Full-Time

Mission Director

Cyber

Updated on 9/4/2026

Defense Unicorns

Defense Unicorns

201-500 employees

Secure DevSecOps platform for defense

Compensation Overview

$145k - $185k/yr

+ Company stock options

No H1B Sponsorship

Remote in USA

Remote

Remote within the United States, with 25–40% travel expected.

US Top Secret Clearance Required

Category
Sales & Account Management (1)
Required Skills
Kubernetes
Microsoft Azure
Docker
AWS
Terraform
DevOps
Helm
Google Cloud Platform

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Responsibilities
  • Identify and develop net-new Cyber opportunities and build trusted relationships with Mission Heroes and key stakeholders.
  • Own a quota and grow a diversified portfolio of business.
  • Define customer problems, scope, and desired outcomes to shape solutions using Defense Unicorns products and the right acquisition approach.
  • Lead opportunities through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
  • Serve as the program leader for new contracts you close, with direct responsibility for execution until the portfolio reaches the scale where additional program management support is warranted.
  • Manage delivery risks, scope changes, and mission outcomes.
  • Define and build the team required to execute each contract. Personally lead contract execution and, as the portfolio grows, lead program managers and other delivery leaders across the portfolio.
  • Maintain an active pipeline and continue developing new opportunities while executing existing contracts by identifying follow-on work, expansions, and adjacent opportunities.
  • Own customer retention, portfolio growth, and gross margin.
  • Grow from individual contract ownership into a broader portfolio leadership role.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience within the Cyber domain or a closely related defense environment.
  • Strong understanding of the culture, mission, stakeholders, and terminology within the supported domain.
  • Experience in one or more of military operations, government program management, acquisition, contracting, business development, or defense industry program leadership.
  • Working knowledge of federal acquisition, including contract vehicles, acquisition strategies, and contract negotiations.
  • Strong commercial judgment and comfort owning revenue-generating activities.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead teams and hold accountability for outcomes.
  • Willingness to operate across business development, contracting, staffing, and execution, personally driving critical work while building and leading teams required to scale.
  • Comfort operating with ambiguity, identifying opportunities, and creating a path forward without a predefined playbook.
  • Technical fluency sufficient to understand and communicate Defense Unicorns products, cloud-native technologies, DevSecOps, Kubernetes, and modern software delivery concepts.

Defense Unicorns provides secure, open-source DevSecOps solutions and related services for defense and federal customers. Its platform is designed to be infrastructure-agnostic, integrating development, security, and operations to deliver software quickly while meeting strict federal security and accreditation standards. The company differentiates itself by focusing on mission-driven government and defense programs, leveraging open-source tooling, and offering training and consulting to help organizations upskill, transform digitally, and navigate DoD SBIR/STTR programs. The goal is to help government agencies and defense contractors deliver secure software at speed, acquire and integrate software solutions efficiently, and achieve compliance in complex procurement environments.

Company Size

201-500

Company Stage

Series B

Total Funding

$171.5M

Headquarters

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Founded

2021

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • On January 13, 2026, Bain led $136 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation.
  • On June 2, 2026, UDS Fleet expanded centralized software management to tactical edge systems.
  • UDS Army and Navy CANES work target faster approvals and deployment across critical programs.

What critics are saying

  • DittoLive sued Defense Unicorns on July 9, 2026, alleging trade secret theft in Georgia.
  • Federal revenue concentration leaves budget slips at the Navy or Army instantly painful.
  • A failed classified-environment deployment would cripple trust and freeze procurement across DoD.

What makes Defense Unicorns unique

  • UDS ships airgap-native software to ships, submarines, and classified DoD networks.
  • Defense Unicorns holds Navy CANES Next Gen, Army UDS, and Space Force contracts.
  • Lauren Knausenberger joined in 2026, pairing Air Force CIO credibility with go-to-market muscle.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401(k) Retirement Plan

401(k) Company Match

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Paid Parental Leave

Home Office Stipend

Conference Attendance Budget

Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-6%

1 year growth

-6%

2 year growth

-8%
PR Newswire
Sep 2nd, 2026
Former Air Force CIO Lauren Knausenberger joins Defense Unicorns as Chief Business Officer

Defense Unicorns has appointed Lauren Knausenberger as chief business officer. Knausenberger brings decades of experience in technology advancement, digital transformation, and cybersecurity across government and defence environments. She will drive the company's growth strategy, strengthen strategic partnerships, and expand its impact across the defence ecosystem. Most recently, she served as executive vice president and chief innovation officer at SAIC, where she led strategy and AI-enabled transformation. Previously, Knausenberger was chief information officer of the Department of the Air Force, overseeing a technology portfolio valued at approximately $17 billion. She supported around 20,000 cyber operations personnel globally. Defense Unicorns, founded in 2021, builds airgap-native technologies for secure software delivery across defence environments.

Telecom Reseller
Jul 29th, 2026
Defense Unicorns, Paramify, partner.

Defense Unicorns, Paramify, partner. Defense Unicorns and Paramify are teaming up to help defense and government organizations move software through secure environments faster by combining software delivery automation with compliance automation. The companies announced a strategic partnership that integrates Paramify's compliance automation platform into Defense Unicorns' Unified Defense Stack (UDS), giving federal customers a more streamlined way to manage security requirements while deploying mission-critical software. For government technology partners, the announcement highlights a growing challenge across federal IT: helping agencies modernize faster while meeting strict security and compliance requirements. Traditionally, compliance processes have required significant manual effort and documentation before new capabilities can be deployed. By automating more of that work, Defense Unicorns and Paramify aim to help organizations maintain security controls while reducing delays that can slow down mission deployments. The partnership initially targets defense and federal use cases, including programs supporting organizations such as the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. The companies said the combined offering will help customers maintain compliance across complex environments while allowing updates and new capabilities to move more quickly. For solution providers supporting federal customers, the partnership reflects a broader shift in government technology. As agencies push for faster software delivery, partners that can help customers navigate security, compliance and deployment requirements will play an increasingly important role.

PR Newswire
Jul 16th, 2026
US Navy advances Defense Unicorns to shipboard deployment phase for software evaluation

The US Navy has selected Defense Unicorns to advance to shipboard deployment phase under a Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic Other Transaction Agreement. The phase transitions from lab-based to at-sea operational evaluations aboard naval vessels and shore facilities. Defense Unicorns previously completed the CANES Next Generation prototype, demonstrating its Unified Defense Stack's ability to rapidly configure hardware and launch software in secure, airgap-native shipboard environments. The company's UDS Enterprise provides a secure platform for deploying software in air-gapped environments, whilst UDS Fleet enables infrastructure management across multiple deployed environments. Defense Unicorns is a veteran-owned defence technology company founded in 2021 by Rob Slaughter, Jeff McCoy, and Andrew Greene. Its technology is used by the US Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force.

Intelligence Community News
Jun 3rd, 2026
Defense Unicorns launches UDS Fleet.

Defense Unicorns launches UDS Fleet. 0 Comments On June 2, Defense Unicorns, provider of airgap-native software delivery for national security missions, announced the launch of UDS Fleet, a purpose-built product within the Unified Defense Stack (UDS) platform designed to solve one of defense's most persistent challenges: deploying and managing software at scale across distributed systems operating on the front lines. UDS Fleet is built for mission operators managing dispersed fleets of tactical systems in complex, contested environments. By replacing fragmented, manual processes with centralized fleet management, operators gain the clarity and control needed to maintain operational readiness at speed and scale. "The way defense software gets deployed and managed hasn't kept pace with the speed of modern missions. UDS Fleet changes that at the edge. We're giving mission operators a clear, practical path to manage secure software across distributed systems, whether they're in a data center or operating in the most contested environments on the planet. This is about giving the people who defend this nation the tools they need to move fast and win," said Dr. Rob Slaughter, CEO, Defense Unicorns UDS Fleet is part of the broader Unified Defense Stack platform, which also includes UDS Enterprise - designed for platform engineers and cybersecurity teams managing cloud and on-premises data center environments. The two products are designed to work together, with UDS Fleet extending secure software delivery out to the edge as an organization's operational footprint grows. "UDS Fleet reflects our commitment to delivering software that is secure by design, operationally resilient, and built for the realities of modern defense missions. We're replacing complexity with clarity, from the data center to the tactical edge," added Slaughter. Like IC News? Then please consider subscribing. You'll get full access to its searchable library of 10,000+ articles, plus new articles each weekday.

PR Newswire
Jun 2nd, 2026
Defense Unicorns launches UDS Fleet for tactical edge software management

Defense Unicorns has launched UDS Fleet, a product designed to manage software deployment across distributed defense systems at the tactical edge. The platform gives mission operators centralised visibility and control over dispersed tactical systems in contested environments. UDS Fleet comprises two capabilities: Fleet Connect, which allows operators to manage software on individual systems via Android and browser-based apps, and Fleet Command, which provides unified fleet-wide visibility. The product complements UDS Enterprise for data centre environments. The San Antonio-based company serves all US military branches across over 80 mission systems. Defense Unicorns holds a $300 million Department of Defense contract for software and GenAI solutions in classified environments, plus a $15 million Space Force contract for launch range modernisation.