Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.
Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.
Our Mission teams operate like small startups within the Vannevar umbrella. As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) supporting software modernization for the Department of War, you will serve as the technical lead for customer engagements focused on modernizing mission-critical software systems. You will work directly with technical stakeholders across government and other defense primes supporting national security missions, owning the architecture, development, deployment, and fielding of agentic solutions tailored to real-world systems engineering challenges.
In this role, you will act as a senior technical counterpart to customer stakeholders — translating mission requirements into scalable software, navigating government technical environments, and ensuring capabilities are delivered reliably into production. You will collaborate closely with product, design, platform engineering, and mission teammates to deliver high-impact outcomes, while remaining a hands-on individual contributor.
U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required. This is a customer-facing role required to be based in Washington D.C. Work will require time in secure or classified environments and frequent travel (40-50%).
What you’ll do- Deploy, customize, and extend Vannevar's agentic software modernization platform to accelerate refactoring, architecture modernization, testing, and software delivery for mission-critical defense systems.
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customer stakeholders, partnering with government and industry teams to understand mission requirements and deliver technical outcomes.
- Collaborate with engineers, product teams, and mission experts to design and deliver software solutions that address complex systems engineering challenges.
- Analyze existing massive software architectures, development workflows, and technical constraints to identify modernization opportunities and guide implementation strategies.
- Develop technical recommendations, demonstrations, and modernization plans that help government program offices adopt AI-enabled software engineering capabilities.
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building and deploying production systems across the DoW or IC.
- Experience working directly with customers or stakeholders to translate mission requirements into technical solutions. Candidate should have strong technical communication skills and the ability to lead complex technical discussions with both engineers and senior stakeholders.
- Experience supporting modernization, integration, or sustainment efforts for large-scale software systems.
- Proficiency in one or more of TypeScript, Python, Java, C++, or similar programming languages.
- Experience with modern software development and deployment practices, including cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and DevSecOps.
- Experience operating in regulated or secure environments, including DoD Risk Management Framework (RMF) and NIST 800-53.
- Experience with Ada, CMS-2, C++, Java, or other legacy systems languages.
- Experience building, evaluating, or operating coding agents, software engineering agents, code intelligence systems, or agentic developer tools using LangGraph, OpenAI SDK, Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent2Agent (A2A), and more.
- Experience with software architecture reviews, systems engineering, requirements management, verification, and validation.
- Prior experience working with defense primes or government program offices.
- 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
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.
Skills Required
- Current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance and U.S. Persons status
- Based in Washington D.C. and able to work in secure/classified environments
- Willingness to travel frequently (40-50%)
- 5+ years professional software engineering experience building and deploying production systems across the DoW or IC
- Experience working directly with customers or stakeholders to translate mission requirements into technical solutions
- Experience supporting modernization, integration, or sustainment efforts for large-scale software systems
- Proficiency in one or more of TypeScript, Python, Java, or C++
- Experience with modern software development and deployment practices, including cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and DevSecOps
- Experience operating in regulated or secure environments, including DoD Risk Management Framework (RMF) and NIST 800-53
- Experience with Ada, CMS-2, C++, Java, or other legacy systems languages
- Experience building, evaluating, or operating coding agents, software engineering agents, code intelligence systems, or agentic developer tools (e.g., LangGraph, OpenAI SDK, MCP, A2A)
- Experience with software architecture reviews, systems engineering, requirements management, verification, and validation
- Prior experience working with defense primes or government program offices
What the Team is Saying
.jpg)
.jpg)
Vannevar Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Parental & Family Support — Fully paid parental leave (12 weeks for all new parents, plus additional time for birth mothers), fertility support, childcare benefits, and caregiving stipends are highlighted. Flexibility to split leave and reimbursement for child/pet care during work travel reinforce a family‑friendly design.
-
Retirement Support — A tiered 401(k) match—fully matching initial contributions and partially matching the next band—is publicly detailed and reiterated in job materials. This provides predictable employer support for long‑term savings.
-
Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options are included, and employer‑verified materials describe internal liquidity events enabling some pre‑IPO share sales. This can help employees realize value from equity earlier in the company lifecycle.
Vannevar Insights
What We Do
Vannevar combines Silicon Valley innovation with former special operators to build AI for real-world national security outcomes. Since our founding in 2019, Vannevar has deployed its technology across 125 missions, safeguarding our service members and improving our country's deterrence. We believe our military service members and intelligence officers deserve access to the best technology American innovation can offer, and we are mobilizing frontier technology for this mission. Our founders have 30 years of combined experience across AI labs, national security strategy, intelligence agencies and special operations. We're supported by a number of leading VCs, including Felicis, DFJ Growth, Point72, Costanoa, and General Catalyst. Vannevar is one of the most capital efficient defense tech companies, reaching early profitability and becoming a defense tech unicorn in 2024.
Why Work With Us
We pride ourselves on being a team of passionate, low-ego professionals who share a commitment to engineering excellence and a genuine concern for the people and AI agents we deliver. Vannevar is a company that truly cares about its people and one of our core principles is "put your wellbeing first".
Gallery
Vannevar Offices
Remote Workspace
Employees work remotely.
We are distributed across the map, but united by the mission. We go where the mission takes us and deliver where others can’t. Honolulu, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York. You decide what's next.
