# Senior Advisor — Officer Transition Pathway **Herding Cats Research LLC** · Remote (United States) · 1099 advisory, 20 – 30 hours/week · Two-year engagement, convertible · One opening --- ## Who This Is For A senior officer at the tail end of active service — O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel / Commander) or O-6 (Colonel / Captain) — with direct exposure to AI, autonomy, robotics, or decision-support program portfolios, and the relationships that come with five to ten years in and around program offices. This role is designed to solve three problems at once: 1. **Your problem.** You are transitioning, you are not yet sure if you want a full-time civilian seat on day one, and you want to keep your hand in on work that matters while you figure out the next twenty years. 2. **HCR's problem.** We are a small research LLC trying to scale from DARPA CLARA into a sustainable book of business. We need an adult in the room who knows how program offices actually buy research, who can walk into AFRL or ARL or DIU and be recognized, and who has taste. 3. **The country's problem.** The flow of senior technical military talent back into mission-connected civilian research is thinner than it should be. We mean to do something about that at our scale. If you were expecting "senior advisor" to mean "figurehead with a fancy title," this is not that. It is a working relationship. --- ## What You Would Actually Do About twenty to thirty hours a week, structured around your post-retirement schedule: - **Program strategy.** Which solicitations do we go after, which do we skip, which do we position for in 18 months. You are the senior voice on that call with the principal. - **Customer relationships.** Program managers take your call. You open doors HCR cannot open on its own, and you stay in the conversation after the door is open. - **Technical counsel.** You read what we are building, you tell us where it is wrong, and you tell us what the customer will actually ask about it. You are not doing the engineering — you are the pressure test on the engineering. - **Proposal reviews.** You red-team the technical volumes and management volumes before they leave the building. - **Recruiting.** You bring three people HCR would never find on its own. - **Public face.** Conferences, service-branch innovation events, AFCEA, industry days. You represent HCR where representation matters. We will not ask you to: - Lobby on behalf of HCR (post-government ethics). - Sell on incumbent programs you managed in uniform (revolving-door rules). - Work any hours that conflict with your current or pending military status. HCR will pay for a one-hour consultation with a post-government ethics attorney before your start date, and annually thereafter. You own the line; we pay for the map. --- ## You Might Be a Fit If - You are an **O-5 approaching retirement** (or freshly retired, ≤18 months out) **or an O-6** with comparable background. - You have served as a program manager, assistant program manager, S&T lead, or principal staff in an AI/autonomy/robotics/decision-support portfolio. Cyber, EW, ISR, or C2 portfolios with an AI lean also fit. - You are known by name at two or more of: DARPA, AFRL, ARL, ONR, DIU, AFWERX, SOFWERX, SOCOM S&T, Army Futures Command, or a service-branch innovation cell. - You have a working technical vocabulary — not a research PhD, but enough to read an architecture diagram and ask the right question. If you were a 25A/17A/FA52 or a Navy/AF equivalent, you are well-positioned. - You want an honest, low-ceremony working relationship — not a ceremonial board seat. - You are comfortable with a small team, direct feedback in both directions, and a founder who expects you to push back when you disagree. --- ## Also of Interest If you are the **peer-senior engineer pathway** — a principal engineer, distinguished engineer, or research director with deep AI/autonomy credentials and a history of publishing or shipping in the defense space — we are open to hybrid structures around that profile too. We are hiring for the seat, not the title. If a different structure makes more sense for your situation, say so in your application. --- ## Compensation **Advisory fee range:** $120,000 – $160,000 annually (1099, structured as monthly advisory retainer) for a 20 – 30 hour/week engagement. **Equity:** 1.0% – 3.0% of HCR, granted as a profits interest at engagement start with a two-year vesting schedule. Specific grant depends on the scope negotiated at signing and anticipated customer-introduction contribution. **Glide path.** At month 18 of the engagement, HCR and the advisor decide together whether to convert to a full-time W-2 role (VP Programs / VP Research / Chief Strategy Officer — title to be negotiated) with a base-plus-equity package at senior-officer market. Either party can decline the conversion without penalty; the equity already granted vests on its original schedule. **What we will not do.** We will not structure compensation that creates a post-government ethics problem. If you are still in uniform or in the terminal-leave window, the engagement is structured to wait; equity grants align with your retirement date, not your signing date. --- ## Logistics - **Work authorization:** U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident required (standard for defense advisory work). - **U.S. person eligibility:** Required. - **Security clearance:** **Active clearance strongly preferred.** If you are retiring with an active Secret/TS/SCI, we will work with you to keep it current through the transition; HCR's contract pipeline supports it. - **Location:** Remote (anywhere in the continental U.S.). In-person presence in Austin, TX, and at program offices in the D.C. area as opportunity drives. Expect 20 – 25% travel in a typical quarter, front-loaded around program events. - **Employment type:** 1099 independent contractor for the first 24 months; optional conversion to W-2 at the 18-month decision point. - **Start date:** Flexible — aligned with your terminal leave and post-government ethics window. --- ## A Note on Authorship and Public Work If you currently write or speak publicly under your own name — doctrine essays, a Substack, a podcast, conference talks — that continues. HCR does not capture your public work. Two options: - **Keep your moniker.** Continue publishing under your name. HCR becomes one line in your bio. - **Co-brand or integrate.** If you want to fold your authorship into HCR's publication stream (our *Herding Cats in the AI Age* series and related work), we will structure that explicitly and editorially — with your name on the byline, not behind it. We care about your voice continuing to exist. Small firms need intellectually alive seniors, not silenced ones. --- ## How to Apply Send your application to **`[email protected]`**. - **Subject line:** `[Senior Advisor] – Last Name, First Name, Rank` - Example: `[Senior Advisor] – Reyes, Linda, COL` - **Attachments:** - **Resume or curriculum vitae** as `LastName_FirstName_CV.pdf` — service history, command/staff billets, program portfolios, awards. - **One-page statement of interest** — why this engagement, what you bring, what you want out of the next two years. - **What will get our attention.** Specificity. "I ran the AI portfolio at [program office] from FY23 – FY25" is more useful than "senior experience in AI programs." You will receive an auto-acknowledgment within one business hour. Expect a personal response from the principal within five business days — this role is handled personally, not triaged. --- ## Process 1. **Exploratory call** with the principal (60 minutes). Informal, mutual sizing up. No deck required. 2. **Structure conversation** (60 – 90 minutes). We draft a plain-English engagement outline together — hours, equity, glide path, customer introductions, public-voice policy. 3. **References and ethics review.** We will ask for two professional references; you will (and should) ask your post-government ethics advisor to review the engagement before signing. 4. **Engagement signing.** Profits-interest grant issued; first quarter's work plan scoped jointly. Total time: three to six weeks. We move at your transition tempo, not ours. --- > **Equal Opportunity & Accessibility** > > Herding Cats Research LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants with disabilities — to request one, email `[email protected]` with subject `[Accommodation Request]`. > > HCR actively welcomes applications from transitioning service members, military spouses, and veterans. > > **Engagement Terms.** This is a 1099 independent contractor engagement. The advisor is responsible for applicable taxes and is not a W-2 employee of HCR during the initial 24-month term. Conversion to W-2 at the 18-month decision point is by mutual agreement. The engagement is terminable by either party with 30 days' written notice; equity vesting on the original schedule survives termination except in case of cause as defined in the engagement letter. > > **Applicant Privacy.** Application materials are used solely for engagement evaluation, retained for 12 months, and then securely deleted. California applicants: see our full CCPA notice on the Careers page.