Vannevar Labs
Forward Deployed Engineer (TS/SCI)
Why it's interesting
$3M to $80M ARR in three years, profitable, unicorn — Vannevar is the defense-AI story nobody outside the Beltway talks about. The FDE is the field 'CTO' for a mission team, but the moat is the clearance: TS/SCI, DC-based, so the candidate pool is tiny and $150–215K + equity reflects scarcity, not generosity.
The role
Forward Deployed Engineer at Vannevar Labs, a defense-tech unicorn building agentic software for national-security missions. Serve as technical lead / field 'CTO' for a customer engagement, owning architecture, development, deployment and fielding as a hands-on IC. Requires current TS/SCI DoD or IC clearance and U.S. Persons status; based in Washington D.C. with 40–50% travel and time in classified environments. $150,000–$215,000 + equity + 401K match. Verified on Vannevar's own careers site.
Applications go directly to the company. We curate; we don't broker.