Field Program Manager (Active Secret Clearance)

Field Program Manager (Active Secret Clearance)

Austin, Texas or Remote; Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States

Build, Deploy, and Maintain AI for an Unpredictable World

Striveworks helps organizations harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve real-world national security and business challenges by serving as the command center between data, models, and business outcomes. Founded by data scientists and engineers, Striveworks set out to make the journey from deployment to ongoing optimization simple and effective.

With Striveworks, organizations aren't just deploying AI—they're building systems that remain reliable, adaptable, and ready to scale in an unpredictable world. Mission-critical operations require models that perform where they're deployed, scale as workloads grow, and adapt rapidly as AI capabilities advance. Striveworks meets these demands, increasing reliability and performance while lowering costs—and enabling confident, data-driven decision-making in dynamic environments.

The Role

The Field Program Manager (FPM) is a hands-on leader aligned to a US Army Division HQ who serves as Striveworks' primary program leadership presence for the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) program. This is an "ownership" role, not a coordination role; you are the primary authority for delivery, customer relationships, and growth. The FPM collaborates across a small, cross-functional project team to drive execution against the program roadmap and is the person Striveworks leadership calls when something is at risk. This position is designed for someone who has experience in complex Army environments, who understands how Division-level decisions are actually made, and who is done watching technology fail to land because nobody owned the last mile.

At Striveworks, you are trusted to operate autonomously, step into vacuums, and advocate for the end user with technical specificity. Success is measured by presence and follow-through rather than slide decks. You will serve as the company's voice in the room, translating customer friction points into actionable technical roadmaps while maintaining a persistent pulse on how capabilities are utilized in the field. We value proactive problem-solvers who can mitigate execution risks independently and ensure that mission-critical systems land effectively within the formation.

Day-to-day responsibilities:

• Own the relationship: Serve as the primary point of contact for all stakeholders, from end users to Division leadership, to build trust and ensure long-term retention
• Drive growth: Identify expansion opportunities within the formation and surface competitive threats or "win signals" to leadership with enough lead time to act
• Define success: Diagnose operational problems before the customer names them, ensuring that Striveworks' capabilities are providing measurable value
• Bridge the technical gap: Translate field needs into specific, actionable inputs for the engineering team to ensure that product development matches mission reality
• Execute the roadmap: Synchronize technical delivery with contractual milestones, the customer's operational calendar, and exercise cycles to ensure on-time execution
• Mitigate risk: Identify delivery obstacles early, and autonomously resolve execution issues—escalating them to leadership only with recommended courses of action, not problems

This position offers a fully remote work environment, or you can work hybrid/on site at our office in northwest Austin, TX. You will be expected to travel up to 25% of the time to our customer sites in Fort Carson, Colorado.

The Right Fit

In addition to the specific skills and expertise detailed below, we are looking for individuals who share our values. Sharing a set of values allows us to move at the speed of trust.

Collectively, we value a high-trust work environment where people respect each other and use candor kindly and constructively. We value work that intersects passion and perseverance, we geek out about the potential of our contributions, and we find joy in working hard on things that matter. Finally, we value taking ownership, having agency, and feeling individual responsibility for collective results.

Here's what we're looking for:

• Bachelor's degree and 4–6+ years of experience with military operations at Division (2-star) level or higher
• Demonstrated experience planning and directing the execution of complex, multi-stakeholder project activities; proven team leadership in high-accountability environments
• Track record of building and sustaining rapport and trust with senior military and civilian stakeholders across different organizational levels
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to operate credibly across Soldier-level and executive-level audiences in the same day
• Technical fluency to engage software engineers and data scientists as an informed, non-technical counterpart; the ability to translate customer needs to contractual requirements
• Active Secret (or above) US security clearance
• Due to the nature of this role, candidates must have US citizenship

The Wish List

We're very interested in candidates who possess the above qualifications, and we appreciate and consider the addition of:

• Former Field Grade Officer or Senior NCO, or similar
• Direct experience implementing or integrating battlefield technology within Army formations; you've seen a capability succeed or fail at the unit level, and you know why it happened
• Familiarity with DOD IT, network, and communications infrastructure as an operational reality, not just a technical concept
• Working knowledge of agile software delivery practices; able to hold a technical team accountable to a cadence without micromanaging the engineering
• Meaningful exposure to machine learning/AI capabilities in operational or defense contexts—enough to recognize value, identify misuse, and advocate credibly for the customer
• Aptitude with customer success or account management functions within a defense technology vendor

The anticipated base pay range for this position is $145,000–$185,000/year. Striveworks' total compensation package includes a competitive base salary, equity grants, and cash bonuses.

The Benefits

• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Voluntary life, long-term disability, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance
• HSA and FSA (including dependent care FSA) plans
• 401(k) plan
• Unlimited PTO
• Paid parental leave