Product Manager - Mission Agents

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 Product Manager for our Mission Agents team. This team owns the systems that turn user intent into execution - from chat and tasking to persistent agent workflows. You will define how users delegate work to software, how those systems operate on real-world data, and how they are monitored, constrained, and improved over time. This is not a traditional roadmap role. You will take in incomplete, conflicting inputs from users, stakeholders, data, and systems - and decide what we should actually build. You will work closely with operators, forward deployed engineers, and engineering teams to identify high-leverage problems and drive them through to shipped capability. You will often need to ignore loud or conflicting inputs and make decisions that others disagree with. This role reports to the CTO and operates at the intersection of mission, product, and engineering. Success is measured by whether we build the right things and those things create real mission impact. What you'll do Synthesize signal into direction. Take in messy, conflicting inputs and determine what actually matters. Define how agents behave. Shape primitives like objectives, constraints, trust tiers, and evaluation criteria. Improve output quality. Drive systematic improvements across models, memory, and workflows. Own product direction end-to-end. Turn ambiguous problems into concrete bets and drive them through delivery. Work directly with users. Build deep intuition for real-world workflows and needs. Translate mission signal into product direction. Take in real-world user signal and translate it into clear product direction, including pushing back when needed. Partner with engineering. Shape solutions that are both impactful and technically sound. Drive alignment in ambiguous situations. Bring clarity across stakeholders when perspectives conflict. What you should have Strong product judgment. You consistently identify the right problems and make sound prioritization decisions. Ability to separate signal from noise. Y ou form independent, defensible opinions from incomplete and conflicting inputs. Experience with complex systems or platforms. You’ve worked on products where behavior emerges from underlying primitives. Experience operating under real constraints. You’ve shipped products where security, infrastructure, or deployment realities shaped decisions. High ownership and bias toward action. You take responsibility for outcomes and push work through to completion. Technical fluency. You can engage with engineers and understand system constraints and tradeoffs. Clear, direct communication. You can articulate decisions, tradeoffs, and reasoning in a way others can act on. Nice to have Experience working with operational or mission-driven users Experience with LLM-based systems Experience with product analytics (e.g., SQL) Experience rapidly prototypin