Industry Practice Lead - Defense & Government

The Role

• Own Luminary's defense and government vertical end-to-end as a consultative, outcome-based sale: client development, engagement scoping, deal closure, account expansion
• Engage at CEO, CTO, and General Officer level across defense primes, defense tech companies, DoW, intelligence community, and federal agencies
• Sell outcomes, not tools: structure and scope $1M-$10M+ Physics AI programs that transform how customers solve mission-critical design, manufacturing, operational, and sustainment problems
• Develop the engagement thesis for each target account: what problem, what outcome, what value, what proof point, what expansion path
• Work hand-in-hand with Lead Delivery Engineers to ensure value delivery and translate engagement learnings into repeatable practice IP
• Build and maintain executive relationships across DoD leadership, DARPA, DIU, service labs, IC agencies, and C-suite at primes and defense tech
• Shape Luminary's defense and government market strategy: which programs, which buyers, which procurement vehicles, in what order
• Inform product roadmap based on client needs, competitive dynamics, and procurement realities
• Build the defense and government practice: engagement frameworks, case studies, reference architectures, pricing models, team composition templates
• Reports to Head of Sales. Sits on the leadership team and partners directly with the CEO on defense and gov accounts, strategy, and roadmap

You

• 10+ years in defense, national security, or government technology, including experience leading complex technical engagements with C-suite and senior government stakeholders
• Consultative seller at heart: you sell business outcomes and transformation, not product features. A background in consulting—translating client problems into scoped, value-based engagements—is a strong plus (top-tier strategy/management consulting welcome, but not required). This is an engineering-led consultative sale.
• Track record of personally developing and leading $5M+ client relationships with defense, government, or national security executives
• Skilled at structuring ambiguous problems: decomposing a client's operational challenge into a scoped engagement with clear deliverables, timelines, and value metrics
• Comfortable as the senior person in the room with flag officers, PEOs, and defense company CEOs
• Have built or significantly grown a practice, business line, or sector offering, not just delivered within one
• Understand defense procurement: OTA, SBIR/STTR, POM cycles, program office budgets, IDIQ, FAR/DFARS
• Comfortable selling a capability into white space where requirements don't yet exist, not responding to defined RFPs
• Can operate at both the strategic layer (which programs, which customers, what sequence) and the execution layer (scoping calls, pricing, SOW drafting, delivery oversight)
• Active TS/SCI or Secret clearance with ability to obtain TS

Nice to Have

• Existing relationships with AFLCMC, NAVAIR, DARPA PMs, DIU leadership, NGA, NRO, or IC program managers
• Experience bringing AI/ML, simulation, or digital engineering capabilities into defense contexts
• Prior military service (O-5+ or senior civilian equivalent)
• Background in engineering, CFD, computational physics, simulation, or modeling & simulation for defense applications

Not This Role If You

• Come from pure enterprise SaaS with no defense or government context
• Need a large team, lots of marketing air cover, and inbound pipeline to succeed
• Default to small pilots to avoid executive-level conversations
• Treat client development as proposal writing rather than relationship and thesis building
• Sell product features and tools rather than business outcomes and the transformation our technology delivers
• Are looking for a role where someone else defines the engagement and you deliver it
• Can't explain why physics matters to a warfighter or a CEO

Comp

• Base + meaningful equity + deal-based variable
• Early leadership role in a category-defining Physics AI company
• Direct access to CEO and Executive Team