Chief Technology Officer / Engineering & AI Strategy Lead

ABOUT NOOKS

Nooks is pioneering Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS) — designing, building, and operating Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) and other secured, classified environments for the defense and national security community. We work with the agencies, contractors, and mission-driven organizations that keep the nation safe, delivering the physical infrastructure that makes classified work possible.

About the Role

You will lead software engineering at Nooks and own the technical vision for everything we build. This covers three key areas: the software delivered under government contract, the platform for internal teams and functions, and the AI strategy shaping both. AI is not a side initiative here—it is central to winning contracts and positioning Nooks as an industry leader in modern AI. You will report directly to the CEO, sit on the executive leadership team, and set direction rather than receive it. You will build the function while running it.

The team is small today, the operating model is yours to define, and the plan for scaling is a deliverable rather than a given. Priorities will shift as contracts land and the business grows into new sites and lines. You will need to maintain a durable technical direction while making short-term decisions with incomplete information, and you will be expected to bring answers rather than wait for them.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Organization and Delivery

• Lead, develop, and scale a software engineering organization accountable for delivery, quality, security, reliability, and operational outcomes based on internal and external customer needs.
• Define the operating model transitioning the team from project-based execution to outcome-based ownership, with clear intake, prioritization, and delivery cadence.
• Build a strong team through deliberate hiring, training, and retention, developing existing engineers while adding necessary capabilities.
• Establish engineering metrics and reporting to provide the executive team with real visibility into velocity, quality, AI adoption, and business impact.

AI Strategy and Adoption

• Own the AI strategy across Nooks, spanning AI capabilities in delivered products and integration into company operations.
• Drive measurable AI adoption across internal functions, ensuring not just capability delivery but operational changes.
• Rebuild how Nooks captures, structures, and retrieves institutional knowledge to scale expertise beyond individual team members.
• Oversee AI governance for the software portfolio, including data handling, model use, and evaluation, coordinating with IT/Cyber for network security.

Government Contract Delivery and Capture

• Own delivery against awarded software contracts, including scope, schedule, technical quality, and customer confidence in Nooks' capabilities.
• Manage awarded work as a visible economic line, owning cost, staffing, and utilization against commitments (and EBITA expectations).
• Represent Nooks' engineering and AI capabilities directly to government customers in delivery reviews and pursuit conversations.
• Support growth on software pursuits by shaping technical approaches, staffing models, cost inputs, and converting delivered work into past performance for future bids.

Internal Technology Strategy, Platform, and Investment

• Set the technology strategy and architecture roadmap for all team-built systems, including those deploying into customer environments.
• Own the platform used by site teams, Operations, and internal functions to manage spaces, members, and customer contracts.
• Make and defend build-versus-buy decisions, integrating commercial systems where applicable and building only where Nooks gains a real advantage.
• Build the business case for engineering investments, including headcount, tooling, and vendor decisions, and manage the portfolio against it.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

Software delivery becomes predictable, with leadership focusing on what the team can take on next, awarded work running against known economics rather than best effort. AI integrates into workflows that measurably change operations and product capabilities, with tangible adoption metrics. The platform used by site teams is in production and reduces workload. Growth brings you into software pursuits early, with your input shaping bids and pricing. Government customers view you as the credible technical voice for the company. The executive team relies on you for technology and AI direction, and the scaling plan for the function exists, is funded, and is being executed.

Cross-Functional Expectations

Collaborate with the CEO on technology and AI direction, with Growth on pursuits and customer engagement, with Operations and site teams, with IT/Cyber for network and infrastructure dependencies, with Product for physical-digital offerings, and with Finance on delivered work economics and investment cases. Externally, manage technical relationships with government customers and the vendor/partner ecosystem across the software stack.

The Skillset

• 8+ years in software engineering with progressive leadership responsibility, including ownership of a full engineering or software product function.
• Experience leading software delivery to the US Government (USG), with direct exposure to federal customers and their constraints.
• A command of modern AI practice, including large language models (LLMs), agentic frameworks, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), orchestration, and AI governance.
• Experience owning delivery economics, including cost, staffing, and utilization against fixed commitments, and building business cases for technology investments.
• Experience building and leading an engineering organization, including defining operating models, hiring, and transitioning to outcome-based delivery.
• Demonstrable experience managing customer and cross-functional relationships at the executive level.

Preferred:

• Experience in defense, national security, or regulated environments with clearance, compliance, or controlled-data constraints.
• Software capture experience, including technical approach and cost input on federal proposals.
• Experience delivering software for field-based or operational users.
• Active security clearance.

Eligibility & Clearance

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. An active security clearance is preferred. All candidates must be eligible for and committed to obtaining and maintaining a U.S. government security clearance as a condition of employment.