Vice President, Growth

Assail, Inc. • Boston, MA

9h

About The Position

Assail Federal is hiring a Vice President, Growth to own the company’s growth strategy and execution across defense and national security customers. The role spans identifying mission requirements and building customer relationships through capture, contract award, and program expansion. The Vice President, Growth will help determine where the company competes, which partnerships it builds, and how it invests in opportunities, working closely with engineering to align technology with customer priorities and establish paths from demonstrations to operational deployment.

This is a hands-on executive role that involves personally advancing strategic opportunities while building the team, processes, and discipline needed to scale the federal business. The position reports directly to Alissa Knight, CEO and Chief AI Officer. Success includes developing a qualified pipeline with credible funding and acquisition paths, winning awards against agreed targets, creating reliable forecasts, converting customer evaluations into funded work, and establishing a disciplined growth organization.

U.S. citizenship is required. Travel to customer sites, partner locations, and industry events is expected. No specific degree is required; relevant experience, demonstrated results, and the ability to learn are valued.

Requirements

• Demonstrated success winning and expanding defense or national security business involving complex technology.
• Experience owning opportunities across business development, capture, proposal development, and award.
• Understanding of how mission requirements, government budgets, funding decisions, and acquisition processes connect.
• Experience converting demonstrations, prototypes, or initial contracts into follow-on business or operational adoption.
• Ability to engage credibly with operational and acquisition stakeholders and translate technical capabilities into mission value.
• Sound judgment about which opportunities to pursue, how to allocate resources, and when to change direction.
• Experience coordinating engineers, proposal contributors, partners, and executive stakeholders around a shared pursuit.
• Collaborative leadership approach, clear communication, and willingness to remain directly involved in customer work.
• U.S. citizenship.
• Travel to customer sites, partner locations, and industry events is expected.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with cyber operations, autonomous systems, AI, software platforms, or emerging defense technology.
• Experience building a growth function at an early-stage company.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a growth strategy across defense and national security customers, with clear priorities, bookings targets, and resource plans.
• Build relationships with operational users, mission owners, program offices, acquisition professionals, and funding stakeholders.
• Identify emerging mission requirements and connect them to Reaper’s capabilities through focused customer engagement.
• Build and manage a qualified pipeline grounded in mission fit, funding, acquisition timing, competitive position, and delivery readiness.
• Lead capture strategy, competitive assessments, teaming decisions, pursuit budgets, and bid/no-bid recommendations.
• Work with customers and technical teams to design demonstrations and evaluations with measurable outcomes and a defined path to funded adoption.
• Identify appropriate acquisition pathways and contract vehicles in collaboration with contracting and legal specialists.
• Lead proposal efforts, coordinating technical, management, pricing, and contractual contributions to produce compelling, compliant submissions.
• Develop partnerships with prime contractors, defense technology companies, integrators, and research organizations.
• Track budget and acquisition developments that affect priority pursuits and adjust plans accordingly.
• Build transition strategies connecting initial awards to follow-on funding, broader deployment, and enduring programs, including programs of record where appropriate.
• Maintain accurate forecasts and provide the CEO with visibility into opportunity progress, risks, and investment decisions.
• Bring customer insights into product planning while aligning commitments with engineering capacity and contractual requirements.
• Build and develop the growth team as the business expands.

Benefits

• Shape the growth strategy of a defense technology business at a formative stage.
• Work directly with the CEO and have a meaningful voice in company priorities.
• Collaborate closely with engineers building the technology brought to customers.
• Help translate advances in autonomous offensive AI into practical mission capabilities.
• Build and develop a team with ownership across the full federal growth lifecycle.

What This Job Offers

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