The Mission Director is a quota-carrying, full-lifecycle business owner responsible for identifying, shaping, closing, and executing new business within PAE Mission Systems.
This role focuses on NAVWAR, Naval C4ISR, and related Navy mission systems, including shipboard and maritime operational environments.
You will build trusted relationships with Mission Heroes (our customers), identify meaningful problems, shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products, and lead opportunities from initial discovery through contract award. Once awarded, you will remain accountable for the contract throughout its lifecycle, including cost, schedule, performance, staffing, margin, and customer satisfaction.
This role is designed for someone who wants broad ownership. As the portfolio grows in size and complexity, Mission Directors will increasingly lead through program managers and delivery leaders while retaining accountability for portfolio outcomes.
ResponsibilitiesThe 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 can adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.
1. Build the Business
- Identify and develop net-new opportunities within Navy Mission Systems, building trusted relationships with Mission Heroes and key stakeholders.
- Own a quota and grow a diversified portfolio of business.
2. Shape and Close Opportunities
- Define customer problems, scope, and desired outcomes to shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products and the right acquisition approach.
- Lead opportunities through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
3. Own Contract Execution
- Serve as the program leader for new contracts you close, with direct responsibility for execution until the portfolio reaches the scale where additional program management support is warranted.
- Manage delivery risks, scope changes, and mission outcomes.
4. Build and Lead the Team
- Define and build the team required to execute each contract.
- Personally lead contract execution and, as the portfolio grows, lead program managers and other delivery leaders across the portfolio.
5. Grow the Portfolio
- Maintain an active pipeline and continue developing new opportunities while executing existing contracts by identifying follow-on work, expansions, and adjacent opportunities.
- Own customer retention, portfolio growth, and gross margin.
- Grow from individual contract ownership into a broader portfolio leadership role.
Candidates must be located in San Diego, CA, or on the West Coast and willing to travel to customer sites as needed.
Clearance & Travel- Clearance: Active Secret clearance or higher.
- Travel: Ability to travel approximately 25–40%.
- Experience within Navy Mission Systems, including NAVWAR, Naval C4ISR, PAE Mission Systems, or a closely related defense environment.
- Strong understanding of Navy mission systems culture, operational requirements, stakeholders, and terminology.
- Experience in one or more of the following: military operations, government program management, acquisition, contracting, business development, or defense industry program leadership.
- Working knowledge of federal acquisition, including contract vehicles, acquisition strategies, and contract negotiations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams and remain accountable for customer and program outcomes.
- Willingness to operate across business development, contracting, staffing, and execution, personally driving critical work while building and leading the teams required to scale.
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity, identifying opportunities, and creating a path forward without a predefined playbook.
- Technical fluency to understand and communicate Defense Unicorns products, cloud-native technologies, DevSecOps, Kubernetes, and modern software delivery concepts.
- Established customer relationships within NAVWAR, PAE Mission Systems, Naval C4ISR, or related Navy program offices.
- Experience developing adjacent business opportunities within existing Navy customer environments.
- Experience with CRM, quota ownership, pipeline forecasting, and revenue-generating activities.
- Experience selling or delivering software products within DoD environments.
- Experience managing contract execution, customer retention, portfolio growth, and gross margin.
- Familiarity with shipboard systems, maritime operational environments, and modernization of Navy mission-critical software.
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 DoWe 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 ServeDefense 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
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Savings Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
- 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
- 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
What We Do
Defense Unicorns specializes in platform technologies that enable rapid and reliable delivery of capabilities across a wide range of mission and technology areas. We support open architecture platforms for secure mission systems that provide optionality for the end user, promote scalability, and allow for continuous identification and integration of new products and services while avoiding vendor lock. Our open approach creates partnership opportunities across the software ecosystem. Our people are innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across DoD and the broader federal market. Let's drive change together. Get in touch at [email protected]
