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United States
Remote only
Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems.
ABOUT DEFCON AI
RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF DISRUPTION. DEFCON AI is an insights company that leverages artificial intelligence, mathematical optimization, data analytics, and software engineering for resilient optimization of complex systems.
In today’s dynamically changing world, DEFCON AI’s technology aligns outcomes with operational goals, better decision making, and empowers customers to anticipate assess, and mitigate the impacts of disruptions.
About the Role
DEFCON AI is seeking a Technical Director, AI Decision Systems to lead the cross-functional team delivering a new AI-enabled decision-support capability for the federal government. The team spans product and design, software engineering, data architecture, applied analytics, AI solutioning, DevSecOps, cybersecurity, quality engineering, and technical transition.
This is a zero-to-one leadership role for a proven technical practitioner ready to broaden their scope. You may come from engineering, data, AI, product, design, platform, or another technical discipline. We do not expect you to be the deepest expert in every vertical. We do expect you to recognize excellent work, ask hard questions, create clarity across disciplines, and hold the system together.
You will turn mission needs, product direction, technical constraints, and delivery commitments into one coherent execution plan. You will establish technical priorities, resolve seams between teams, build an effective operating rhythm, and ensure that separate workstreams converge into a secure, explainable, and operational capability.
The right person is entrepreneurial, resourceful, and energized by the first mile. You enjoy incomplete information, emerging workflows, consequential decisions, and the opportunity to build both the system and the team delivering it. You move quickly, but you know when speed must be reinforced by testing, documentation, security, and repeatable delivery.
This is remote-first with occasional travel (up to 25% at times) to DEFCON AI HQ, customer sites, and vendor facilities as required.
Key Responsibilities
Preferred Qualifications
A Note to Candidates
You do not need to have held this exact title before to be a strong candidate. We encourage accomplished practitioners from software engineering, data, AI, analytics, product technology, DevSecOps, cybersecurity, design, or quality engineering who are ready to lead across disciplines and grow a team around an important mission.
A thoughtful cover letter will materially strengthen your application. Tell us what you have built, where your technical depth comes from, why you are ready to lead beyond your primary discipline, and how you approach a zero-to-one effort where the team, architecture, and operating model are all taking shape. Applications without a cover letter will still receive consideration, but the letter is the best opportunity to show us the judgment, motivation, and leadership potential that a résumé alone may not capture.
What Success Looks Like
What We Offer:
Salary Range: $220,000-$260,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.
Our Red Cell Partners Benefits (may differ for each incubation):
For full-time roles
We’re an Equal Opportunity Employer: You’ll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.
Applicant Data Disclosure
By submitting an application, you acknowledge that Red Cell Partners, LLC ("Red Cell") uses third-party service providers to facilitate its recruitment and hiring processes. These providers include applicant tracking systems, candidate verification platforms, and fraud detection tools (collectively, "Hiring Platforms"). Your application materials, including your résumé, cover letter, work samples, responses to application questions, and any other information you submit, may be transmitted to and processed by these Hiring Platforms for the following purposes:
Applications that are flagged through this process as containing indicators of fraud or material misrepresentation may be declined from further consideration. If you have questions about the status of your application or the evaluation process, please contact talent@redcellpartners.com.
Red Cell requires its Hiring Platform providers to process your information solely for the purposes described above and in accordance with applicable law. Your information will be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill these purposes and any applicable legal obligations, after which it will be deleted in accordance with Red Cell's data retention policies.
For more information about how your data is used, please refer to our Privacy Policy and Applicant Privacy Notice.
