5-7 years of experience in a relevant technical or strategic role
Strong familiarity with federal compliance frameworks like FedRAMP and FISMA
Proven ability to design multi-tenant architectures and deploy AI/ML systems
Experience delivering complex projects in regulated environments
Strong ownership mentality with a record of seeing projects from inception to completion
Responsibilities
Own the entire project lifecycle from problem decomposition to deployment
Scope and map requirements with federal stakeholders
Design solutions addressing compliance and technical challenges
Shape Thread AI's strategic approach to the federal market
Engage with engineering to validate architecture decisions
Benefits
Opporutnity to influence operational decisions during a pivotal growth stage
Work alongside experienced founders who have a history in AI and enterprise infrastructure
Collaborative environment emphasizing rigorous, transparent, and intentional operations
Encouragement for diverse applicants and those who may not meet all qualifications to apply
Full-time, in-person position based in New York City
Full Job Description
About The Role
This is not a project management role, but a hybrid of strategic thinking, technical fluency, client partnership, and relentless ownership.
Own the full lifecycle: Walk into a federal agency, decompose their hardest problems, architect a path to production on Lemma, and drive it to completion - through compliance, politics, and technical uncertainty.
Navigate the federal landscape: Scope requirements with a federal CTO, map data flows across agency systems, prepare ATO materials, and anticipate where compliance will get stuck before it does.
Make sound technical calls: Design multi-tenant deployment architectures, pressure-test assumptions with engineering, and engage substantively on trade-offs between approaches.
Shape the practice: Help define how Thread AI approaches the federal market - the strategy, partnerships, delivery model, and hiring. This is a founding role.
What we're looking for
First-principles thinker: You decompose complex, ambiguous problems into their load-bearing assumptions instinctively. You synthesize technical constraints, political dynamics, compliance requirements, and user behavior into a cohesive plan.
Federal fluency: Navigated at least some of: FedRAMP, ATO packages, FISMA, NIST 800-53, IL4/IL5. etc. You don't need to be a compliance engineer, but you need to design delivery approaches that work within the landscape.
Technical depth: You can read an architecture diagram and spot where it will break. You understand how APIs, data pipelines, orchestration engines, and AI/ML models fit together. Experience with AWS/GCP/Azure, multi-tenant architectures, or AI/ML deployment patterns is a strong plus.
Delivery under real constraints: You've shipped something meaningful in production, not a demo. Federal, defense, or IC experience is ideal; heavily regulated domains (financial services, healthcare, energy) also count if the complexity was comparable.
Ownership as identity: You see projects through from beginning to end. On a team of fewer than 30, there is nowhere to hide. That excites you.
Nice to Haves
Active TS/SCI clearance, or an active Secret clearance with ability to obtain TS/SCI.
Direct experience deploying AI/ML systems in federal or DoD environments.
Familiarity with FedRAMP High or Moderate authorization processes from the vendor or agency side.
Experience at a forward-deployed technology company operating in the federal space.
Background in data engineering, systems integration, or platform architecture - enough to have opinions about how orchestration layers should work.
Experience operating in early-stage environments (Series A/B) where you've had to build the playbook, not follow one.
Compensation
The base pay range for this role is $150,000 - $230,000 per year + Equity.
Applicant must be a U.S. citizen or national or U.S. lawful, permanent resident.
This is a full-time, in-person position based at our New York City office.
