Software Project Lead

This is a rare opportunity to be the software champion for a mission-critical DoW effort, owning it end to end from the customer's problem to working, deployed software.

As a Software Project Lead, you will own the software design, architecture, and delivery for a dedicated program. You lead first and build when needed: strong enough in software to get hands-on and cover ground yourself, and conversant enough in data science and AI to help decide what gets built and pull in the right specialists. Above all you lead and communicate, directing the developers on the effort, setting technical direction, and keeping the customer and team aligned.

Concretely, you own three things: the software build itself, integrating the optimization and analytics work into the product, and the path from unclassified development to secure delivery. You will not be alone: a program manager owns customer cadence, a subject-matter expert owns the mission content, and an optimization scientist owns the analytic core. Your job is to coordinate their work and turn it into shipped software, building from an existing starting point toward a durable, deployable system.

The work spans both modern commercial engineering practices and the realities of DoW delivery, with unclassified development that moves to a government classified environment to meet real data. This is a fully remote role with travel up to 25% to the customer site, DEFCON AI HQ, and vendor facilities as required.

Key Responsibilities 

System Ownership & Architecture

• Own the software design, architecture, delivery & deployment for the program
• Be accountable for delivery; keep the effort honest about scope, schedule, and risk, and raise issues early.
• Favor proven, open-source and off-the-shelf tools, and reuse what already exists, over building from scratch.

Requirements & Customer Engagement

• Sit with the customer and end users, gather requirements, and turn what they need into a design and a plan, including the user experience and UX direction.
• Represent DEFCON's engineering to the customer and work the "how does our software get onto your network" conversation to a resolution.
• Communicate clearly across many audiences: run stakeholder workshops and translate between the customer, the PM, subject-matter experts, and the optimization and data-science staff.

Team Leadership & Delivery

• Drive the technical vision and keep the program aligned to it.
• Coordinate across the PM, subject-matter experts, and the software team, sequence the work, define what "done" looks like, and unblock the team.
• Lead a small software team as the effort grows.
• Own the release cadence from capability intake through demonstration and deployment, aligned to government timelines.

Unclassified to Secure Delivery

• Own the unclassified-to-secure delivery path: design so software built in the open runs unchanged once it moves into the government's secure environment.
• Own the data and schema contract that lets the app ingest securely-prepared data it has never seen before, and keep unclassified fixtures and secure-side data in strict parity.
• Drive the transfer process end to end: offline, self-contained packaging, the low-to-high move, and a secure-side smoke test, working it early so it stays off the critical path.
• Keep sensible CI/CD hygiene (testing, security scanning) as a normal engineering practice, and coordinate with the security team on whatever accreditation the program ultimately requires.

Required Qualifications 

• 8+ years building and shipping production software, including at least one system owned end to end as the senior technical voice accountable for it, not just a component. 
• Front-end and data visualization engineering (e.g. React/TypeScript or equivalent): the deliverable is a data-visualization product, so you can architect and personally build its core surfaces.
• A working lead, not just a director: this is a small team without other software depth early, so you write and review code directly while leading the developers on the effort.
• Unclassified-to-secure delivery: building software in the open so it runs unchanged in a government secure or air-gapped environment, owning the data and schema contract, and driving the transfer. Sensible CI/CD hygiene expected; deep RMF and ATO ownership is a plus, not a requirement.
• Requirements and architecture instincts: you can sit with a customer who does not speak software, pull out what they need, and turn it into a design and a plan.
• Partnering with an optimization scientist: conversant enough in the analytic core (optimization, dependency management, critical-path analysis) to define the contracts between engine and UI and pressure-test feasibility, without owning the models yourself.
• Leading small teams and coordinating across roles (PM, SMEs, data scientists, operations research and analytics, security), customer-facing in a government setting.
• US Citizenship Required
• Active Secret Clearance
• Willingness to Travel up to 25% to customer site, Defcon AI HQ, and vendor facilities as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in defense and national-security software, especially anything touching classified, cross-domain, or air-gapped environments
• Hands-on depth in optimization or operations research (e.g. building or integrating solvers), or a track record partnering closely with OR and data-science teams
• Experience standing up software in government-furnished or classified environments (IL-6 or equivalent)
• Experience transitioning systems from an existing or incumbent starting point to a durable production system, or standing one up greenfield
• Experience leading AI-augmented software delivery: directing agent-assisted implementation, critically reviewing AI-generated code, and working inside a gated spec, review, and retro workflow (or a clear track record adopting new delivery methods fast). This is how the team works.
• Familiarity with government secure-software platforms and accreditation pipelines (RMF and cATO, containerized or air-gapped delivery), and with platforms such as Iron Bank, Platform One, Second Front (Game Warden), Stormbreaker, or Black Pearl
• Comfortable across a modern software stack (e.g. Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL databases, containerized cloud deployment)
• Deep optimization or operations-research depth, or full-stack depth beyond the front end
• Range to flex across efforts. The core of this role is owning one program, but a lead who can lend a hand across other efforts and help the broader engineering org is a real plus

What Success Looks Like 

• A program that ships; the customer's problem turned into working, deployed software on the government's timeline
• A clean unclassified-to-secure delivery path: software that runs unchanged on the government's secure environment, with the transfer proven ahead of time
• A customer who trusts DEFCON's engineering, with requirements understood and no surprises
• A small team with clear ownership and a clear definition of done