Mission Director - U.S. Military Service

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with omniscient systems purpose-built for today’s realities. Designed and built by top U.S. military veterans and Silicon Valley innovators, CHAOS Industries’ products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. In a world where technological threats move at unprecedented speed, CHAOS Industries delivers advanced sensing and detection solutions that give the ultimate advantage: time.   

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised $1B in total funding from leading investors including 8VC, Accel, and NEA. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com. 

Role Overview: 

This role will lead CHAOS mission engagement within a specific U.S. military service (Army, USMC, USAF, or Navy) focused on bridging between operators, buyers, and deciders. It will align CHAOS’ technical capabilities to service and Joint Force requirements and help shape the direction of CHAOS technical development. This role will get close to operators and to the acquisition system. You will help shape and prioritize critical customer engagements, working closely with Growth and Mission Execution to engage with stakeholders across the service. You will be the face of CHAOS engagement with customers during exercises and demonstrations, working closely with the mission execution team to ensure success and maximize customer exposure during field events. The ideal candidate demonstrates exceptional knowledge of service operating forces and acquisition and development structure, an aptitude for customer engagement from junior soldiers to general officers and an eagerness to apply them to the tactical deployment of CHAOS systems. You are equally comfortable engaging senior civilian and military leadership and running with soldiers in the field. Be hungry – hunt for problems and be the first to find solutions. This role requires experience-based credibility and strong initiative: be where the customer is to build trust, learn, drive, and deliver prioritized outcomes and maximize their exposure. 

Responsibilities: 

• Understand and translate the customer needs. Each service within the Department of War is a demanding customer with wide-ranging requirements, broad doctrinal responsibilities, and an evolving development and acquisition system. This role requires a deep understanding of the specific service, operating concepts, and the acquisition and developments systems. You must possess the initiative to find opportunities, the reputation and experience to build customer trust, and the confidence, communication, and technical skills to translate needs back to CHAOS mission execution, growth, and engineering teams. You will be the service’s ambassador to the rest of CHAOS, and CHAOS’ representative to the service. 
• Prioritize, execute and maximize exposure. This role is focused on prioritizing and executing for a specific military service. You will work closely with Growth and Mission Execution to ensure positive outcomes with service engagements. 
• Know our product – know the mission. This role will lead on CHAOS’ front line. Success requires a thorough understanding of our technology, capabilities, and resources squared with the mission and user requirements. Success in this role will make CHAOS the customer’s most trusted tactical partner. 
• Get out of the office. Be where the customer needs us; from the PAE centers and the Pentagon, to INDOPACOM, EUCOM, and across the United States, get out in the field. Learn and build trust through engagements at all levels – tactical to strategic.  

Minimum Requirements: 

• Problem solving mentality. Fight for information, build a team, be creative, relish the opportunity to take on a difficult problem. 
• Program/Project Management: Proven experience in developing requirements, scoping programs, and delivering to customers in the defense industry.
• Enjoy the field, the engineering lab, and the conference room: CHAOS is an engineering-first company with a hardware component. This role will involve getting hands-on with hardware in the field with customers and mission executors, coordinating with engineering to drive capability development, working closely with growth to prioritize and focus, and engaging customers in discussions and briefings to understand requirements and sell capabilities. You must understand customer requirements and the technology to effectively communicate for both. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal. You will be communicating with customer stakeholders at every level, from young soldiers to senior civilian and uniformed leadership; and you will need to contextualize, collate, and deliver their feedback to CHAOS engineering, product management, growth, and senior leadership. 
• Risk tolerance: We go where our customers go.  
• Travel: Ability and interest in travel (50%, with flexibility for surge) to customer sites around the globe and to our offices in LA.  
• Security Clearance: Active Top Secret clearance with eligibility for SCI.  

Preferred Requirements: 

• Experience: US military operating forces - air defense, command and control, fires/effects; acquisition and development system; Radar, RF, sensor, weapons systems, defense technology and/or communications experience. 
• Background of working with militaries: Extensive experience working with the service of choice, including acquisition and development systems with a technology background. 
• Travel experience: Comfortable organizing and navigating overseas engagements, operating in remote areas and able to plan for and mitigate risk to reputation, mission, and personnel. 

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 200 employees and counting across 5 global offices

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

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