Director - Agentic AI

Peraton Labs is seeking a visionary Technology Leader with a focus on strategic innovation, to serve as a principal architect of enterprise-level agentic systems-you will envision, design, and operationalize cutting edge R&D (CRAD and IRAD) ideas into mission-ready, operationally resilient agentic and autonomous capabilities across the Peraton customer mission space. This role will provide a rare opportunity to lead and merge advanced technical engineering innovation with strategic impact, while shaping the future direction of the business and our customer's critical missions. This role is pivotal in fusing deep technical subject matter expertise with strategic vision toward the delivery of impactful solutions aligned with national security priorities, campaign-level initiatives in data management, autonomous application development and operations, and developer enablement.

This position is more than technical oversight-it's a senior engineering, customer facing role with strategic influence, where end-to-end system thinking, mission integration, and technology vision converge. You will play a critical role in shaping enterprise agentic and autonomy campaigns, architecting innovative solutions, and building advanced solutions and products to provide the advantage across all customer mission spaces, well into the future. This role demands a deep commitment to regulatory compliance, ethical AI integration, developer and user enablement, and the consideration of security protocols inherent to the intelligence, defense, and national security domains.

Your key responsibilities may include:

Leading End-to-End Design & Concept Engineering: Own and partner with VP, Technology and stakeholders on the technical architecture and system engineering solutions for strategic agentic AI capabilities from concept through operational transition, ensuring integration, scalability, and mission readiness of emerging technologies. This includes development, application, and mission-level automation and AI-driven response systems.
• Ensuring Regulatory Compliance & Ethical AI Integration: Lead the design and implementation of software and systems in strict adherence to national security policies, cybersecurity regulations (e.g., NIST, DoD Directives, ICDs), and ethical AI principals, ensuring legal, responsible, and auditable deployment within both classified and unclassified environments.
• Drive Innovation-to-Impact Transformation: Translate R&D outputs into executable, fieldable systems that address mission-critical needs across Peraton customer domains.
• Architect Across Mission Domains: Engineer interoperable, cross-domain solutions that integrate with enterprise IT/OT environments, cloud infrastructures, and national security systems, ensuring seamless and secure operations.
• Shape and Support Enterprise Strategy: Collaborate with corporate strategy, technology leadership, and our customers, to align engineering direction with strategic campaign priorities and investment roadmaps, particularly around AI/ML integration for customer missions.
• Guide Technical Capture & Business Development: Serve as senior engineering lead on high-priority captures, providing solution architecture, system performance analysis, technical narratives, and differentiators that resonate with mission buyers. Brief advanced technical topics to both customers and internal stakeholders.
• Support High-Value Campaigns and R&D Strategy: Lead engineering planning for major enterprise campaigns, ensuring alignment between R&D portfolios, customer needs, and opportunity timing.
• Build & Leverage Innovation Ecosystems: Drive collaboration with external technology sources including national labs, FFRDCs, universities, and commercial innovators to accelerate system evolution and mission impact.
• Conduct Technical Reviews and Mission Assurance Assessments: Serve as senior design authority on internal reviews, engineering gates, and readiness evaluations across key programs and R&D initiatives, focusing on system validation, ethical AI considerations, and resilience testing, and compliance with all applicable government and industry standards.
• Advise Senior Leaders: Influence executive-level decisions with technical insight into system feasibility, risk, integration timelines, and transition pathways.

General Experience:

• 16+ years of experience with a background in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline within the Defense, Intelligence, national security ecosystem, or closely related commercial innovators.
• Proven track record leading development and transition efforts for large-scale software projects.
• Experience delivering engineering solutions in accordance with Federal Acquisition the Regulation (FAR) and navigating within complex federal regulations, security mandates, and federal directives within classified environments.
• Excellent ability to communicate complex systems concepts to internal and external technical and executive audiences.
• Skilled in leading diverse technical teams, mentoring engineering talent, and driving outcomes across organizational boundaries within available resources.
• Experience influencing corporate or enterprise strategy through technical leadership and engineering planning.
• Ability to connect system engineering outcomes to mission value, cost-benefit tradeoffs, and enterprise growth strategies.
• Experience supporting high-value proposals, customer shaping activities, and enterprise investment decisions.
• This position requires a minimum of an active/current Top Secret security clearance with ability to obtain SCI.

Technical Expertise:

• Deep understanding of software development, software development management, workflow automation, and effective documentation and training practices for these skill areas.
• Experience leading AI/ML and large scale software development projects to successful fielding, operations, and sustainment.

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can't be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.