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Mission Strategist

Remote
Vannevar Labs builds next generation defense software for the public servants keeping our country safe.  As a team, we exist because we believe in public service, and we think that our democracy and government improve only if we put serious, collective effort into improving them, including the technology our government uses.   
 
This mission has become urgent. Ukraine is engaged in a war for survival with Russia. China regularly flies nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan and Japan’s airspace. The US and our allies are fighting a war of deterrence with woefully outdated technology. We build software to support these missions, including providing battlefield information to allies, identifying malign activity, and helping the US deter and deescalate conflict.  
 
We are a profitable growth startup with some of the best defense investors in the world, including General Catalyst, DFJ Growth, Point72, and enterprise tech investors Costanoa and Felicis. 

About the role

The Mission Strategy team works on our most ambitious product and customer deployments and is about partnering with user groups to scope and deliver high mission impact outcomes while partnering with engineering and other teams internally. You will become an expert on scoping mission problems with a group and will define and iterate on our solution to these problems using our products, your creativity, and partnership with engineering.  

What you'll do

  • Identify important mission problems with users that we can reasonably solve with Vannevar’s products or new product development. You will continuously adjust your hypotheses based on new information. 
  • Solve these problems and generate meaningful mission outcomes. This involves embedding with the user groups, becoming a domain expert on the mission problem, and using your creativity, our current products, and sometimes developing new products with the engineering team. 
  • Develop a thesis for a broader program that extends the work you do to other groups and develop a compelling mission pitch that ties to the program, including compelling demos. 
  • Help our business development team win program deals by partnering with them, traveling to customers, and getting those customers irrationally excited about the mission impact we can have. 

What we're looking for

  • A track record of creatively scoping ambiguous problems with the ability to generate strong hypotheses when faced with ambiguity – can be national security or general private sector experience. 
  • Grit and creativity to keep going when faced with a roadblock. 
  • Success in working problems to conclusion and trying different approaches until one works. 
  • Ability to work autonomously and set your own goals 
  • Ability to quickly learn new software products to generate outcomes. 
  • Demonstrated bias towards achieving an outcome even if it requires helping or doing the job of someone else on another team. 
  • Experience helping to iterate on a product with product design, product management and/or engineering teams is a plus but not needed 
  • Active TS / SCI Clearance is a plus but not needed  

What we offer

The salary range for this position is $120,000-$200,000 + equity + 401K match. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

 
We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • 100% remote first culture. You can work from anywhere in the US and all full time employees have WeWork access
  • Unlimited PTO including competitive vacation and holiday schedules
  • Lifestyle stipends - Monthly mental health, wellness & fitness stipend, in-home office setup stipend and family planning assistance
  • Salary top-up during military reserve duty
  • Fully paid parental leave
  • Child and pet care reimbursement during travel
Vannevar Labs is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.
 
We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!
 
IMPORTANT NOTICE
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. 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.

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