Mission Strategist - San Diego (Clearance Required)

Vannevar • San Diego, CA

7d • Onsite

About The Position

Vannevar is hiring a forward-deployed Mission Strategist to work in person with Navy users in San Diego, primarily on site and on government networks. The role focuses on identifying high-impact mission problems, turning them into testable hypotheses, and proving those hypotheses using Vannevar products. Much of the work involves 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 will also scope new capabilities with engineers and deliver 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 potential follow-on work. The strategist will identify and document additional problems worth pursuing, while partnering closely with Mission Leads, engineers, product, business development, and leadership. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role involving unclear and changing problems, secure or classified environments, and periodic travel. The position requires U.S. Persons status and at least a current Secret U.S. DoD or IC clearance.

Requirements

• U.S. Persons status.
• At least a current Secret U.S. DoD or IC clearance; an active Secret clearance is the stated minimum.
• Based in San Diego or willing to relocate; the role is in person.
• Experience using technology to solve difficult operational problems, through product building (such as product management or engineering) 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, responsibility for outcomes, and ability to operate independently.
• Clear writing that can turn on-site activity into concise, actionable updates for engineers and leadership.
• Professional presence with operators and senior leaders.
• Willingness to work in secure or classified environments and travel periodically.

Nice To Haves

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

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 hypotheses that can be tested quickly, and adapt based on what is learned.
• Configure and refine prompts, agent workflows, databases, reports, and dashboards to address mission problems; validate the configurations with users on real tasks.
• 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 quickly to show new user groups what is possible.
• Partner with Mission Leads and business development on scoping, cost estimates, and follow-on work.
• Write clear updates and descriptions of potential mission problems to support engineering, leadership, and decisions about future work.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 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
• Education Level: No Education Listed