--- title: 'Product Manager at Defense Unicorns' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-defense-unicorns-united-states-adn79v1tgg6k' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-17' --- # Product Manager at Defense Unicorns - **Company:** Defense Unicorns - **Location:** United States - **Compensation:** $171k–$231k - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-10-14 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/defenseunicorns/jobs/5265580007 ## Job description Role Description: Being a Product Manager at Defense Unicorns is more than just being part of the sparkliest Product team in defense tech. It means taking radical ownership over real products that make a real impact on real people. At Defense Unicorns, our mission is to make software a strategic deterrent, and our Product Management team clears the path. In this role, you’ll report to the Director of Product and work with teams who deliver outcomes that are critical business enablers and directly support both our missions and other internal teams. This team’s primary responsibility is the creation and maintenance of tooling and pipelines that support UDS application packaging, as well as maintenance of several packages which comprise our core software deliverables. Responsibilities: The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise. - Passion for the intersection of business, open-source software, and national security - Participate in and foster open source communities around Defense Unicorns’ open source projects - Comfortable owning a product vision end-to-end and being accountable for delivering to several customer segments, including both paid and OSS - Managing the expectations and delivery of outcomes of unicorns engineers entrusted to you - Establishing and clearly communicating vision and objectives at all levels of the company - from engineers to executives - Continuously balance customer, business, and technical priorities with limited resources - Synthesizing external customer requests into an internal product roadmap - Discipline required to work in a fast-paced, remote environment - Keep our Growth and Delivery teams aligned on roadmap and value proposition in order to support product pricing, customer segmentation, and customer needs - Experience managing, updating and using task, information and code management tools like GitHub, Notion, Hubspot, Google Workspace, etc. - Continuous learning is a must. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices in Product Management, DevOps, regulated IT, and the CNCF community - Experience working with and continuously delivering software under  Agile software development principles - Understand business strategy and adapt product strategy and roadmap to accomplish company objectives - Comfortable presenting information in customer facing engagements - Comfortable having technical conversations which engineering and design to trade off roadmap versus engineering effort needed Preferred Experience and Qualifications: - A deep understanding of how DevSecOps pipelines operate and the tools which make them work - An understanding of core Kubernetes concepts, specifically images, Helm charts, and related technologies. - Excellent analytical skills with the ability to leverage data and metrics for informed decision-making - Experience establishing a clear product roadmap and value proposition to prospective customers - Knowledge of and experience with monetization models for open source software Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States. Remote - USA $170,850—$231,150 USD ## Who We Are Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market. ## What We Do We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily. Who We Serve Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products. ## What We Work On - Kubernetes - Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure) - Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi) - Continuous Delivery and automation tooling - GitOps - Containers - CNCF projects and open source products and packages - Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping - Building and improving security delivery - Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications ## Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy Health: - Medical/Dental/Vision - Premiums are 100% Company Paid - Health Savings Account - Life Insurance - Disability Insurance Financial: - 401k Retirement Plan - Company Stock Options - Home Office Budget Leave: - We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s - Paid Parental Leave Learning: - Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions - Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees) Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed. At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. [CCPA DISCLOSURE](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DzT00w2uadYw9TfdorHuEsvPccZvn_g4/view?usp=drive_link) ## About Defense Unicorns ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Defense Unicorns delivers secure, scalable, and vendor-lock-free software deployment solutions for mission-critical, air-gapped, and classified environments, primarily for the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence community. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B) - **Headquarters**: Colorado, United States - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Rob Slaughter (CEO), Jeff McCoy (CTO), Andrew Greene (Co-founder) ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Defense technology, software development, national security, cloud-native infrastructure - Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense agencies, system integrators, and mission teams operating in air-gapped, classified, or highly secure environments - Mission or purpose statement: "Advance freedom globally by transforming how the U.S. defense and intelligence community buys, builds, delivers, and sustains mission capabilities." ## Products & Services - **[UDS (Unicorn Delivery Service)]**: An open-source, platform-agnostic software delivery platform that enables the packaging, deployment, and management of modern cloud-native applications into air-gapped, edge, and classified environments. It automates security compliance, vulnerability scanning, and continuous ATO (cATO) workflows. - **[Zarf]**: An open-source, air-gap-native software delivery tool that was the company’s first product, designed to simplify deploying containerized applications in disconnected environments. - **Professional Services & Mission Support**: Custom engineering, platform integration, and mission-specific deployment support for DoD agencies and system integrators. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: $1 Billion+ (achieved unicorn status in January 2026) - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $171.5M across two rounds - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Bain Capital (led Series B of $136M in January 2026), Ansa Capital and Sapphire Ventures (co-led $35M Series A in February 2024) - **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 150+ employees (35.9% YoY growth), 35,000+ LinkedIn followers (42.4% yearly growth), 34 active job postings, and a growing list of DoD and intelligence community clients. ## Competitive Advantages - **Deep domain expertise**: Founded by veterans of Kessel Run and Platform One, the team has firsthand experience building and deploying software within the DoD, giving them unique credibility and insight. - **Open-source, vendor-lock-free philosophy**: Their products (UDS, Zarf) are open-source, ensuring no proprietary vendor lock-in, which is a critical requirement for national security systems. - **Air-gap specialization**: Their core technology is purpose-built for the most challenging deployment environments (disconnected, classified, edge), a niche that few commercial software companies can serve. - **Continuous ATO integration**: Security and compliance are built directly into the software delivery pipeline, dramatically reducing the time to get new capabilities into the hands of warfighters. ## Strategic Focus - **Scaling the platform**: With the $136M Series B, the company is aggressively investing in product development, engineering, and go-to-market teams to expand UDS capabilities and customer reach. - **Expanding mission delivery**: Hiring across multiple "Mission Manager" and "Account Executive" roles focused on specific military branches (Air Force, Army, Navy, Space, USSOCOM), indicating deep vertical integration into each service branch. - **Open-source ecosystem growth**: Continuing to build and nurture the open-source community around UDS and Zarf to drive adoption and create partnership opportunities across the defense software ecosystem. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven culture**: The company operates with a single belief: "a value not lived is not a value at all." Core values include "We Take Extreme Ownership," "We Innovate to Impact," and "We Are MISSION Driven." - **Remote-first environment**: Most roles are fully remote from anywhere in the United States, with support for home office setup. Onsite requirements are clearly noted when needed for mission support. - **Comprehensive benefits**: 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees (shared cost for dependents), company equity options, 401k, life and disability insurance, and generous paid parental leave. - **Generous time off**: Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s. - **Career growth**: Financial support for training, conferences, and professional subscriptions. - **SkillBridge program**: Authorized DoD SkillBridge provider, offering internships and apprenticeships for service members transitioning to civilian careers. - **Engineering-driven**: "Engineer Driven" is a core identity, with a strong emphasis on solving hard technical problems for national security. ## Sources 1. [defenseunicorns.com - About Us](https://defenseunicorns.com/company/) 2. [defenseunicorns.com - The Airgap Software Company](https://defenseunicorns.com/) 3. [defenseunicorns.com - Careers](https://defenseunicorns.com/careers/) 4. [Greenhouse - Jobs at Defense Unicorns](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/defenseunicorns) 5. [LinkedIn - Defense Unicorns](https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-unicorns) ## Other roles at Defense Unicorns - [Senior Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-platform-engineer-defense-unicorns-colorado-hawaii-xba5q1cdp31y) — Colorado / Hawaii - [Senior Solutions Architect](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-solutions-architect-defense-unicorns-united-states-trxavrqsjjsy) — United States - [Business Development Representative - Commercial](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-commercial-defense-unicorns-united-states-yxkavpmgfz2t) — United States - [Mission Director - Army](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-director-army-defense-unicorns-united-states-hzmrgjh0rxyx) — United States - [Mission Director - Army](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-director-army-defense-unicorns-united-states-5m1z6132cd0r) — United States - [Director of Federal Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-federal-operations-defense-unicorns-remote-yectk3xmvrp9) - [Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager, Edge (SMM194)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-product-marketing-manager-edge-smm194-defense-unicorns-remote-txcdamtpjnh5) - [Mission Director - Air Force](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-director-air-force-defense-unicorns-united-states-tbpnk5tvt9e7) — United States - [Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager, Edge (SMM193)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-product-marketing-manager-edge-smm193-defense-unicorns-remote-mwstcq832exb) - [Business Development Representative - US Space Force](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-us-space-force-defense-unicorns-united-tpp4b1qv3vbf) — United States