Founding Mission Engineer

About Manifold

The dynamic and chaotic military battlefield demands a radical shift in current decision‑making paradigms. Manifold is building the Decision‑Making Engine for the 21st century that delivers the U.S. military an asymmetric advantage at the speed of conflict.

Founding Mission Engineers (FMEs) are the core of Manifold’s warfighter‑embedded engineering team, delivering solutions where speed and execution matter most. They are hands‑on problem solvers who design and deploy practical, scalable solutions that directly impact mission critical outcomes.

FMEs shadow users to map workflows and understand pain points. They then scope, build, and ship full‑stack products into secure environments. They iterate rapidly based on real‑world feedback and deliver end‑to‑end demos to senior mission stakeholders, ensuring that our solutions win trust in the field.

You will shape the core of our decision‑making platform while delivering immediate impact to mission users. Specifically, you will:

• Build and deliver initial demos and workflows that earn warfighter trust.

• Integrate both notional and real‑time data sources into the platform.

• Lay the groundwork for the Decision‑Making Engine
  , constantly asking what elements of field demos can be abstracted into reusable, core platform components.

• Work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with operators
  , gathering feedback, iterating quickly, and ensuring every delivery moves us closer to mission adoption.

• Intellectual Curiosity: Actively seeks to understand new concepts, technologies, and mission domains

• Bias to Action: Reduces uncertainty through decisive, informed action

• Customer Obsession: Relentlessly focused on delivering value to customers

• Independence: Scopes ambiguous problems and own end to end outcomes while remaining aligned with Manifold’s goals and values

• Location: D.C. / NYC Metro‑based OR willing to relocate (relocation support to DC available).

• Onsite: Willing to travel onsite roughly 25‑50% of the time

• Education: STEM degree

• Experiences: Strong software development skills. Proficient in at least one of Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, or Typescript

• Clearances: Must be eligible to obtain a DoD security clearance

• Citizenship: Must be a U.S. citizen

• Clearances: Active DoD Secret (TS / SCI a plus)

• Systems Design
  
  Experience:
  
  Experience developing complex and scalable customer‑facing products and systems

• Customer‑Facing Development
  
  Experience:
  
  Regularly met with users and shipped solutions directly informed by their feedback

• Full Stack Development
  
  Experience:
  
  React‑based frameworks (i.e Next, Vite) preferred

• AI / ML Background: Experience with reinforcement learning (RL) and ML model development

• Dev Sec Ops
  
  Experience:
  
  Deploying to secure cloud environments. Familiarity with the ATO process.

• Data Integration
  
  Experience:
  
  Integrating with operational data sources and systems of record within the DoD

• 401(k) with matching

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents

• Unlimited PTO

• Health & Wellness stipend

• Company‑wide break the last two weeks of the year

• Supportive leave of absence including time off for military service, medical events, and parental leave