Forward Deployed Mission Strategist, Unmanned Maritime Systems

Sitreps•Norfolk, VA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The company is hiring a Forward Deployed Mission Strategist to embed with the Navy’s unmanned surface vessel (USV) community in Norfolk, Virginia. The role focuses on shaping software for planning, monitoring, and reviewing USV missions by working directly with operators and mission planners and alongside the company’s mission and engineering teams. This is a 0-to-1 role: USV operating practices and software needs are still being established, and the strategist will help determine what works in practice. The strategist will translate operational needs into specific software problems, prioritize capabilities, configure workflows in existing products, and help develop and deploy new capabilities with mission partners. The role includes access to government systems and operational settings, field testing, and responsibility for tracking and resolving issues on fielded government systems. The work is hands-on and may be gritty; the strategist is expected to operate independently on site while drawing on support from product, engineering, and leadership. The position is based in Norfolk and requires working with operators on site at least three days per week, with additional waterfront, test, or travel time possible during experimentation periods.

Requirements

Work in person in Norfolk every week, either as a local employee, after relocating, or through weekly travel.
Experience or strong interest in unmanned or manned surface vessels, unmanned systems, or software for planning, running, or monitoring hardware operations such as space systems.
Experience using technology to solve difficult problems through product or engineering work, or through fielding new technology in the military.
Demonstrated ability to break difficult problems into component parts.
High ownership in ambiguous situations and persistence through iteration and friction to achieve results.
Experience working with autonomous or unmanned platforms.
Must be eligible and willing to obtain a TS/SCI clearance.

Nice To Haves

Active TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

Work on site with USV operators and mission planners in Norfolk, developing an understanding of unmanned surface operations, including underway operations and fleet experimentation.
Use firsthand operational learning to identify and prioritize mission problems worth solving.
Set up and refine operationally important workflows until they work effectively on actual missions.
Track down bugs on fielded government systems and coordinate with engineering to get them fixed.
Turn deployed capabilities and operational outcomes into clear wins with Navy partners.
Set priorities on site and move work forward independently, even without complete direction.