Mission Strategist - San Diego (Clearance Required)

Vannevar • San Diego, CA

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Vannevar is hiring a forward-deployed Mission Strategist to embed with Navy users in San Diego. This is an in-person, customer-facing role that spends most of the week on site with users and working on government networks. The role requires time in secure or classified environments and periodic travel.

The Mission Strategist identifies high-impact mission problems, turns them into specific hypotheses, and validates those hypotheses in Vannevar products. The work includes configuring agent workflows, prompts, databases, reports, and alerts on a classified platform, then iterating with users until the tools work in real operations. The Strategist also scopes new capabilities with engineers and delivers them collaboratively.

The role often owns funded prototypes end to end: conducting discovery with operators, planning sprints with engineering, configuring and testing on classified networks, demonstrating results to program leadership, and shaping follow-on work. The Strategist also identifies and documents new opportunities, partnering closely with Mission Leads, engineers, product, business development, and leadership. This is a hands-on role involving ambiguous and changing problems, independent prioritization, and a focus on mission impact.

Requirements

• At least a current, active Secret U.S. DoD or IC clearance; TS/SCI is preferred.
• U.S. Person status.
• Based in San Diego or willing to relocate; the role is in person.
• Experience using technology to solve difficult operational problems, through product building or fielding new technology in the military.
• Track record of creatively scoping ambiguous problems and generating strong hypotheses when the path is unclear.
• Comfort with hands-on technical work, including repeatedly revising prompts and troubleshooting configurations.
• Curiosity about agentic AI and its application to real workflows.
• High ownership, accountability for outcomes, and ability to operate independently.
• Clear writing, including the ability to turn on-site developments into concise, actionable updates for engineers and leadership.
• Professional presence with operators and senior leaders.

Nice To Haves

• Navy experience, especially in ISR, targeting, maritime operations, or unmanned systems.
• Experience on a watch floor or in an operations center.
• Experience building with LLM-based tools or light scripting.
• TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

• Embed with users on watch floors, at schoolhouses, and during fleet exercises to understand their workflows and identify manual work.
• Turn ambiguous problems into testable hypotheses and adjust based on what is learned.
• Configure and validate prompts, agent workflows, databases, reports, and dashboards against real tasks with users.
• Test and troubleshoot releases on classified networks and provide engineering with specific, reproducible feedback.
• Run funded prototypes from discovery through final demonstration, including sprint planning, tracking government dependencies, and reporting status to customers and leadership.
• Build demos and concepts to introduce new user groups to product capabilities.
• Partner with Mission Leads and business development on scoping, cost estimates, and follow-on work.
• Document new problems and opportunities clearly enough for the company to evaluate whether to pursue them.

Benefits

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

What This Job Offers

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