Director of R&D

Prominent Edge LLC • Washington, DC

2d

About The Position

As Director, US R&D, you will build GovCloud-native engineering capability purpose-built to serve US federal customers at the highest classification levels. You will own the migration of a platform to a US Government Cloud environment, build and lead the US engineering team, and serve as the primary technical interface between federal agency customers and a global product and engineering organization.

Requirements

• Deeply committed to agentic ways of working — you default to automation, not manual process, and bring that instinct into everything you build and lead.
• Hands-on experience with AI coding and agentic development tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent — and a track record of embedding these into engineering workflows.
• Proven ability to drive an engineering organization toward full agentic operations: automated pipelines, self-healing infrastructure, AI-assisted development, and continuous autonomous testing and deployment.
• Passion for pushing the boundaries of what engineering teams can automate — and the credibility to bring a team along on that journey.
• 10+ years of combined software engineering, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure experience, with at least 3–5 years in a senior technical leadership role.
• Proven, hands-on experience deploying and operating workloads in US GovCloud environments (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, or equivalent).
• Strong developer background with proficiency in at least one modern language (Python, Go, Java, or similar) and cloud-native, microservices architectures.
• Experience building or leading technical teams in cleared environments, including hiring for and maintaining security clearances.
• Demonstrated track record as a customer-facing technical leader, comfortable engaging with senior government stakeholders at program and executive levels.
• Deep knowledge of federal compliance frameworks: FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, IL4/IL5, CMMC, and/or ITAR.
• Hands-on expertise with Kubernetes, Terraform, GitOps pipelines, and modern observability tooling in restricted or air-gapped environments.
• Comfort with REST APIs, data engineering, and cloud security fundamentals (identity, access controls, encryption at rest and in transit).
• Active Top Secret; TS/SCI.
• Willingness to support clearance upgrades as required by the mission.
• Builder mindset — energized by creating from scratch, comfortable navigating ambiguity, and focused on outcomes over process.
• Exceptional communicator — credible with mission operators, technical peers, and C-level executives alike.
• Team-first orientation — collaborative, transparent, and invested in the growth of the people around you.
• Aligned with Windward's mission: delivering intelligence that matters, to people whose decisions matter.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with data fusion architectures, multi-source intelligence platforms, or AI/ML deployment in CUI or classified environments — a strong advantage.
• Experience integrating with or deploying Palantir platforms (Gotham, Foundry, AIP) in federal environments — a significant advantage. Former Palantir employees are strongly encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Define the structure, processes, and operating model for R&D team.
• Hire, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of cleared engineers and DevOps practitioners.
• Integrate the new R&D function with current commercial and business development operations.
• Partner closely with global R&D leadership to align the US team with the broader engineering roadmap and architecture.
• Own the end-to-end technical migration of Windward's Maritime AI™ platform to a US GovCloud environment (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, or equivalent).
• Architect and implement cloud infrastructure that meets FedRAMP, IL4/IL5, CMMC, NIST 800-53, and other applicable federal compliance frameworks.
• Build and maintain the full DevOps pipeline — CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, container orchestration, observability, and incident response — within a cleared, controlled environment.
• Ensure the migrated platform meets all security, availability, and performance SLAs required for federal production deployments.
• Contribute hands-on development and technical design to platform features, integrations, and capability enhancements for the US federal market.
• Maintain, support, and continuously improve the live US production environment, acting as the escalation owner for critical issues.
• Establish engineering best practices, documentation standards, and operational runbooks for the US environment.
• Identify opportunities to adapt global platform capabilities to the specific operational and mission requirements of US federal customers.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for US federal agency customers, owning the relationship from deployment through ongoing operations.
• Translate mission requirements and customer feedback into concrete engineering priorities for the global R&D team.
• Lead technical reviews, architecture sessions, and capability briefings with federal stakeholders, including program managers, technical leads, and senior agency officials.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed