Director of Discovery & Framing

Job Overview

Role Mission Own, lead, and scale Discovery & Framing at Defense Unicorns -help customers identify and clearly define the mission problems that matter, quantify their impact, establish what success looks like, and create the clarity needed to determine the right path forward.

The Head of Discovery & Framing will lead the highest-priority customer engagements, establish the D&F methodology and quality standard, and build the team required to deliver the discipline at scale.

Job Description

The Role Defense Unicorns is creating a dedicated Discovery & Framing function to improve how we understand customer problems before moving into solution design.

Trust is built by knowing the customer's mission intimately-its language, operating tempo, constraints, failure modes, stakeholder pressures, and consequences of getting it wrong.

This is not a traditional sales role, product presentation role, or technical discovery role. Operating principle: Help the customer define and measure the right problem before asking them to choose a solution.

Build the Discovery & Framing Function Establish the D&F methodology, engagement model, playbook, question bank, templates, quality standards, and examples of what great looks like. Determine capacity requirements and build the D&F team as demand grows.

Key Responsibilities

• Role Mission Own, lead, and scale Discovery & Framing at Defense Unicorns -help customers identify and clearly define the mission problems that matter, quantify their impact, establish what success looks like, and create the clarity needed to determine the right path forward.
• The Head of Discovery & Framing will lead the highest-priority customer engagements, establish the D&F methodology and quality standard, and build the team required to deliver the discipline at scale.
• The Head of D&F must be equally comfortable facilitating a working session with senior customer leaders, interviewing operators and technical stakeholders, analyzing what was learned, and producing a concise executive-quality output afterward.
• What You Will Own Lead Discovery & Framing Engagements Prepare for and personally facilitate high-value D&F engagements with customer executives, mission leaders, operators, technical stakeholders, acquisition leaders, and other key participants.
• Lead the most strategic, complex, or ambiguous engagements while developing additional D&F practitioners to handle increasing volume.
• Build the Discovery & Framing Function Establish the D&F methodology, engagement model, playbook, question bank, templates, quality standards, and examples of what great looks like.
• Determine capacity requirements and build the D&F team as demand grows.
• Mobilize Deliver the customer readout and establish a dated mutual next step.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• The Head of Discovery & Framing will lead the highest-priority customer engagements, establish the D&F methodology and quality standard, and build the team required to deliver the discipline at scale.
• The Head of D&F must be equally comfortable facilitating a working session with senior customer leaders, interviewing operators and technical stakeholders, analyzing what was learned, and producing a concise executive-quality output afterward.
• Start With a Hypothesis Work with the account team before each engagement to establish: What we believe we know What remains an assumption What we need to learn Who must participate What decision or next step the engagement needs to advance The hypothesis provides structure without predetermining the answer.
• Define: The mission problem Who experiences it Measurable impact Current workarounds Desired future state Consequences of inaction The gap between current and desired states The problem should be expressed in the customer's language-not Defense Unicorns product language.
• Answer two questions: What must change?
• Expose the Path to Action Determine what must happen for the customer to act, including: Decision criteria Decision process Funding source Acquisition path Contracting path Competitive alternatives Status quo Organizational barriers Evidence still required Events creating urgency Timing constraints Own the Customer-Facing Output Every D&F engagement should result in a concise, customer-ready readout.
• A successful D&F engagement may: Advance an opportunity Redirect an opportunity Identify additional discovery required Reveal that another problem should take priority Disqualify an opportunity The D&F Engagement A strong D&F engagement follows five stages: 1.
• Sales Leadership and Enablement: Reinforce adoption, qualification discipline, coaching, and follow-through.

Benefits and Perks

• This is a senior, hands-on strategy role for someone who knows how to walk into an ambiguous customer situation, ask the questions others miss, separate symptoms from root causes, and turn a complex discussion into a clear and measurable mission problem.
• What We Work On Kubernetes Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure) Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi) Continuous Delivery and automation tooling GitOps Containers CNCF projects and open source products and packages Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping Building and improving security delivery Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy Health: Medical/Dental/Vision Premiums are 100% Company Paid Health Savings Account Life Insurance Disability Insurance Financial: 401k Retirement Plan Company Stock Options Home Office Budget Leave: We offer all full-time Unicorns Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s Paid Parental Leave Learning: Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees) Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications?

Work Location and Schedule

This role is listed as Remote USA with location information shown as Remote USA. The employment type is Full Time.

About the Company

Defense Unicorns is the organization connected with this listing. USA Jobs Today displays this opportunity for job discovery only, so applicants should verify company details, application instructions, and eligibility on the official employer website.