with the prime's program management, own delivery execution and financial performance on a multi-year contract, and partner with Defense Unicorns Tech Leads across the company to ensure the team delivers mission value across platform engineering, DevSecOps, cloud, and SRE disciplines.
First-Year OutcomesSuccess in the first year will be measured by three primary outcomes:
- A smooth transition from the incumbent contractor with minimal disruption to ongoing delivery
- A successful architecture review with our Mission Hero, introducing UDS as a new technology in the program's core tech stack
- A foundational operational environment established to support ongoing mission delivery
Prime Contractor and Mission Hero Relationship
- Serve as the primary point of contact with the prime contractor's program management
- Partner with the prime to align Defense Unicorns' scope, deliverables, and team performance with program priorities
- Build a productive working relationship with our Mission Hero in coordination with the prime
Delivery Management
- Own delivery execution across the team, ensuring commitments are met on time and to quality
- Partner with Defense Unicorns Tech Leads to align program work with broader technical direction
- Translate Mission Hero and prime requirements into actionable work, and team progress into clear stakeholder communication
- Surface delivery feedback to Defense Unicorns' Product segment to inform UDS and other product roadmaps
Team Leadership
- Lead a cross-functional team spanning platform engineering, DevSecOps, cloud, SRE, configuration management, and Zero Trust
- Foster an environment for Unicorn growth, mentorship, and coaching
- Champion Defense Unicorns' values and principles
- Balance priorities from the Mission Hero, prime, leadership, and team to deliver mission value
Contract and Financial Accountability
- Own burn rate management and monthly forecasting against the contract ceiling
- Lead staffing plans, backfills, and ramp planning across option years in coordination with the contracts team
- Partner with the contracts team on modifications, option year exercises, and contract compliance
Required Qualifications:
- Active Secret clearance
- Experience leading large (20+) cross-functional engineering or delivery teams
- Experience delivering software or platform programs in a DoW or federal environment
- Experience managing prime-sub or multi-party contractor relationships
- Financial accountability experience on federal contracts, including burn rate and staffing plan ownership
- Experience transitioning programs from an incumbent contractor
- Familiarity with DoW impact levels (IL2 and above) and authorization processes
- Background in DevSecOps, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure delivery
- Familiarity with federal contracts, procurement vehicles, and the budget process
- Experience with modern software development practices including DevSecOps, Continuous Delivery, and Agile frameworks
- Technical depth sufficient to understand architectural decisions and translate them for stakeholders, users, and the team
Travel
Travel is expected 4-12 times per year, primarily to the National Capital Region.
The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.
Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States.
Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.
What We DoWe create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.
Who We ServeDefense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.
What We Work On- Kubernetes
- Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
- Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
- Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
- GitOps
- Containers
- CNCF projects and open source products and packages
- Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
- Building and improving security delivery
- Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Reimbursement Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
- We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid Parental Leave
- Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
- Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)
Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed.
At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
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