Field Chief Technology Officer (Field CTO)

Field Chief Technology Officer (Field CTO)

Kamiwaza AI is seeking a Field Chief Technology Officer (Field CTO) to serve as the senior-most customer-facing technical executive supporting U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers. This role is designed for a seasoned technologist with deep, credible government experience who can operate fluently across classified mission environments, executive customer engagements, and high-stakes competitive pursuits.

The Field CTO blends executive technical advisory, technical go-to-market leadership, and field-to-product strategy. You will shape how Kamiwaza's AI orchestration, distributed data, and edge-capable platform is understood, adopted, and operationalized for national security missions—and you will ensure what we build aligns with real mission constraints.

This is not a sales engineer or solutions architect role. It is a field-facing technical executive role comparable to senior Field CTO, Deputy CTO, Chief Architect, or Distinguished Engineer positions at elite defense-focused technology companies.

Own the technical narrative, mission alignment, and external technical credibility for Kamiwaza Federal—ensuring the platform is positioned as mission-ready, secure, and operationally decisive from strategic headquarters to the tactical edge.

Key Responsibilities

Senior Federal Technical Leadership

• Act as the authoritative technical voice for Kamiwaza Federal with DoD and IC customers.
• Serve as a trusted technical and mission advisor to senior government leaders (GO/FO, SES), program executives, and operational stakeholders.
• Lead classified and unclassified executive briefings, architecture reviews, and mission workshops; facilitate technical decision-making.
• Own technical escalation for complex customer situations, pilots, and competitive bake-offs.

AI & Platform Authority

• Demonstrate mastery of:
• AI/ML systems including LLMs, SLMs, VLMs, agentic frameworks, and evaluation/guardrails
• AI orchestration and inference at scale across cloud, core, and edge
• Distributed data platforms, streaming/event-driven architectures, and real-time situational awareness systems
• Retrieval and data orchestration patterns for mission data (RAG, entity resolution, polystructured data)
• Model evaluation, governance, and trustworthy AI in operational settings
• Secure deployments in classified, air-gapped, denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments
• Guide customers on secure AI adoption with full data containment and mission-based access control.
• Define federal reference architectures, deployment patterns, and "how-to" guidance that accelerates pilots → production.

DoD & IC Go-To-Market Enablement

• Partner with Sales, Capture, and BD leadership to:
• Shape technical win strategies and differentiated solution narratives
• Qualify opportunities and influence bid/no-bid decisions
• Support OTAs, rapid prototypes, pilots, and transition-to-production pathways
• Serve as the technical closer in high-value, technically complex pursuits.
• Build repeatable GTM assets: reference architectures, demo flows, competitive positioning, and enablement for account teams and partners.

Bridge Engineering and Mission Reality

• Translate operational mission needs into clear, actionable product and engineering priorities.
• Provide continuous feedback to platform, security, and infrastructure teams based on real-world government constraints.
• Ensure internal teams understand classification, deployment, and sustainment realities.
• Help drive internal alignment on packaging, deployment automation, documentation, and supportability for federal environments.

Ecosystem & Partner Leadership

• Engage and align with systems integrators, defense primes, hyperscalers, and hardware/edge vendors (compute, GPU, ruggedized platforms).
• Drive joint reference architectures, integrated demos, and co-sell motions that extend Kamiwaza's reach into programs of record.
• Enable partner technical teams with repeatable architectures, demos, and deployment guidance that reduce delivery risk.
• Represent Kamiwaza Federal at classified program reviews, defense industry forums, technical advisory venues, and partner events.

Thought Leadership & Evangelism

• Serve as a visible technical spokesperson for Kamiwaza Federal through conference speaking, executive roundtables, webinars, and published technical content.
• Translate complex AI and data topics into mission-relevant narratives that build trust, urgency, and adoption.
• Build and nurture practitioner communities (working groups, user groups, partner enablement sessions) that expand technical influence.

First 180 Days - Mandate for Success

Days 0–60: Foundation & Credibility

• Achieve deep mastery of the Kamiwaza platform, roadmap, differentiators, and federal deployment patterns.
• Establish technical credibility with priority DoD/IC customers and key integrator partners.
• Audit active pipeline opportunities; assess technical win probability and document top risks/gaps with mitigation actions.
• Build strong working relationships and operating cadence with Sales, Capture, Engineering, Product, and Marketing/Communications.

Days 61–120: Influence & Differentiation

• Define and standardize Kamiwaza's federal technical narrative, reference architectures, and demo storylines.
• Actively shape 3–5 priority pursuits with measurable impact on win strategy, competitive posture, and solution design.
• Influence near-term product roadmap and packaging to close mission-critical gaps (security, deployment, sustainment).
• Strengthen partnerships with key integrators and ecosystem players through joint architectures and aligned use cases.

Days 121–180: Scale & Impact

• Increase technical win rate and deal velocity across priority accounts by creating repeatable playbooks and enablement.
• Establish Kamiwaza Federal as a trusted technical authority within targeted commands and agencies; earn repeat invitations for deep dives.
• Help transition at least one prototype or pilot toward production alignment (architecture, security/ATO path, and sustainment).
• Execute an external thought leadership plan (speaking/content) aligned to federal GTM priorities for secure, mission-ready AI.

Minimum Requirements

Industry & Government Experience

• 15+ years total experience across industry and government.
• 7+ years in customer-facing technical leadership roles in the federal market (Field CTO, Deputy CTO, Chief Architect, Distinguished Engineer, Principal SA/SE leader).
• Demonstrated experience supporting DoD and/or IC missions as an industry technologist serving government customers and/or as a former government technologist who has transitioned into industry.
• Experience supporting OTAs, rapid prototypes, pilots, and transition-to-production pathways; familiarity with federal acquisition and program stakeholders.
• Proven track record operating in classified environments and communicating effectively within security constraints.

Technical Depth

• Strong, practical understanding of applied AI/ML systems, data orchestration (RAG/streaming), distributed systems, and secure data architectures.
• Experience deploying software into classified, air-gapped, hybrid, and edge environments—including disconnected/DDIL conditions.
• Working knowledge of DoD/IC security, RMF/ATO processes, and compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST 800-53); ability to partner with cyber and accreditation teams.
• Ability to assess AI system trustworthiness in operational settings (evaluation, model risk, data governance, and auditability).

Executive Presence & Influence

• Ability to engage credibly with senior military officers (GO/FO), SES, and IC executives.
• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences; able to lead executive workshops and influence technical decisions.
• Ability to influence outcomes without direct authority across Sales, Capture, Product, Engineering, and partners.

Thought Leadership & GTM Impact