About this role.
Defense Unicorns is hiring a Commercial Account Executive to lead end-to-end business capture and new-customer acquisition across the U.S. Defense Industrial Base. The role owns opportunity qualification, capture planning, win strategy, teaming arrangements, customer shaping, and support for RFI/RFP responses. Success is measured through qualified pipeline growth, bookings, proposal win rates, and durable customer relationships. Candidates need deep DIB and government acquisition experience, strong executive communication, and the ability to position secure software delivery, DevSecOps, cybersecurity, and tactical-edge solutions. The position is remote in the United States and requires approximately 20%–30% travel.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
5/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
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Core skills
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Sample interview questions
I would outline the customer mission, procurement path, competitive landscape, and my capture plan. I would explain how I shaped requirements, coordinated technical and partner resources, built discriminating win themes, and used milestone reviews to improve proposal readiness and increase win probability.
I assess mission alignment, customer access, funding maturity, acquisition timeline, competitive position, technical fit, partner requirements, and realistic probability of win. I use these factors to prioritize opportunities that support bookings goals while avoiding resource-intensive pursuits with weak strategic fit.
I would begin with the stakeholder's mission risk and desired operational outcomes, such as faster delivery, improved software assurance, reduced authorization delays, or resilience at the tactical edge. I would translate technical features into measurable mission benefits and support the message with relevant use cases, implementation approach, and risk reduction.
I identify capability gaps, customer preferences, contract-vehicle needs, socioeconomic considerations, and incumbent advantages. I then select partners with complementary strengths, establish clear roles and governance early, and ensure the combined team presents a credible, differentiated solution rather than overlapping capabilities.
I maintain a structured account and capture cadence with stakeholder maps, qualification checkpoints, next-step ownership, and regularly refreshed assumptions about funding and acquisition timing. I also create value between formal milestones by sharing market insight, refining the solution with partners, and keeping internal leadership informed through accurate pipeline reporting.
This position offers a base salary of $145,000 – $185,000. (Total on-target earnings of $290,000 to $370,000)Role Description:
Defense Unicorns is seeking a mission-driven Account Executive to spearhead full-lifecycle capture efforts across the Defense Industrial Base. In this high-impact role, you will shape and lead strategic pursuits that align Defense Unicorns’ unique strengths—secure software delivery, DevSecOps, tactical edge enablement, and cybersecurity—with emerging government needs.
You will own the acquisition of new Mission Heroes (what we call our customers) from early qualification through proposal, driving win strategies, forming key partnerships, and aligning technical solutions to mission outcomes. This is a pivotal role within our growth team that directly influences the company’s pipeline, revenue targets, and national security impact.
Responsibilities:
- Drive new Mission Hero acquisition across the DIB ecosystem, ensuring alignment with Defense Unicorn’s strategic growth objectives and solution capabilities.
- Develop and execute capture plans, win strategies, and competitive positioning to secure new business.
- Engage early with government stakeholders, primes, and ecosystem partners to shape opportunities ahead of solicitation.
- Understand customer pain points, acquisition timelines, and funding paths across multiple branches of the DoD.
- Identify and lead teaming arrangements that enhance technical capabilities, socio-economic positioning, or incumbent advantage.
- Translate technical capabilities—such as the Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS), cATO acceleration, and edge deployments—into persuasive win themes.
- Support RFI/RFP responses with market intelligence, SWOT analysis, and pricing strategy input.
- Prepare regular reports on business development activities, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and analyze the effectiveness of various strategies. Use data-driven insights to refine approaches and achieve better results.
- Represent the company at industry and government events to raise visibility and gather market intelligence.
You are measured by:
- Number and quality of qualified DIB opportunities identified and advanced
- Maturity of pipeline supporting growth goals
- Development and execution of capture strategies, including capture plans, customer shaping, and teaming
- Achievement of annual bookings target
- Contribution to overall proposal win rate and contract awards
- Success in building lasting relationships that lead to competitive advantage
Travel Expectations/Requirements: 20%-30%
The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.
Preferred Experience and Qualifications:
- Proven ability to win complex technical pursuits through the full capture lifecycle.
- Working knowledge of acquisition processes (e.g., FAR-based contracts, OTAs, SBIR, IDIQ).
- Excellent communication, strategic thinking, and leadership skills across technical and executive audiences.
- Experience coordinating multi-disciplinary teams to deliver successful proposals.
- Familiarity with software factory environments, DevSecOps, cybersecurity, or tactical edge deployments is a strong plus.
- Deep DIB experience.
Who We Are
Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.
What We Do
We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.
Who We Serve
Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.
What We Work On
- Kubernetes
- Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
- Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
- Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
- GitOps
- Containers
- CNCF projects and open source products and packages
- Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
- Building and improving security delivery
- Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications
Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy
Health:
- Medical/Dental/Vision
- Premiums are 100% Company Paid
- Health Savings Account
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
Financial:
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Company Stock Options
- Home Office Budget
Leave:
- We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid Parental Leave
Learning:
- Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
- Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)
Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don’t meet every requirement listed.
At Defense Unicorns, we’re committed to diversity. If you’re enthusiastic about the role but don’t match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
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