Director, Strategic Defense Programs (AI)

Location: Reston, Virginia, United States; flexible hybrid work environment with offices in Reston, VA and Austin, TX, plus remote options. Frequent travel of up to 30% to partner sites, government customer locations, and demonstration events is required. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, protected individuals, or eligible to obtain required U.S. government authorizations.

Salary: $200,000–$280,000 USD annually, plus potential bonus, equity, and other incentive compensation.

Company

hirify.global develops explainable, trustworthy, secure, and auditable AI solutions for mission-critical decisions across government, defense, enterprises, and regulated industries.

What you will do

• Own the executive relationship with strategic defense partners across business development, program execution, and technical solutioning.
• Establish partnership governance, including review cadences, escalation paths, IP and NDA structures, and shared investment planning.
• Lead joint capture activities, opportunity identification, teaming structures, and proposal development.
• Build a unified portfolio strategy for inserting hirify.global AI capabilities across airborne ISR, C2, communications, and multi-domain mission programs.
• Guide programs from rapid prototyping and live demonstrations through formal testing, OT&A, and transition to programs of record.
• Coordinate engineering, product, contracts, legal, and finance teams while managing technical, schedule, contractual, and portfolio risks.

Requirements

• Active U.S. Secret clearance is required; Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility is highly preferred.
• 15+ years of defense program experience with direct DoD mission-systems integration across ISR platforms, C2 architectures, or tactical and strategic communications systems.
• Experience building mission systems, including sensor integration, communications payload installation, and government airworthiness or fielding processes.
• Hands-on experience across the full program lifecycle, from concept and rapid prototyping through live demonstration, formal testing, and transition to a program of record.
• Experience aligning multiple concurrent programs under a cohesive portfolio strategy.
• Strong customer-facing program leadership experience with complex, multi-stakeholder defense partnerships or channel relationships at the prime or sub-prime level.
• Experience developing demand-generation plans, identifying capability gaps, building business cases, and influencing acquisition decisions.
• Understanding of DoD acquisition frameworks, including FAR/DFARS, OT authorities, and competitive proposal processes.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, aerospace, systems engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.

Nice to have

• Experience at a prime defense integrator in mission systems, C2, or special mission aircraft.
• Military service in ISR, C2, communications, or intelligence, particularly with airborne collection, battle management, or tactical networking systems.
• Experience growing technology partnerships by creating new program opportunities.
• Familiarity with AI/ML for signal processing, image exploitation, sensor fusion, C2 decision support, or communications network optimization.
• Familiarity with JADC2, ABMS, or related DoD multi-domain connectivity and interoperability initiatives.
• Experience with rapid prototyping and prototype-to-production transition.
• Engagement with government program offices and familiarity with their investment priorities.
• Ability to operate in a fast-moving AI company while maintaining the rigor expected by a large defense prime.
• Knowledge of AI infrastructure, trusted AI, LLM ecosystems, or mission AI workloads.

Culture & Benefits

• Mission-focused, collaborative work on high-impact AI challenges for government, defense, and critical infrastructure.
• Flexible hybrid work environment with remote options and flexible working hours.
• Equity ownership through RSUs.
• Unlimited PTO and 14 paid company holidays.
• 401(k) with company match, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance starting day one.
• Paid parental leave.