Federal Solution Leader

Qualifications:

• This role demands both technical credibility and mission depth. Every candidate must clear the technical bar below—this is not a purely advisory or program-management role—and bring depth from one of two directions.
• U.S. citizenship required.
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret/SCI security clearance required; CI or Full-Scope Polygraph strongly preferred.
• Technical credibility (required). Able to architect enterprise AI and data solutions, get hands-on to prototype and build (e.g., Python, SQL, or similar), inspect and reason about data directly, and hold your own with engineers and data scientists.
• Depth from one of two directions (required). Either (a) a strong software or data engineering background, with years building and shipping production systems; or (b) deep military, intelligence, or federal mission expertise paired with demonstrated technical fluency—building tools, scripting and analysis, data-heavy programs, or leading technical teams.
• Bachelor’s degree required in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering, or a related technical or quantitative discipline; advanced degree a plus.
• Demonstrated track record of building and delivering solutions or systems from concept through production, with the judgment to reason from first principles and troubleshoot when things break.
• Deep subject-matter expertise in at least one federal mission domain (e.g., defense, intelligence, aerospace, logistics/supply chain, or another mission area) sufficient to challenge assumptions and earn credibility with government stakeholders.
• Experience working directly with senior technical and executive stakeholders—comfortable in both mission/executive conversations and deep technical design sessions.
• Familiarity with enterprise data environments (cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or Redshift; REST/GraphQL APIs; common ERP or CRM platforms) and modern deployment practices (CI/CD, containerization, cloud-native services, infrastructure-as-code)—or the ability to ramp quickly.
• Preferred Qualifications:
• Prior experience delivering to the U.S. Federal government, especially the Department of War (DoW/DoD), the Intelligence Community, or Aerospace & Defense customers.
• CI or Full-Scope Polygraph, and prior experience delivering software in classified, SCIF, or air-gapped environments.
• Prior U.S. military or government service, or experience as a technical lead embedded within a defense or Intelligence Community program.
• Experience deploying AI/ML platforms or data-heavy enterprise applications at scale, including generative AI, predictive maintenance, optimization, or decision-support solutions.
• Experience with government cloud environments (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) and managed ML/AI services, and with accreditation processes (FedRAMP, DoD IL, ATO).
• Prior experience as a tech lead or staff engineer at a SaaS or enterprise software vendor with a forward-deployed or professional-services motion.
• Awareness of export-control and handling requirements (e.g., ITAR/EAR) relevant to defense and intelligence work.
• Proven ability to turn an ambiguous, loosely scoped mission problem into a clean, repeatable deployment pattern.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future company sponsorship.
• C3 AI provides excellent benefits, a competitive compensation package and generous equity plan.
• C3 AI is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristics, including disabled and veteran status.