---
title: 'Director of Portfolio & Program Management at TENEX.AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-portfolio-program-management-tenex-ai-kansas-city-7769de1rxsvp'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-15'
---

# Director of Portfolio & Program Management at TENEX.AI

- **Company:** TENEX.AI
- **Location:** Kansas City, MO
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-08
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tenex/438cb813-3cb9-426e-b22e-a294502cae7f

## Job description

Company Overview: TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the AI-Native MDR landscape. We’re a fast growing startup backed by industry experts and top tier investors led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and also backed by Shield Capital, DTCP (formerly Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund. Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team that just raised a substantial round – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside. Culture is one of the most important things at [TENEX.AI](http://TENEX.AI)—explore our culture deck at [culture.tenex.ai](http://culture.tenex.ai) to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work.

## About the Role

Tenex is looking for a Director of Portfolio & Program Management to build and lead the function responsible for operational rigor and delivery excellence across the business. This is a builder's role: you will stand up the team, define the operating standards, and own how work gets planned, sequenced, and delivered — from net-new customer onboarding, to one-time professional services engagements, to the strategic initiatives driving Tenex forward internally. You will be the connective tissue between commitments made and outcomes delivered, establishing the portfolio, program, and project management discipline that lets Tenex scale predictably. Success in this role means our customers realize value faster, our services engagements land on time and on scope, and our internal strategic bets are executed with clarity and accountability.

What You'll Own - This role spans three core functions: Customer Onboarding Project Management (Rapid Deployment Team / RDT) Lead the project management of onboarding for net-new Tenex customers. You'll ensure new customers are stood up smoothly and quickly against our milestone-gated delivery framework — coordinating across engineering, detection, SOC, and CS to compress time-to-value and create a consistent, repeatable onboarding experience.

Professional Services Project Management (PSF) Own the project management of one-time professional services engagements — the consulting and deployment projects where Tenex is brought in to build and stand up systems for customers. You'll ensure these engagements are scoped, staffed, sequenced, and delivered on time, on budget, and to the agreed outcome, with clean handoffs into ongoing operations.

Program & Portfolio Management (Internal Strategic Initiatives) Drive the programmatic and portfolio-level rigor for Tenex's own strategic initiatives. You'll bring structure to cross-functional programs and key projects run inside the walls of Tenex — establishing prioritization, dependency management, executive reporting, and the delivery cadence that keeps our most important bets on track.

## Key Responsibilities

- Build, hire, and lead a team of project and program managers across the three functions above.
- Define and operationalize best practices, standards, tooling, and templates for project, program, and portfolio management across the business.
- Establish clear intake, prioritization, staffing, and delivery processes so work is sequenced against capacity and strategic priority.
- Own delivery health across the portfolio — status, risk, dependencies, and escalations — and provide clear, executive-ready reporting and forecasting.
- Partner closely with CS, engineering, detection, SOC, sales, and executive leadership to align commitments with delivery capacity and surface tradeoffs early.
- Drive continuous improvement: instrument the function with KPIs, hold the team accountable to them, and iterate on the operating model as Tenex scales.
- Serve as a trusted operational leader who brings order, predictability, and momentum to how Tenex delivers.

What Success Looks Like (KPIs)

- On-time, on-scope, on-budget delivery rates across onboarding and PS engagements
- Time-to-value / onboarding cycle time for net-new customers
- Portfolio delivery health and predictability (initiatives delivered on plan)
- Resource utilization and capacity accuracy against demand
- Stakeholder and customer satisfaction with delivery
- Team health, ramp, and retention

## Qualifications

- 5+ years direct experience
- Experience leading and managing teams, with a track record of building teams from the ground up.
- Deep, hands-on experience in project, program, and portfolio management — you've operated at all three altitudes.
- Demonstrated ability to define and scale operational best practices and delivery frameworks in a growing organization.
- Strong track record of delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives on time and to outcome.
- Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
- Highly execution-oriented: a self-starter and self-motivated go-getter who also takes direction well and operates effectively within a leadership team.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience in a services, SaaS, or managed-services delivery environment.
- Familiarity with cybersecurity, MDR, or SOC operations (or the ability to ramp quickly in a technical delivery context).
- Relevant certifications (e.g., PMP, PgMP, PfMP, SAFe, or equivalent).
- Experience implementing PPM tooling and delivery instrumentation.

## Who You Are

- A builder who's energized by ambiguity and creating structure where none exists.
- An operator who sweats the details of execution while keeping sight of the portfolio-level picture.
- A leader who develops people and holds a bar for delivery.
- A clear communicator who earns trust across functions and levels.

## About TENEX.AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: TENEX.AI is the first AI-native, human-led Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, built from the ground up to deliver 10x faster threat detection and response.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, $277M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Sarasota, FL, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Eric Foster (CEO), Venkata Koppaka (Co-Founder & CTO), Jan Grzymala-Busse (CISO & Head of Security Operations), Elias “Lou” Manousos (Chairman), Ryan Shreve (Co-Founder & CRO), Edwin Solis (Co-Founder & CFO/COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Cybersecurity – Managed Detection and Response (MDR), threat intelligence, security automation, and incident response.
- **Target customers**: Mid-market to global enterprises (B2B), also SMBs with flexible pricing.
- **Mission**: “Deliver 10x better security outcomes, faster and more cost-effectively than legacy providers.”

## Products & Services
- **AI-Native MDR (Managed Detection & Response)**: Core service that uses domain-specific AI to triage every alert in under a minute, then empowers human analysts to investigate and respond. Includes 24/7 U.S.-based analysts with 8+ years average experience.  
- **Essential AI-Native MDR**: A standardized, lower-cost tier for smaller organizations (pricing from $99,000/year).  
- **Bespoke MDR**: Customized service for complex, mission-critical environments with dedicated engineering team, flexible contract, and quarterly executive briefings.  
- **Google Cloud Security Operations**: Implementation, management, and optimization of Google Security Operations platform (TENEX is a leading Google Cloud partner).  
- **Platform Training & Education**: Customer training on the TENEX platform and security operations best practices.  
- **Dashboards & Reports**: Continuous visibility and reporting for security posture.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Total Funding**: $277M across three rounds:  
  - Seed (Jan 2025): Led by **Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)**  
  - Series A (Oct 2025): $27M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners**  
  - Series B (Mar 2026): $250M led by **Crosspoint Capital Partners** (also a16z, Shield Capital participated)
- **Key Metric**: 505.9% year-over-year headcount growth (74 employees as of early 2026); 108 active job postings.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Crosspoint Capital Partners, Shield Capital; Google Cloud (strategic partner).
- **Growth Signals**: Scaling from 1 to 3 offices (Sarasota, Overland Park, San Jose); rapid hiring across engineering, sales, and threat detection; leadership team includes former Google Security executives and founders of RiskIQ and Cyderes.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-native architecture**: Built from the ground up for AI, not retrofitted. Domain-specific models understand attacker behavior, not just patterns.
- **Human-led, AI-powered**: AI handles 100% of alerts at machine speed; human experts focus on complex threats. 95% fewer false positives, <1-minute mean time to triage (MTTX).
- **Elite founding team**: Veterans from Google Cloud Security (original Chronicle team), RiskIQ, Cyderes, Fishtech Group, and national security.
- **Deep Google Cloud expertise**: TENEX is the go-to partner for Google Security Operations, managing over 75% of Google’s security business at peak.
- **Flexible, scalable pricing**: From $99K/year Essential tier to fully bespoke enterprise solutions, making premium MDR accessible to a wide range of budgets.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale through AI, not headcount**: Use automation to multiply analyst efficiency rather than linearly adding people.
- **In-person collaboration**: All three offices are on-site-first; the company believes “bold innovations emerge from in-person collaboration.”
- **Continuous learning and adaptation**: The AI platform learns from every environment and analyst feedback, staying ahead of emerging threats.
- **Expansion into mid-market**: The Essential tier targets smaller organizations that previously couldn’t afford premium MDR.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “AI-native, human-led” – the company values elite human expertise alongside advanced AI. “We’re AI-native, born AI, built AI, think AI, and actively searching for the best human minds in cybersecurity.”
- **Work model**: On-site-first in three locations: Sarasota, FL (HQ); Overland Park, KS; San Jose, CA. Aggressive relocation packages including moving expense reimbursement, temporary housing, family transition support.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive health (Medical, Dental, Vision); 100% 401k match up to 6%; long-term incentives; professional development opportunities; continuous learning culture.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly scaling (505% YoY headcount growth) with 108 open positions across engineering, product, sales, and security operations. Opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven security.
- **Team**: 72% of employees in the US, with a strong technical base (39% in technical roles). Executives hail from Google, Microsoft, Cyderes, ReliaQuest, and other top security firms.

## Sources
1. [tenex.ai](https://tenex.ai/)  
2. [tenex.ai/about-us](https://tenex.ai/about-us/)  
3. [linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenex-ai)  
4. [tenex.ai/careers](https://tenex.ai/careers/)  
5. [tenex.ai/careers/open-positions](https://tenex.ai/careers/open-positions/)

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- [Director, Customer Success](https://feeny.ai/job/director-customer-success-tenex-ai-kansas-city-2dqgb83k3p8q) — Kansas City, MO
- [Principal DevOps Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-devops-engineer-tenex-ai-san-jose-e84nhzbq37sk) — San Jose, CA
- [Administrative Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/administrative-assistant-tenex-ai-scottsdale-zd8gnayx6tnz) — Scottsdale, AZ
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