Federal Operations Director

Description

VAST Data Federal is looking for a Federal Operations Director to join our growing team!

This is a great opportunity to be part of the fastest-growing infrastructure company in history. In just a few short years, we’ve shaken up the industry by challenging traditional architecture models and introduced a revolutionary set of storage possibilities through our Universal Storage platform. With the advent of heavy growth in AI cloud infrastructure, VAST is perfectly positioned to act as the platform to power AI and deep learning in modern data centers and clouds. Our success has been built through incredible leadership and motivated employees who want to leverage their skills and experiences to make a real impact. This is an opportunity to be a key player at a pivotal time in our company’s growth. Come join the disruption, make your mark, and be a part of the amazing team introducing the new era of data storage for the growing AI market!

THE ROLE:

We are seeking an experienced Federal Operations Director who will own the design, build-out, and scaling of all internal operational programs that enable the company’s fast-growing federal/defense business. This is a high-impact, high-visibility leadership role. You will work hand-in-hand with the VP of Federal, the CTO, and the Federal Compliance Officer to build the Federal business and create repeatable, compliant, and scalable operational processes. You will also work closely with the finance team to align the growth of Federal with VAST’s overall strategic intent and operating plan, and cross-functionally across VAST to ensure operational alignment.. This is an internal-facing operations leadership role focused on building the machine—not day-to-day program management of individual contracts.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, document, and roll out company-wide Federal Operations programs, processes, playbooks, and tools
• Partner closely with the VP of Federal, CTO, and Federal Compliance Officer to align operations with sales strategy, technical roadmaps, and regulatory requirements
• Build and scale federal-compliant processes for: CMMC 2.0 / NIST 800-171 compliance program
• Secure hardware configuration management and delivery
• Program financial tracking, KPI dashboards, and past-performance reporting
• Establish and own the company’s Federal Operations Handbook and continuous improvement cycle
• Serve as the operational bridge between commercial best practices and federal/DoD mandates
• Track and improve key federal metrics: on-time delivery, CPARS scores, audit findings, etc.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship required
• 10+ years of federal/defense operations, program management, or technical program leadership experience at a hardware + software company
• Proven track record of building and scaling federal-compliant operational
• Experience creating repeatable processes for mixed hardware/software deliveries into DoD and Federal customers
• Exceptional ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into practical playbooks and tools that engineering and operations teams actually use
• Strong cross-functional collaborator—comfortable partnering daily with Sales, Engineering, Compliance, and Finance leaders
• Bachelor’s degree (technical or business field preferred); PMP, PgMP or similar certification a plus

Preferred Qualifications

• Former federal/DoD program management or contracts experience
• Prior role standing up CMMC or FedRAMP compliance programs
• Previous P&L or operational budgeting responsibility
• Experience in creating and implementing complex planning models

If you’ve built federal operations from the ground up at a hardware + software company, love turning chaos into smooth repeatable process, and want to own the operational backbone of one of the fastest-growing defense tech companies, this is your role!