Staff Technical Product Manager

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives. Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still. About the role We’re hiring a Staff Technical Product Manager to lead definition and evolution of foundational platform capabilities spanning multiple engineering organizations. This role reports directly to the CTO and operates at the system level - shaping the structures and primitives that underpin our products rather than managing feature-level roadmaps. You will own problems that cross organizational boundaries and cannot be solved within a single team. The objective of this role is improving structural coherence across the platform - defining durable system structures and primitives, aligning stakeholders, and ensuring they translate into real capability. Operating in close partnership with engineering leadership, this role progressively assumes independent ownership of convergence and cross-organizational decision resolution. Execution coordination is part of the role, but performance is measured by durable system improvement and structural convergence. Example problem spaces include: Authorization and policy models Identity and ownership boundaries Data access structures Platform abstractions and shared primitives What you’ll do Define and evolve cross-platform system primitives and structures, translating mission and product needs into durable system behaviors and producing artifacts that clarify system intent (PRDs, specs, evaluation criteria) Drive resolution of structural problems spanning multiple engineering organizations Build alignment across engineering leadership, design, and mission stakeholders Maintain convergence momentum across teams implementing shared capabilities Partner with Engineering Managers to translate structural intent into execution plans and hold convergence through delivery Stay engaged through delivery to ensure implementations converge on intended outcomes Identify architectural divergence early and drive corrective action Identify and drive resolution of cross-team dependencies arising from shared platform primitives and structural initiatives What we’re looking for Experience operating at Staff level in TPM, product architecture, or engineer-to-PM hybrid roles Strong systems reasoning across distributed systems, identity/authorization, or platform architecture Demonstrated success shaping technical direction across multiple teams Demonstrated ability to drive cross-organizational technical initiatives through to outcome - articulating tradeoffs, aligning stakeholders, and landing durable decisions Credible communicator able to influence senior engineers and technical leadership across domains without relying on formal authority structures High ownership mindset in ambiguous environments Outstanding driver and communicator who identifies structural risks early - such as unclear ownership, missing definitions, or weak execution setup - and intervenes to correct course Nice to have Background in platform, infrastru