Co-founder, federal sales.
Lead federal sales for the IL5 sovereign AI stack. Material co-founder equity. Pre-revenue. Technical substrate already shipped.
Ten engineering systems shipped solo. Federal sales motion: not yet. That gap is the co-founder seat.
Pull a repo. Read the source.
Verify the work before deciding to take the seat. The public companion repositories are organized for evaluator review.
Auspex
Federal-gated. Single-page public contact. Replay package available under evaluation NDA. Scope-as-code + 13-check Signet gate + HMAC-chained per-engagement audit.
Mycelium
R2I-aligned MOSA surface. NIST 800-53 mapped. 50-endpoint OpenAPI 3.1 published. Day-27 cryptographic reduction-to-practice with HMAC-chained tamper-evident audit log.
RigRun
Three apps (desktop, mobile, web) on one Go backend. 44 NIST 800-53 controls implemented as discrete code paths. CUI+ hard-blocked from cloud routing at the compiler, not at runtime policy.
Signet
The vocabulary Auspex extends. 4-stage check pipeline. 11 production checks. HMAC-chained audit log. RFC 3161 trusted-timestamp anchoring. Public bug-hunt log documenting every cycle.
Responsibilities
You are the second co-founder. You own the federal sales motion end-to-end.
Land 2-4 signed federal pilots across the IL5 trio (Auspex / Mycelium / RigRun) over the first 12 months post-DD-214.
Build a customer board of 5-8 program-office relationships that do not depend on the founder being in the room.
Navigate IL5 / FedRAMP-Mod / ECCN authorization cycles with the right sponsor at each step.
Set commercial vs federal portfolio strategy across the broader 10-system portfolio.
Lead procurement-vehicle selection per opportunity (SBIR Phase I/II/III, OTA, BAA, CSO, CRADA, IDIQ).
Recruit operator-credibility hires when they are needed. Likely first hire: Director of Federal Sales or COO at the 18-month mark.
Who fits.
Required are hard. Preferred are advantages. If you're within striking distance of most of the required list, write anyway — exceptions are made for material edges we didn't anticipate.
Required
- Roughly 8+ years operational experience at one of: MARFORCYBER, USCYBERCOM (J3), NSA TAO, IC red team, FBI Cyber Division, USAF 24th MOS, or peer organization. Senior NCO or O-grade typical; exceptional shorter-tenured candidates considered.
- Active TS/SCI clearance, or recent eligibility within the last 24 months. SCI-eligible at minimum.
- Post-uniform experience at a defense-AI startup (founding employee or early hire), fractional CRO/CSO across multiple defense AI startups, or corporate development at a defense prime's AI division (Booz Allen, SAIC, Leidos, GDIT, MITRE). Equivalent experience considered.
- At least one closed federal AI contract (won or lost) under FedRAMP, IL5, or ECCN scrutiny. You can articulate exactly why the outcome happened and what you would do differently.
- Material federal Rolodex: program-office contacts who will answer when you call, distributed across some combination of SOCOM, USCYBERCOM, DARPA (I2O preferred), AFRL, AvMC, NSA, CISA, or USAISI.
- Proven ability to translate technical capability into procurement-language wins. Comfortable with SBIR, OTA, BAA, CSO, CRADA, IDIQ.
Preferred
- Direct experience as buyer or seller in AI red team programs (relevant to Auspex).
- Familiarity with R2I / MOSA compliance frameworks.
- Prior pre-seed or seed-stage co-founder experience.
- Working knowledge of one or more program offices: Replicator, FS-LIDS, NAVSEA USV-counter-USV, SOCPAC R2I, or USAISI evaluator pipeline.
- Operator-side credibility in adversarial AI safety (red team, threat hunt, capability evaluation).
- Federal acquisition certification (FAC-C, DAWIA Level II+) is a plus, not required.
What the seat looks like
Equity
Single-digit-percentage co-founder stake, vested 4 years with 1-year cliff. Pilot-conversion accelerators on top.
Title
Co-founder. Functional title (President / COO / Chief Federal Officer) tailored to background.
Cash compensation
Pre-pilot: $0 base, founder-stage. Step-up trigger tied to first signed federal pilot.
Work model
Remote-primary. Regular travel to program offices (SOCOM / MacDill is local to HQ).
Start date
In position by Q1 2027 to align with FY27 federal-pilot procurement cycle.
Funding posture
Not raising. Path to revenue via federal pilots, not VC.
Send the email.
Subject: Co-founder application
- 01 The federal programs you have worked, and on which side of the table.
- 02 One customer relationship you would convert in the first 90 days, and which Thornveil system you would lead with.
- 03 One thing in this job description that gave you pause, and how you would address it if hired.
1–2 paragraphs is plenty. No resume needed at first contact.
Response timeline
Responses within 48 hours. Initial conversation is a 30-min call. Target first contact to handshake: 4–6 weeks.
Equal opportunity
Thornveil LLC is an equal-opportunity employer. Selection is based on qualifications, fit, and ability to execute the role.