Engineering Manager, Security Platform

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 Secure access is a critical enabler of Vannevar’s mission. We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Security Platform team and drive the strategy, execution, and evolution of the systems that govern authentication, authorization, and access management across our products. In this role, you will lead a team responsible for centralized identity and access infrastructure, including IdP integrations, authorization policy frameworks, SSO capabilities, and access management tooling. Working closely with engineering, mission, and product partners, you will build secure-by-default platforms that reduce friction for developers, provide clarity and control for administrators, and ensure end users can access only the resources they are authorized to see. What you’ll do Team leadership: Grow and mentor a high-performing team of engineers. Foster a strong engineering culture focused on security, reliability, ownership, and delivering high-impact platform capabilities. Strategy and technical direction: Define the roadmap and technical vision for authentication, authorization, and access management capabilities, ensuring Vannevar’s identity platform scales securely and reliably with the business. Platform and developer enablement: Lead the development of centralized identity and access services—including IdP integrations, authorization infrastructure, and SSO capabilities—that reduce friction for product teams and enable secure-by-default development. Cross-functional execution: Partner with Product, Mission, Infrastructure, and Engineering teams to deliver foundational identity and access capabilities that balance security, usability, and operational excellence. Organizational impact: Drive adoption of access control standards, security best practices, and platform capabilities across engineering teams to create a consistent and trustworthy access experience throughout Vannevar. What we’re looking for Engineering leadership: 3+ years of experience leading and developing high-performing software engineering teams, with a track record of delivering complex technical initiatives and growing engineers. Identity and access expertise: Strong understanding of authentication, authorization, access control, and secure system design, with experience building or operating identity, security, or platform infrastructure. Distributed systems experience: 8+ years of software engineering experience building and operating scalable, reliable distributed systems that serve as critical infrastructure for engineering organizations. Product and customer mindset: Demonstrated ability to partner closely with product, engineering, and operational stakeholders to deliver solutions that balance customer needs, business priorities, and technical excellence. Judgment and execution: Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and make sound tradeoffs between security, reliab