VP of Product

• Executive visibility and direct partnership with senior technology leadership.
• A meaningful opportunity to influence product strategy in a defense focused, technically complex environment.
• Ownership across roadmap planning, funded program alignment, sustainment strategy, and future capability growth.
• A collaborative setting where product, engineering, quality, program, and customer stakeholders work closely together.
• The chance to lead offerings tied to high consequence customer missions and long horizon product outcomes.

• Lead product strategy for a portfolio of defense modeling and simulation solutions supporting distributed training, synthetic environments, and operational mission support.
• Own roadmap direction across funded customer programs, recurring enhancements, sustainment priorities, and selective new capability expansion.
• Guide product managers responsible for multiple software suites and ensure consistent portfolio leadership across priorities, requirements, and release planning.
• Partner with engineering leadership to deliver product commitments within government contract constraints, technical realities, and schedule expectations.
• Drive product decisions in environments shaped by interoperability, multi system integration, and ecosystem level performance rather than isolated product delivery.
• Support product strategy across standards-based environments, including familiarity with SISO, DIS, HLA, and live, virtual, and constructive training contexts.
• Work cross functionally with business development, program leadership, quality, testing, documentation, and customer facing teams to align product direction with market and mission needs.
• Help define product positioning, requirements tradeoffs, pricing inputs, and level of effort considerations for new and existing opportunities.
• Oversee product requirements management, release readiness, documentation discipline, and feedback loops tied to defect resolution, fielded use, and customer acceptance.
• Balance innovation with disciplined execution in a quality driven environment, ensuring product plans support compliance expectations, repeatable processes, and long-term maintainability.
• Advise senior leadership on portfolio investments, resource priorities, product health, and strategic technical partnerships.
• Build and mentor a high performing product organization that values accountability, sound judgment, collaboration, and mission focus.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field required, advanced degree preferred.
• Significant leadership experience in product management, product development, or portfolio leadership within defense, aerospace, or another mission critical sector.
• Strong technical foundation in software development, with credibility in engineering led organizations and comfort engaging deeply on architecture, delivery, and sustainment topics.
• Demonstrated experience with real time systems, distributed systems, simulation environments, or complex multi-platform software ecosystems.
• Proven success leading products that operate within long lifecycle programs, funded customer roadmaps, and ongoing sustainment models, not only net new commercial builds.
• Experience working in program aligned environments where product direction must stay tightly connected to customer commitments, contractual scope, and delivery execution.
• Familiarity with interoperability driven ecosystems and defense simulation standards, including exposure to SISO, DIS, HLA, or related frameworks.
• Experience partnering with QA and test organizations on product quality, process improvement, automation priorities, and acceptance readiness.
• Strong business judgment across budgeting, staffing, prioritization, pricing input, and portfolio planning.
• Working knowledge of modern product and engineering workflows and tools such as Jira, Confluence, Salesforce, Perforce, GitLab, or similar platforms.
• Active security clearance or clear eligibility to obtain and maintain one is strongly preferred, and clearance readiness is a major qualifier for this search.
• Executive level communication skills with the ability to influence technical teams, program stakeholders, and senior leadership.

Blue Signal is an award-winning, executive search firm specializing in various specialties. Our recruiters have a proven track record of placing top-tier talent across industry verticals, with deep expertise in numerous professional services. Learn more at bit.ly/46Gs4yS