Mission Lead - Minneapolis (Clearance Required)

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.

About the role

We’re hiring a forward deployed Mission Lead to embed directly with our Department of War (DOW) customers across the United States. You’ll work as part of a mission-focused team of engineers and other mission leads to deploy software against challenging problems.  While this role requires frequent travel, we’re committed to hiring locally and strengthening Vannevar’s presence in communities—like Minnesota—that our team members already call home.  

You will travel onsite, sit alongside uniformed service members and civilian operators alike. Your job is to earn trust by creating value: understanding what users are trying to accomplish, decomposing ambiguous problems into specific mission hypotheses, testing those hypotheses through workflows in our products, and onboarding users when those workflows prove useful. 

This is not a traditional customer success, solutions, or product role. Your role is to solve complex and ambiguous problems. You will configure product workflows, test and troubleshoot new releases, triage issues, and work closely with product and engineering to make our products more effective for the people using them in the field. Some of this work will be gritty. Configurations may take hours and multiple iterations each day to get right. Expect complex problems, murky answers, and moving targets – the payoff is work that directly shapes outcomes for our users. 

You will partner with the Mission team to cultivate relationships with new user groups on site, generate wins with those users, and translate those wins into the stories that help Vannevar sustain and expand deployments. You will be the face of Vannevar for many of our users and customers. 

You will often operate independently on site. You will have support from product, engineering, mission development, and leadership, but you will be responsible for deciding where to focus and how to maximize mission impact. Roles like this are how we grow outside of traditional defense hubs, investing in innovative environments across America. 

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 Minneapolis. Work will require time in secure or classified environments and periodic travel.

What you’ll do

• Embed with users. Sit on site with DOW customer groups and build deep intuition for their mission. 

• Build trust. Earn credibility by understanding user problems and helping solve them over time. 

• Turn ambiguity into hypotheses. Break complex mission problems into specific workflows that can be tested. 

• Configure product workflows. Set up high-value workflows for users through creative, iterative configuration. 

• Test and troubleshoot releases. Debug product issues on deployed DOW systems and work with engineering to resolve them. 

• Generate mission wins. Identify what works, onboard users, and translate wins into evidence of impact. 

• Develop new user groups. Build relationships with additional teams on site and identify where Vannevar can create value. 

• Operate independently. Set priorities on site and push work through without waiting for perfect direction. 

• Represent Vannevar. Be the face of the company with DOW users and customers. 

What we’re looking for

• Active TS clearance. 

• This role is based in Minnesota, and includes about 75% time travel out-of-state to sit side-by-side with users across the United States. 

• Comfort in the field. You can build trust with users in operational environments. 

• High ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes and operate independently. 

• Grit and persistence. You work through ambiguity, iteration, and friction until you get to impact. 

• Strong mission judgment. You can identify which user problems matter and where product can create value. 

• Technical intuition. You can reason about how software systems, work, break, and how to improve them, creating real value for users. 

• Curiosity about agentic AI. You are excited to understand, configure, and apply AI-enabled systems to create mission impact for the warfighter. 
• Professional presence. You show up in high-stakes government environments as a trusted technical partner—not a vendor.  

What we offer

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Remote friendly with WeWork access
• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year
• 401(k) match
• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends
• Salary top-up during military reserve duty
• Fully paid parental leave
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel