About Us
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 Nations most pressing problems.
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 todays dynamically changing world, DEFCON AIs technology aligns outcomes with operational goals, better decision making, and empowers customers to anticipate assess, and mitigate the impacts of disruptions.
About the Role
This is a rare opportunity to be the software champion for a mission-critical DoW effort, owning it end to end from the customer's problem to working, deployed software.
As a Software Project Lead, you will own the software design, architecture, and delivery for a dedicated program. You lead first and build when needed: strong enough in software to get hands-on and cover ground yourself, and conversant enough in data science and AI to help decide what gets built and pull in the right specialists. Above all you lead and communicate, directing the developers on the effort, setting technical direction, and keeping the customer and team aligned.
Concretely, you own three things: the software build itself, integrating the optimization and analytics work into the product, and the path from unclassified development to secure delivery. You will not be alone: a program manager owns customer cadence, a subject-matter expert owns the mission content, and an optimization scientist owns the analytic core. Your job is to coordinate their work and turn it into shipped software, building from an existing starting point toward a durable, deployable system.
The work spans both modern commercial engineering practices and the realities of DoW delivery, with unclassified development that moves to a government classified environment to meet real data. This is a fully remote role with travel up to 25% to the customer site, DEFCON AI HQ, and vendor facilities as required.
Key Responsibilities
System Ownership & Architecture
- Own the software design, architecture, delivery & deployment for the program
- Be accountable for delivery; keep the effort honest about scope, schedule, and risk, and raise issues early.
- Favor proven, open-source and off-the-shelf tools, and reuse what already exists, over building from scratch.
Requirements & Customer Engagement
- Sit with the customer and end users, gather requirements, and turn what they need into a design and a plan, including the user experience and UX direction.
- Represent DEFCON's engineering to the customer and work the "how does our software get onto your network" conversation to a resolution.
- Communicate clearly across many audiences: run stakeholder workshops and translate between the customer, the PM, subject-matter experts, and the optimization and 335552541":1,"335559685":1440,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" >Drive the technical vision and keep the program aligned to it.
- Coordinate across the PM, subject-matter experts, and the software team, sequence the work, define what "done" looks like, and unblock the team.
- Lead a small software team as the effort grows.
- Own the release cadence from capability intake through demonstration and deployment, aligned to government timelines.
Unclassified to Secure Delivery
- Own the unclassified-to-secure delivery path: design so software built in the open runs unchanged once it moves into the government's secure environment.
- Own the data and schema contract that lets the app ingest securely-prepared data it has never seen before, and keep unclassified fixtures and secure-side data in strict parity.
- Drive the transfer process end to end: offline, self-contained packaging, the low-to-high move, and a secure-side smoke test, working it early so it stays off the critical path.
- Keep sensible CI/CD hygiene (testing, security scanning) as a normal engineering practice, and coordinate with the security team on whatever accreditation the program ultimately requires.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years building and shipping production software, including at least one system owned end to end as the senior technical voice accountable for it, not just a component.
- Front-end and data visualization engineering (e.g. React/TypeScript or equivalent): the deliverable is a >Preferred Qualifications
- Background in defense and national-security software, especially anything touching classified, cross-domain, or air-gapped environments
- Hands-on depth in optimization or operations research (e.g. building or integrating solvers), or a track record partnering closely with OR and >What Success Looks Like
- A program that ships; the customer's problem turned into working, deployed software on the government's timeline
- A clean unclassified-to-secure delivery path: software that runs unchanged on the government's secure environment, with the transfer proven ahead of time
- A customer who trusts DEFCON's engineering, with requirements understood and no surprises
- A small team with clear ownership and a clear definition of done
What We Offer:
- A fully remote, results-based environment
- Competitive salary, bonus, and equity package
- 100% employer paid, comprehensive health insurance including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family
- Unlimited PTO, with your managers approval
- Flexible work environment where you manage your work day
- 14 weeks of fully-paid parental leave
Salary Range: $175,000-$215,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.
Our Red Cell Partners Benefits:
For full-time roles
- Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement with strong performance as the firm grows
- 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.
- Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay.
- Unlimited PTO, with management approval.
- Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.
- Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available.
- Mental health benefits are available through .
- Cost effective GLP-1 solutions available through .
Were an Equal Opportunity Employer: Youll 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 rsum, 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:
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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.
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