Software Project Lead

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  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 data-science staff. Team Leadership & Delivery Drive the technical vision and keep the program aligned to it. Coordinate across the PM, subject-matter experts, and the software team, sequence...