--- title: 'Mission Strategist - San Diego (Clearance Required) at Vannevar' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mission-strategist-san-diego-clearance-required-vannevar-san-diego-yjngv1q6z8p3' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-04' --- # Mission Strategist - San Diego (Clearance Required) at Vannevar - **Company:** Vannevar - **Location:** San Diego, CA - **Posted:** 2026-10-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-04 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/vannevarlabs/jobs/5266530007 ## Job description Vannevar builds AI systems for the Department of War's most consequential missions. We have 125 deployments across every branch and combatant command spanning our core platform and five distinct products. An an example of how we work, when major combat operations started with Iran, we fielded a new product supporting 24/7 operations and 9,000+ users in three months. How we build is our advantage: we deploy forward with the people who own the mission. Our engineers, product team, and CTO deploy forward to the point of friction, including visiting units in Ukraine. We focus on embedding directly with operational units supporting great power competition with China, combat operations with Iran, and counter-narcotics missions. ## About the role We're hiring a forward-deployed Mission Strategist to embed with Navy users in San Diego. San Diego is home to the Navy's rapid capability organizations, and our software is already in use there. This is an in-person role. You will spend most of your week on site with users and working on government networks. Your job is to find the mission problems that matter most, break them into specific hypotheses, and prove those hypotheses out in our products. Much of that is configuration: building agent workflows, prompts, databases, reports, and alerts on our classified platform, then iterating with users until they hold up in real operations. Some of it is net-new capability that you will scope with our engineers and deliver alongside them. You will often own a funded prototype end to end. That means running discovery with operators, building the sprint plan with engineering, configuring and testing on the high side, demoing to program leadership, and shaping what the follow-on should be. When you see the next problem worth solving, you will write it up clearly enough that we can decide whether to go after it. This is not a traditional customer success, solutions, or product role. Some of the work is gritty. Configurations can take hours and many iterations to get right, and problems are often unclear and changing. You will partner closely with our Mission Leads, who own customer relationships and the path to programs of record, and with the engineers building the platform. You will have support from product, engineering, and leadership, but you will decide where to focus and how to maximize mission impact. U.S. Persons status with at least a current Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required. This is a customer-facing role required to be based in San Diego. Work will require time in secure or classified environments and periodic travel. ## What you’ll do - Embed with users on watch floors, at schoolhouses, and during fleet exercises. Learn their workflows well enough to see the manual work they've stopped noticing. - Turn ambiguous problems into hypotheses you can test in days, and adjust as you learn. - Configure and prove workflows. Write and tune the prompts, agent workflows, databases, reports, and dashboards that turn a mission problem into a working tool, then validate them against real tasks with real users. - Test and troubleshoot releases on classified networks, and give engineering specific, reproducible feedback. - Run funded prototypes from discovery through final demo, including sprint planning, tracking government dependencies, and reporting status to customers and leadership. - Build demos and concepts quickly to show new user groups what's possible, and get them excited about it. - Partner with Mission Leads and business development on scoping, cost estimates, and follow-on work ## What we’re looking for - An active Secret clearance at minimum. TS/SCI preferred. - Based in San Diego or willing to relocate. This role is in person. - Experience using technology to solve hard operational problems, either from building products (product management, engineering) or from fielding new technology in the military. - A track record of creatively scoping ambiguous problems and generating strong hypotheses when the path isn't clear. - Comfort with hands-on technical work. You will rewrite a prompt ten times, dig into why a configuration isn't behaving, and keep going until it works. - Curiosity about agentic AI and how to apply it to real workflows. - High ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes and operate independently. - Clear writing. You can turn a messy week on site into a short update that engineers and leadership can act on. - Professional presence with operators and senior leaders alike ## Nice to have - Navy experience, especially in ISR, targeting, maritime operations, or unmanned systems. - Time on a watch floor or in an operations center. - Experience building with LLM-based tools, or light scripting. ## What we offer We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include: - Health, dental, and vision insurance - Remote friendly with WeWork access - Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year - 401(k) match - Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends - Salary top-up during military reserve duty - Fully paid parental leave - Child and pet care reimbursement during travel Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you! ## IMPORTANT NOTICE We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams. ## About Vannevar ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Vannevar Labs builds next-generation AI-powered defense software for information dominance and decision advantage across the U.S. military and homeland security missions. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, total funding $91.5M) - **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, USA - **Founded**: 2019 - **Founders**: Brett Granberg (CEO) and Nini Hamrick (President) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing; National Security Software - **Target customers**: U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community, Homeland Security – including combatant commands (INDOPACOM, SOCOM, AFSOC, etc.) and federal agencies. - **Mission**: Build 21st-century software that operates at the speed of modern conflict to give the U.S. and its allies battlefield information dominance and decision advantage. ## Products & Services - **[Decrypt](https://www.vannevarlabs.com/)** – Flagship product: a foreign text workflow platform that processes vast amounts of open-source intelligence (OSINT), translates languages (Mandarin, Russian, etc.), and surfaces critical patterns and insights for intelligence officers. SaaS deployed at the tactical edge. - **[Curator](https://research.contrary.com/report/vannevar-labs)** – (Beta) A translation and search-and-discovery tool built on top of Decrypt’s data pipeline. - **Unreleased Products** – At least two additional tools in beta (as of Nov 2024) focused on computer vision and/or NLP for battlefield applications. - **Forward Deployed Engineering** – Custom integration and mission support for specific units, often requiring security clearances. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not disclosed (last known post-Series B in 2023) - **Total Funding**: $91.5M - Seed (Apr 2019): $4.5M - Seed (Jan 2021): undisclosed amount, led by Costanoa Ventures and General Catalyst - Series A (Aug 2021): $12M, led by Costanoa Ventures and Point72 Ventures - Series B (Jan 2023): $75M, led by Felicis (with 7 investors) - **Annual Revenue**: Conflicting reports – [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vannevar-labs) lists $25M; [Contrary Research](https://research.contrary.com/report/vannevar-labs) states revenue grew from $3.5M in 2021 to $80M in 2024, achieving profitability within three years. - **Key Customers & Partners**: U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, National Air and Space Intelligence Center; partner with Databricks (announced Oct 2024). - **Notable Investors**: Costanoa Ventures, General Catalyst, Point72 Ventures, Felicis. - **Growth Signals**: Featured on Forbes AI 50 (2024 & 2025); headcount reportedly over 200 as of Dec 2025 (per Contrary); active in major joint exercises (Balikatan 2025, Talisman Sabre 2025); secured a $99M production contract from the Defense Innovation Unit in late 2024. ## Competitive Advantages - **Rare Proprietary Data** – Over one petabyte of adversarial, hard-to-access data that powers fine-tuned AI models not available to commercial firms. - **Tactical Edge Deployment** – AI systems designed to run at the edge, on low-bandwidth battlefield environments, ensuring real-time decision superiority. - **Rapid DoD Adoption** – Uses flexible Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements and DIU partnerships to bypass traditional procurement timelines. - **Cross-Domain Expertise** – Combines talent from elite military units (SEALs, Marines, Intelligence) with top tech companies (Google, Palantir, Scale AI, Amazon, Apple). - **Profitability at Scale** – Achieved profitability within three years – a rare achievement in defense tech. ## Strategic Focus - **Expand International & Homeland Security** – Growing footprint beyond all‑military to include Homeland Security, border security, and diplomatic economic security tools. - **Agentic AI Platform** – Building “armies of agents” that can autonomously steer fleets, detect threats, and keep missiles from flying, with human-in-the-loop oversight. - **Indo‑Pacific Deterrence** – Deepening capabilities for theater‑specific deterrence and partner‑nation data sharing. - **Talent Heavy‑Up** – Actively hiring for 28+ roles (as of mid‑2026) across engineering, mission, and operations, especially those requiring TS/SCI clearances. ## Why Work Here - **Mission‑Driven Culture** – Described as “a workplace like no other” where ex‑Googlers work alongside ex‑SEALs to build AI that protects American lives. Employees focus on “real‑world difference” rather than incremental consumer apps. - **Work Environment** – Hybrid / remote‑friendly, though many roles require on‑site presence in D.C., Honolulu, or other cleared facilities. Remote positions exist for those with existing clearances. - **Engineering Philosophy** – Emphasis on building agent‑based systems, working with rare datasets, and pushing AI to the tactical edge. Employees cite high compensation but note work‑life balance challenges (rating 2.7/5 on Glassdoor). - **Career Growth** – Rapidly growing organization with direct exposure to defense decision‑makers, opportunities to lead mission‑critical deployments, and a strong alumni network feeding into top defense tech (Palantir, Anduril, Scale AI). - **Security Clearance Required** – Most engineering and mission roles require (or sponsor) U.S. government security clearances (TS/SCI). This is a strong signal of deep‑end work. ## Sources 1. [vannevarlabs.com](https://www.vannevarlabs.com/) – Company website 2. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vannevar-labs) – LinkedIn Company Page (financials, headcount, reviews) 3. [research.contrary.com](https://research.contrary.com/report/vannevar-labs) – Contrary Research Report (funding details, revenue, products, headcount, customers) 4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/vannevarlabs) – Greenhouse careers page (open roles, job descriptions) 5. [vannevarlabs.com/careers/open-roles](https://www.vannevarlabs.com/careers/open-roles/) – Official open roles listing ## Other roles at Vannevar - [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-vannevar-remote-pym4mpfjm2fv) - [IT Endpoint Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/it-endpoint-engineer-vannevar-remote-wttcsj3maa0s) - [DevOps Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/devops-engineer-vannevar-washington-rq7j8e7g15h0) — Washington, DC - [Mission Lead - Law Enforcement (Clearance Requirement)](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-lead-law-enforcement-clearance-requirement-vannevar-washington-z2zacnxpz2ha) — Washington, DC - [Mission Lead - Economic Security (Clearance Required)](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-lead-economic-security-clearance-required-vannevar-washington-hvg4m0sa4q63) — Washington, DC - [Senior Business Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-business-operations-manager-vannevar-remote-h6qsr43fdbgp) - [Senior Full-Stack Engineer - Product (TS/SCI Required)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-full-stack-engineer-product-ts-sci-required-vannevar-remote-h8g9064nyfn1) - [Mission Lead - SOF (Clearance Required)](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-lead-sof-clearance-required-vannevar-raleigh-9nx0pb3eat9g) — Raleigh, NC / Tampa, FL / Washington, DC - [Mission Lead - USV Software](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-lead-usv-software-vannevar-norfolk-sqx8zrd0frb3) — Norfolk, VA - [MBA Intern Summer 2027 (Mission Lead - Clearance Required)](https://feeny.ai/job/mba-intern-summer-2027-mission-lead-clearance-required-vannevar-remote-avzdxn94n0m6)