Engineering Manager, Mission Agents (Fulltime - Remote)

Description

• Client supports people on the front lines by building tools that deter and de-escalate conflict with America's adversaries. We build software and hardware for this mission that enable our customers to maintain maritime vigilance, disrupt misinformation, and collect non-traditional intelligence. In strategic competition, the intelligence and actions that shape conflict occur well before war itself. We build tools to win this fight now.

About This Role

• We are looking for an Engineering Manager with 8+ years of experience building and shipping production software and 3+ years leading teams to own and scale our agent-powered mission console at Client. You're a product-minded technical leader who has built agentic AI systems in production and thrives working closely with product, design, and customer teams. You'll lead a team of ~5 engineers (growing to ~7) building full-stack agentic workflows that give warfighters real decision advantage — including expanding our flagship Decrypt product to support international allied partners. This is a rare opportunity to shape how AI agents are deployed for national security at one of the fastest-growing defense tech companies in the country.
• Initial Screen with Ashley, Technical Recruiter (30 minutes)
• Hiring Manager Interview with Scott, Engineering Director (30 minutes)
• Virtual Onsite (3 hours)
• Top Grading / Executive Interview with CTO (60 minutes)
• Offer extended

Seniority

• 8+ years of experience in full-stack software engineering, 3+ leading a team of engineers

Work experience

• Built and scaled customer-facing AI agents or LLM-powered products in production
• 3+ years managing engineering teams (5-10 people)
• Product-focused engineering background; experience building and shipping software in production

Education

• BS in Computer Science or equivalent technical background

Hard skills

• Full-stack proficient: Python/TypeScript/React
• Familiar with agentic frameworks (LangGraph, Pydantic AI, similar)

Soft skills

• Strong management skills; passionate about leading and mentoring team of engineers
• Exceptional product instincts — shipped user-facing software iteratively with PMs

Miscellaneous

• U.S. Citizenship required (no visa sponsorship)
• Willing to travel to offsites and customer sites
• Traits to avoid
• Pure people-manager with no hands-on technical depth
• No interest in defense or national security mission
• Needs heavy process before shipping; slow-moving

Work Arrangement

• Fully remote work environment with flexible hours.
• Annual team off-sites for face-to-face interaction.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Product-oriented with experience in user-facing AI projects.
• Hands-on technical leadership preferred over purely managerial experience.
• Industry - AI, Defense, Security, Government, Hardware

“Cleo Consulting is an equal opportunity employer (Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled)”