Head of Engineering

Head of Engineering

Build the engineering system behind the world’s first strategic warning AI

Location — NYC or San Francisco (preferred) or U.S. remote. Travel to Washington DC/DoD/ Intelligence Community partners as needed.

About Anadyr Horizon

We build dual-use strategic AI — deployed by national security agencies to prevent conflict escalation and by financial institutions to anticipate systemic risk and guide long-horizon capital allocation. Our platform runs large-scale agentic simulations to surface hidden escalation pathways before they trigger real-world crises. [Anadyr Horizon, Business Insider, www.ndtv.com]

This is not another AI job — this is a legacy role. Your work will shape a core US national security capability.

About the Role

We are hiring a founding engineering leader to build and scale the core platform — a hands-on architect who owns engineering execution, ships fast with rigor, and builds a tier-1 team.

• Title: Head of Engineering (with path to CTO)
• Reports to: Chief Scientific Officer (CSO)
• Mandate: Build the engineering function from zero-to-scale and deliver secure, mission-critical AI systems
• Clearance: TS /SCI a plus — we sponsor clearance eligibility
• Background: Dual-use strongly preferred (Palantir, Anduril, Rebellion Defense, DIU, OpenAI Security, DARPA/Skunk Works)

You will partner directly with the CSO to translate breakthrough simulation and agentic AI research into hardened, enterprise-grade and mission-ready software.

Team & Leadership Scope

• Found the engineering organization from the ground up
• Own the hiring bar, team design, and engineering culture
• Define team structure based on mission needs 
• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with research, security, product, and mission partners
• Dedicated recruiting support and talent budget to hire elite engineers
• Lead through clarity, velocity, and technical depth

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership (hands-on)

• Own engineering execution, architecture, delivery velocity, and code quality
• Design resilient systems for agentic workflows, simulation pipelines, multi-tenancy, and observability
• Write and review code — Python backend, orchestration, data pipelines, and React/Next.js dashboards
• Drive reliability (SLOs), security, and performance across mission deployments

Product & Feedback Loop

• Work with design, customers, and mission partners to turn operational feedback into roadmap execution
• Convert prototypes and research artifacts into productionized systems
• Instrument systems for traceability, explainability, and decision auditability

Security & Compliance

• Design systems aligned with SOC2/ISO27001 + U.S. government ATO/FedRAMP-style readiness
• Build in security: RBAC/ABAC, audit logs, SBOM, least privilege, data residency
• Lead engineering representation in customer security reviews

Execution & Delivery

• Establish engineering operating rhythm: design reviews, delivery cadences, RFC/ADR rigor
• Balance fast iteration with long-term platform resilience
• Drive architectural clarity through technical strategy and documentation

Tech You’ve Likely Touched

• AI systems: LLM orchestration, retrieval, tool calling, agent frameworks
• Backend & infra: Python, Kubernetes, Terraform, OTel, Postgres, Redis
• Security: KMS/secrets, policy engines, SBOM, secure service mesh, isolation
• Frontend: Next.js + TypeScript, design systems (Tailwind/Radix), real-time dashboards
• Enterprise deploy: SaaS + on-prem control planes, zero-egress setups, staging/prod isolation

Profile

• 10–12+ years engineering experience, 3–5 years leading high-performance teams
• Proven zero-to-one delivery under urgency and uncertainty
• Strong systems intuition + hands-on coding ability
• Experience with secure, mission-grade, or regulated systems
• Ability to recruit, mentor, and grow exceptional engineering talent
• Crisp communicator with high technical standards and ownership mindset
• Mission-driven — built for hard problems and consequential work

Company Culture

We move with urgency, clarity, and purpose.

Every decision reflects our core values — Integrity, Amity, and Excellence.

Integrity means we do what we say — accountability over optics.

Amity means we build with trust and candor — one distributed team across the U.S. and Europe.

Excellence means we hold a high bar in thought, design, and execution.

We build systems that matter — engineered for impact in the real world.

Our structure is lean and deliberate: quarterly, in-person build cycles in rotating locations, designed for focus and speed. We remove bureaucracy, not rigor.

Why Join

• Mission with consequence — your work informs geopolitical and economic stability
• Hybrid builder-leader role — architect + hands-on delivery + org builder
• Founder-level ownership — technology direction, hiring, quality, and velocity
• Backed by deep tech investors with patience, conviction, and strategic reach
• Legacy opportunity — help build one of the most important AI systems of our time

If you want to build something that endures — and do it with integrity, amity, and excellence — we’d like to meet you.