Software Project Lead

Join DEFCON AI as a Software Project Lead, where you will own the software design, architecture, and delivery for a mission-critical program. You will lead a small software team, coordinate with various stakeholders, and ensure the successful delivery of working, deployed software on the government's timeline. This is a fully remote role with occasional travel.

• Own the software design, architecture, delivery, and deployment for the program, ensuring alignment with customer requirements and technical vision.
• Lead and coordinate the work of a small software team, directing developers on the effort, setting technical direction, and keeping the customer and team aligned.
• Drive the transfer process end to end, ensuring a clean unclassified-to-secure delivery path and that software runs unchanged in the government's secure environment.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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 transitioning systems from an existing or incumbent starting point to a durable production system, or standing one up greenfield
• Willingness to Travel up to 25% to customer site, Defcon AI HQ, and vendor facilities as required
• 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
• Leading small teams and coordinating across roles (PM, SMEs, data scientists, operations research and analytics, security), customer-facing in a government setting
• Experience standing up software in government-furnished or classified environments (IL-6 or equivalent)
• 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
• 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
• US Citizenship Required
• Background in defense and national-security software, especially anything touching classified, cross-domain, or air-gapped environments
• Active Secret Clearance
• 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
• 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
• Comfortable across a modern software stack (e.g. Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL databases, containerized cloud deployment)