Product Manager - Public Sector & Defense AI

Scale AI’s mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world’s most important decisions, providing the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power leading models across enterprise and national security sectors.

As Product Manager, Public Sector, you will lead product efforts across two connected defense focus areas: military planning and real-time AI and Alerting (LUX). You will own product outcomes for a portfolio of AI and streaming data capabilities—earning deep trust with senior flag/general officers, DoD/DoW civilians, and intelligence stakeholders. Operating inside classified and operationally constrained environments, you will drive deployments from contract to production, distinguish product bottlenecks from execution/integration issues, and translate messy operational reality into durable, high-signal inputs for Scale's platform engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Portfolio Ownership & Delivery: Own product outcomes across Scale's military planning portfolio and high-impact national security accounts for LUX—acting as the accountable PM for production deployment, system performance, and mission value.
• High-Signal Technical Translation: Translate operational reality into evidence-backed product perspectives and architectural trade-offs for core platform teams—spanning military planning workflows (Joint Planning Process, AFSIM modeling/simulation) and high-throughput, low-latency streaming architectures.
• Executive Trust & Advisory: Build trusted advisory relationships with senior military leaders (flag/general officers, SES equivalents, and technical leads), serving as the escalation point on the Scale side.
• Production Deployments in Classified Environments: Drive software deployments from initial contract to full operational capability inside classified, air-gapped, and operationally constrained environments.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner closely with Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) and Platform Capability pods to run accounts as coordinated teams rather than parallel workstreams.
• Root-Cause Blocker Resolution: Evaluate complex field issues to determine whether the bottleneck stems from product capabilities versus integration, policy, or change management constraints—driving each to resolution.
• Expansion & Mission Impact: Identify expansion opportunities grounded in demonstrated customer value and represent field reality back to Scale leadership to influence platform strategy.

Requirements

Security Clearance & Field PM Depth

• Active TOP SECRET Security Clearance (TS/SCI eligibility strongly preferred).
• 6+ years in product management, technical program management, or a customer-facing product ownership role.
• Direct National Security Experience: Proven experience working directly with the U.S. Department of War (DoW), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), or the broader national security community.
• Domain Fluency (At least one primary, credible in the second):
  • Military Planning: Working knowledge of the military planning process (e.g., Joint Planning Process) and modeling/simulation frameworks (e.g., AFSIM).
  • Real-Time Data Architectures: Working knowledge of event-driven architectures, low-latency streaming pipelines, high-throughput processing, and how they shape AI agent behaviors in production.
• Enterprise Classified Shipping Record: Demonstrated record of shipping AI or complex data products into large, constrained, classified, or highly regulated organizations—beyond pilots or proofs-of-concept.
• Technical & Architectural Comprehension: Ability to hold technical discussions with platform engineers around latency, throughput, APIs, and data infrastructure trade-offs.
• Travel Logistics: Ability and willingness to travel as required to customer sites and classified facilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience with AI/ML platform products—agentic capabilities, human-agent interaction, data labeling, RLHF, fine-tuning workflows, or model evaluation pipelines.
• Direct familiarity with real-time streaming tools (Kafka, Flink, Kinesis) or operational C2 systems.
• Prior military service or DoD/DoW civilian experience in operations, military planning, or defense acquisition.
• Prior experience operating in a forward-deployed, embedded, or early-stage startup environment.

Total Rewards & Benefits

• Compensation & Equity: Base salary range up to $345,000 USD (based on zone/leveling) + board-approved equity grants.
• Healthcare & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage.
• Professional Growth & Perks: Annual learning and development stipend, commuter stipends, generous PTO, and retirement savings plans.