Head of Sensing - Perception

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.

The sensing team at Vannevar Labs is building a new hardware product that supports a widespread need for cheap, attritable, and easily coordinated sensing. We’re looking for an experience leader in the RF signal processing and sensing space to lead a team of signal processing and machine learning engineers in building an intelligent signal detection and characterization platform.

You will function as the lead for a growing team of signal processing and machine learning engineers and set the overall direction of signal detection, characterization, and identification at Vannevar Labs to address mission critical sensing requirements for our end users in the United States Government.

• Own R&D of novel DSP and machine learning approaches to address our end users’ diverse sensing needs
• Collaborate with cross disciplinary engineering teams to integrate you and your teams’ work in production
• Act as the people lead for a small team of DSP and machine learning specialists
• Be a hands on technical contributor to unblock or bootstrap key initiatives
• Travel up to 20% of time to meet with internal and external stakeholders

• 5+ years of experience leading teams building RF sensing systems
• 5+ years of experience as a signal processing engineer, RF systems engineer, or similar discipline
• Proven track record of managing sensing products from research to production
• Proficiency in Python, C++
• Experience working with customers in the United States Department of Defense or other government agencies

We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include: 

• Health, dental, and vision insurance 
• 100% remote first culture. You can work from anywhere in the US and all full time employees have WeWork access 
• Unlimited PTO including competitive vacation and holiday schedules 
• Lifestyle stipends - Monthly mental health, wellness & fitness stipend, in-home office setup stipend and family planning assistance 
• Salary top-up during military reserve duty 
• Fully paid parental leave 
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel