Failed Founders

Your Dream. Our Team.

About Rise8

Rise8 builds custom, secure software for government organizations, measuring success by impact: lives saved, time returned, and missions advanced. 

We think big, start small, and scale fast with elite teams across product, design, and engineering to drive continuous delivery for critical missions.

We believe customer experience starts with employee experience, so we take care of our employees. Rise8 is where you’ll do the best work of your career—supported by a culture you won’t find anywhere else. We offer competitive pay and benefits, but what sets us apart is our commitment to autonomy, growth, and a culture rooted in kindness, candor, and continuous learning. 

Certified as a Great Place to Work®, with 100% of employees saying they love working here, Rise8 is where bold ideas become real capabilities. Where mission meets meaning. And where fewer bad things happen because of bad software.

Why This Role Exists

Building a startup changes how you think.

You’ve made decisions with incomplete information.
You’ve built products from nothing.
You’ve led teams through uncertainty.
You’ve owned outcomes when things were working—and when they weren’t.

Those experiences create a kind of operator that thrives in complex environments.

At Rise8, we’ve found that entrepreneurial builders often excel here. They bring a bias toward action, systems thinking, and a willingness to solve problems wherever they appear.

Rather than forcing that experience into a predefined role, we want to understand where you can create the most impact today.

The Role (You Define It)

This is an open-role opportunity for entrepreneurial operators who want to apply their experience to meaningful, mission-driven work.

Depending on your background, you might thrive as a:

• Product or Program Manager
• Software Engineer
• Designer or UX Practitioner
• Delivery Lead
• Technical or Strategic Operator
• Or a hybrid role shaped by your experience

Many of our best team members don’t fit neatly into one box—and that’s okay.

What matters most is your ability to solve problems and move meaningful work forward.

What You’ll Do

Depending on your experience, you may:

• Build and improve software used in real-world, high-impact environments
• Lead delivery teams focused on outcomes—not activity
• Translate user needs into practical solutions
• Navigate ambiguity and help teams find clarity
• Contribute across disciplines when the problem demands it

We care less about titles and more about your ability to create value and drive outcomes.

What We’re Looking For

You may be a strong fit if you:

• Have founded or helped build a startup, company, or product
• Have built something real—product, team, platform, or operation
• Are comfortable operating in ambiguity
• Take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks
• Think in systems and solve problems pragmatically
• Care about meaningful work and real-world impact

We’re not looking for flawless resumes or perfectly linear career paths.

We’re looking for people who build things and move work forward.

Tell Us About You

Instead of a traditional job description, we’re asking for something simple.

In your application, tell us:

• What you built
• What you learned from building it
• What kind of problems you enjoy solving
• Where you think you could create the most impact at Rise8

Clarity beats polish.

Benefits

• Flexible schedule in a 100% distributed workforce 
• Premium Insurance: We cover up to 100% of the employee premium and up to 80% of the combined dependent premium on our base health plan, depending on pay band. We also cover 100% of the premium for employee and dependent Dental and Vision as well as employee premiums for Life and Disability coverage.
• Retirement: 401k match at 10% gross pay.
• Paid time off (PTO): 4 weeks combined accrued vacation and sick leave, 11 Federal holidays, your birthday, jury duty, and bereavement.
• Education & Training: Accrued budget of up to $3,500 per year for classes, travel, events, and materials.
• Home Office and Merch: We offer $750 per year for home office technology and equipment as well as $100 per year for Rise8 merch from our Swag Store.
• Wellness Budget: To encourage and support a well-rounded healthy lifestyle, we cover 100% reimbursement on a variety of wellness activities and products, up to $500 per calendar year. OR Rise8 is part of the the Life Time Corporate Partner program. In lieu of your $500 annual wellness benefit, you can instead get a $75 monthly credit towards a Life Time membership ($900 annual benefit).
• Equipment: We offer a MacBook Pro

Apply

If this resonates, we want to hear from you.

All of Rise8’s work in this area is with Federal Government customers that require our employees involved with their projects be U.S. citizens. As such, this role requires U.S. citizenship. If hired, you would also be required to go through a background investigation.

Rise8 is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that will consider you for this role regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, national origin, genetics, age, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.