Strategic Mission Engineer

CHAOS Industries•Washington, DC

5d•$160,000 - $220,000•Onsite

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is hiring a Strategic Mission Engineering Lead to bring recent, real-world military operational experience to the design, testing, and fielding of its products. The role develops, executes, analyzes, and validates models, simulations, scenarios, and operational assessments across defense, national security, and commercial programs. Findings will guide engineering investment and inform customer requirements, product engineering, business development strategy, and product road maps across Air Defense, C-UAS, and other mission areas. This is a foundational role in a fast-moving environment, with limited guidance and the freedom to move quickly. The successful candidate will identify warfighter needs and develop practical solutions to operational problems, working across operations, engineering, product, data science, analysis, growth, and customer teams. The role also engages US and allied operators and air defenders, supports classified data exchanges and mission data accreditation, and briefs senior technical leaders, executives, and government customers, including DoD, DARPA, and intelligence community stakeholders. CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022, is headquartered in Los Angeles, and has offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, and London. The company reports more than 500 employees across five global offices. The listed salary range is $160,000–$220,000 in base compensation; additional compensation may include bonuses, stock options, and benefits. The position is identified as onsite in the posting.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent military operational and analytical experience.
At least 5 years of experience supporting defense, intelligence, or advanced technology programs through industry or government employment.
Recent experience planning and executing military operations in Air Defense, C-UAS, fires, ISR, or a related mission area in a deployed or operational environment.
Direct experience employing sensing and effecting capabilities against a peer or near-peer adversary.
Ability to operate with limited guidance, define problems and approaches, and deliver independently.
Track record of developing practical solutions to operational problems and carrying them through to adoption.
Ability to lead cross-functional efforts across operations, engineering, product, and business development teams.
Experience guiding analysts in analytical tools and rigorous methods, and interpreting and presenting results to decision makers.
Strong data visualization skills and comfort developing CONOPS/OV-1 visuals and briefing packages.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including experience briefing flag/general officer or SES-level audiences.
Eligibility to obtain a Top Secret clearance.
Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally, including to customer, partner, and operational sites.

Nice To Haves

Active Top Secret clearance.
Experience analyzing the full kill chain (find, fix, track, target, engage, assess) across multiple domains, including air, surface, space, and electronic warfare engagements.
Established relationships across US and allied operational communities, including service air defense branches, the joint C-UAS community, and allied partners.
Experience leading study teams or cross-organization working groups, including threat-informed scenario development, model accreditation, or verification and validation efforts.
Experience supporting rapid development programs across DoD services, DARPA, ONR, AFRL, COCOMs, the acquisition community, or commercial advanced technology programs.
Experience supporting capture and positioning activities, including RFI/RFP responses, white papers, technical exchanges, and shaping new business pursuits.

Responsibilities

Support execution of the mission engineering and operations analysis strategy across Air Defense, C-UAS, product development, and business development efforts.
Translate current and future concepts of operation, including US and allied SOPs and TTPs for static and mobile forces, into mission engineering and operations analysis designs.
Identify unmet operational needs across the kill chain and develop practical solutions with engineering and product teams, including capability concepts, CONOPS, and study designs.
Translate validated intelligence community assessments on adversary air, missile, and related threat systems into modeling parameters, scenario constructs, and red force orders of battle for mission-level simulations.
Lead blue force CONOP-informed scenario development across domains, reflecting credible CONOPS, doctrine, and projected capabilities.
Validate blue force operating models, assumptions, and simulation outputs against authoritative source data and operational experience; work with customers and partners to resolve discrepancies and refresh representations as CONOPS and CONEMPS evolve.
Monitor adversary threats, capabilities, and evolving TTPs using intelligence reporting, operational lessons learned, and open-source analysis, and keep models, scenarios, and studies current.
Brief CONOP assessments, scenario rationale, and analytical findings to senior technical leadership, program executives, and government customers, including DoD, DARPA, and IC stakeholders up to flag/SES level.
Partner with engineers, data scientists, and analysts to develop sound analytical approaches to operational and intelligence questions, and challenge poorly framed questions.
Track emerging blue force capabilities, doctrine, TTPs/SOPs, and technologies, and shape study designs to address future developments.
Serve as a primary interface to US and allied partner operators and air defenders, including support for classified data exchanges and mission data accreditation.
Support DoD service, DARPA, intelligence community, and commercial customer programs, and partner with engineering, product, growth, and customer teams to shape business pursuits.