This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.
Who we are:
Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We are a leader in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. With headquarters in McLean, VA, our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.
About the role:
As a Senior Director of Command and Control, you will bridge the gap between warfighters and engineers by bringing deep operational command and control expertise to Raft's most important customer engagements.
This Field CTO role is focused on command and control innovation in the Pacific, with an emphasis on identifying operational challenges, evaluating potential solutions, and helping rapidly deliver capabilities that improve mission execution.
You will work directly with operational users and senior leaders to understand how they execute the mission, identify opportunities to improve their workflows, and translate those needs into capabilities that can be delivered through MAKA Edge or other available platforms and technologies. When an operational team needs a new dashboard, form, database, workflow, application, automation, or data integration, you will help define the problem and work with Raft's product and engineering teams and experts across PACAF to determine the best way to deliver the capability.
You will also help evaluate emerging government and commercial technologies for potential operational use. Where a third-party application or capability provides value, you will work with the appropriate technical teams and mission partners to determine how it can be integrated into the appropriate operational environment and connected to existing data, applications, and workflows.
This is not a software engineering role. Your value comes from a deep understanding of command and control, air operations, operational planning, and how technology can improve mission execution. You will provide the operational context that enables engineers and product teams to build and integrate the right capabilities, while keeping the focus on real mission needs and measurable operational outcomes.
What You'll Do
- Lead C2 innovation efforts focused on solving high-value operational challenges across PACAF and the broader Indo-Pacific theater.
- Build strong working relationships across PACAF headquarters, Air Operations Centers, operational units, and Joint mission partners to understand operational priorities and identify opportunities for digital modernization.
- Conduct mission discovery with operators and leaders to identify problems that can be addressed through software, data, artificial intelligence, automation, or improved integration.
- Translate operational requirements into clear problem statements, priorities, and desired mission outcomes that product, design, and engineering teams can act upon.
- Identify repetitive, manual, disconnected, or data-intensive C2 processes that can be simplified or automated.
- Help determine the most appropriate technical approach for solving operational problems, whether through MAKA Edge, another Raft platform, an existing government environment, or a third-party capability.
- Work alongside Raft product and engineering teams throughout development and integration, providing operational context, validating requirements, gathering user feedback, and ensuring capabilities solve the intended mission problem.
- Help establish and prioritize capability roadmaps based on mission value, operational demand, user adoption, and technical feasibility.
- Facilitate operational discovery sessions, demonstrations, experimentation, and user feedback sessions focused on solving specific mission problems.
- Identify emerging commercial and government technologies that may provide operational value to PACAF and other mission partners.
- Evaluate third-party applications and capabilities based on their ability to improve mission outcomes and, when appropriate, help determine how they can be integrated into existing operational environments.
- Champion an open-architecture approach in which capabilities developed by Raft, government organizations, and other commercial technology companies can operate together within a coherent mission environment.
- Help move promising concepts from operational need to prototype to fielded capability through rapid experimentation and iteration.
- Measure the adoption and operational impact of delivered capabilities and use those results to inform future priorities.
- Represent Raft in engagements with senior Air Force, Joint, and mission-partner stakeholders.
- Maintain awareness of emerging developments in command and control, battle management, data, artificial intelligence, and digital modernization and identify opportunities to apply those capabilities to operational problems.
- Partner with Raft leadership, product, engineering, and delivery teams to ensure customer efforts remain aligned with mission priorities and Raft's broader product strategy.
What we are looking for:
- 20+ years of leadership experience in U.S. military operations, preferably including senior leadership positions within the U.S. Air Force.
- Extensive experience in command and control, air operations, operational planning, battle management, or related mission areas.
- Deep understanding of Air Force and Joint command and control, including how headquarters staffs, Air Operations Centers, operational units, and Joint partners plan and execute operations.
- Demonstrated ability to understand complex operational problems, identify the underlying mission need, and develop practical approaches to improve mission execution.
- Experience leading organizations and initiatives involving operational innovation, modernization, or the introduction of new capabilities.
- Proven ability to build trusted relationships with senior military and civilian leaders and operate effectively across organizational boundaries.
- Ability to translate operational concepts and user needs into clear requirements that software product and engineering teams can understand and act upon.
- Technical fluency sufficient to understand and communicate about modern software, data platforms, cloud environments, applications, artificial intelligence, APIs, and system integration at a conceptual level. You do not need to write code or design technical architectures.
- Intellectual curiosity about emerging technology and an ability to evaluate technology based on the operational problem it solves rather than the technology itself.
- Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
- Ability to operate independently in complex and ambiguous environments and turn broad mission needs into executable actions.
- A bias toward action, experimentation, collaboration, and measurable mission outcomes.
Highly preferred:
- Senior-level leadership experience within Pacific Air Forces or the Indo-Pacific theater.
- Significant experience with Air Operations Centers, theater-level C2, air component operations, or Joint command and control.
- Operational aviation experience.
- Experience developing or implementing new operational concepts, capabilities, or processes within the Air Force.
- Familiarity with distributed operations, Agile Combat Employment, Joint All-Domain Command and Control, theater battle management, and related modernization initiatives.
- Experience working across Air Force, Joint, allied, and partner organizations.
- Experience evaluating, experimenting with, or introducing commercial technology into operational military environments.
Clearance Requirements:
- Active Top Secret clearance
- Must be eligible for Sensitive Compartmented Information access as required
Salary Range: $225,000.00 - $265,000.00
Work Type:
- Honolulu, Hawaii / Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam area
- Primarily on-site with PACAF and mission partners.
- Periodic travel throughout the Indo-Pacific region and to Raft locations within the continental United States may be required.
What we will offer you:
- Highly competitive salary
- Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) and company match
- Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
- Education & training benefits
- Generous Referral Bonuses
- And More!
Our Vision Statement:
We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.
Our Customer Obsession:
We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.
How do we get there?
Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.
Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.
We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.