Mission Success Manager, Commercial at Obviant in Arlington, VA

Mission Success Manager, Commercial

The defense market is surging, but the data that drives it hasn't kept up. Companies, government, and investors are forced to perform heavily manual processes and piece together hundreds of disparate sources to make decisions.

Obviant has built the data source of truth and AI tools for defense acquisition. We fuse information from thousands of sources (structured and unstructured) to provide a cohesive picture of budget, programs, the organizations running them, and much more. We already have high customer satisfaction at top-tier customers,we're growing fast, backed by top-tier funds, and supported by national security veterans and technology industry advisors.

The Role

As the Mission Success Manager for our commercial segment, you will own the success of a portfolio of commercial customers spanning the Defense Industrial Base and other defense-adjacent commercial entities as they onboard, adopt, and scale our platform. Your goal is to make Obviant the essential part of how these organizations conduct market research, identify opportunities, and execute on their defense business development strategy.

This is a hands-on role blending client success, account management, and product development. You will be the primary relationship owner for a portfolio of DIB accounts, translating day-to-day user needs into product direction while ensuring customers achieve the outcomes that matter most to their product development, capture and BD teams. And – you’ll work with Obviant leadership to ensure that we grow both our presence and “customer happiness” in our customer base

You'll work in close partnership with our Commercial Account Executive and Government GTM function, staying tightly coordinated across the accounts and intelligence that span both sides of the market.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of commercial accounts spanning the Defense Industrial Base and other defense-adjacent commercial entities, serving as their primary Obviant point of contact
• Reduce “time-to-value”. Run end-to-end onboarding: map existing BD and capture workflows, configure Obviant to match how customers pursue and manage defense opportunities, and train teams to use it day-to-day
• Design and refine concrete workflows in Obviant (market mapping, opportunity qualification, capture planning, competitive intelligence, funding/product alignment) that tie directly to pipeline, win rate, and revenue
• Identify critical customer metrics, monitor usage and performance, turn data into insights, and drive specific behavior changes that improve customer outcomes across their defense business development efforts
• Proactively identify expansion opportunities across new teams, use cases, and workflows, and partner with our Commercial AE to secure renewals and growth
• Capture structured feedback from BD leads, capture managers, competitive intelligence teams, product development and executive stakeholders, and translate it into clear product requirements and prioritization signals
• Partner with Obviant and customer product and engineering to test new features with commercial customers, validate fit, and drive adoption across accounts
• Create and iterate on playbooks, best-practice configurations, and customer-facing materials including QBRs and impact reviews that demonstrate how Obviant is changing how DIB companies win and maintain defense business

Qualifications

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in client success, consulting, program management, or strategic operations
• Strong references from current/prior roles
• Direct experience working with or within the Defense Industrial Base, prime contractors, or defense-adjacent commercial firms
• Deep familiarity with how defense contractors approach BD pipelines, capture strategy, and competitive intelligence, so you can immediately add value in customer workflows
• Proven success managing multiple accounts and stakeholder personas while delivering measurable operational outcomes
• High customer empathy with the ability to build trust across BD leads, capture managers, analysts, and executive leadership
• Strong communication skills. You can engage a capture VP, a BD analyst, and a C-suite exec in the same week
• Comfortable operating with high autonomy and accountability in a fast-moving, early-stage environment

Nice to have:

• Experience as the first (or an early) Mission Success hire at a startup, building the function from the ground up
• Prior experience at a defense-focused data, analytics, or intelligence platform
• Existing relationships across the DIB, including BD and capture teams at primes or Tier 1/2 subcontractors
• Background in defense acquisition, government contracting, or national security markets

Our Working Style – Why We Might Work Well Together

• Mission orientation: the work matters, and we want teammates who feel that weight
• High ownership: you'll run your accounts and can expect autonomy and accountability in equal measure
• Directness: we communicate with candor and assume good intent
• Collaborative by default: constructive dialogue across all viewpoints is how we get to the right decision
• Bias toward action: we'd rather move and course-correct than wait for perfect information
• No ego: high output and humility go hand in hand here

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
• Variable compensation tied to retention and expansion, with meaningful upside for strong performers
• Equity stake in a well-funded, fast-growing company
• Health, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible schedule and vacation time
• In-office culture headquartered in Arlington, VA, with flexibility when you need it