Forward Deployed Engineer - Software Modernization (Ts/Sci Clearance Required)

About the role

Our Mission teams operate like small startups within the Vannevar umbrella. As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) supporting software modernization for the Department of War, you will serve as the technical lead for customer engagements focused on modernizing mission-critical software systems. You will work directly with technical stakeholders across government and other defense primes supporting national security missions, owning the architecture, development, deployment, and fielding of agentic solutions tailored to real-world systems engineering challenges.

In this role, you will act as a senior technical counterpart to customer stakeholders - translating mission requirements into scalable software, navigating government technical environments, and ensuring capabilities are delivered reliably into production. You will collaborate closely with product, design, platform engineering, and mission teammates to deliver high-impact outcomes, while remaining a hands-on individual contributor.

U.S. Persons status with at least a current Top Secret US DoD or IC clearance is required. This is a customer-facing role required to be based in Washington D.C. Work will require time in secure or classified environments and frequent travel (40-50%).

What you'll do

• Deploy, customize, and extend Vannevar's agentic software modernization platform to accelerate refactoring, architecture modernization, testing, and software delivery for mission-critical defense systems.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customer stakeholders, partnering with government and industry teams to understand mission requirements and deliver technical outcomes.
• Collaborate with engineers, product teams, and mission experts to design and deliver software solutions that address complex systems engineering challenges.
• Analyze existing massive software architectures, development workflows, and technical constraints to identify modernization opportunities and guide implementation strategies.
• Develop technical recommendations, demonstrations, and modernization plans that help government program offices adopt AI-enabled software engineering capabilities.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building and deploying production systems across the DoW or IC.
• Experience working directly with customers or stakeholders to translate mission requirements into technical solutions. Candidate should have strong technical communication skills and the ability to lead complex technical discussions with both engineers and senior stakeholders.
• Experience supporting modernization, integration, or sustainment efforts for large-scale software systems.
• Proficiency in one or more of TypeScript, Python, Java, C++, or similar programming languages.
• Experience with modern software development and deployment practices, including cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and DevSecOps.
• Experience operating in regulated or secure environments, including DoD Risk Management Framework (RMF) and NIST 800-53.

What we value

• Experience with Ada, CMS-2, C++, Java, or other legacy systems languages.
• Experience building, evaluating, or operating coding agents, software engineering agents, code intelligence systems, or agentic developer tools using LangGraph, OpenAI SDK, Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent2Agent (A2A), and more.
• Experience with software architecture reviews, systems engineering, requirements management, verification, and validation.
• Prior experience working with defense primes or government program offices.

What we offer

We're proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Remote friendly with WeWork access
• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year
• 401(k) match
• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends
• Salary top-up during military reserve duty
• Fully paid parental leave
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel