Defense Tech AI Startup Jobs

Defense technology company building autonomous systems and AI-powered defense capabilities to transform military and border security operations.

Defense AI company building autonomous aircraft and AI pilot technology for military applications.

CesiumAstro builds communications systems and phased-array hardware/software for space, air, and ground missions, supporting satellite and defense connectivity use cases.

K2 Space designs and manufactures large, high-power "mega-class" satellites with enhanced payload capacity and propulsion for government and commercial customers. The company is vertically integrated, building its satellites at a factory in Torrance, CA, with additional teams in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.

Develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, and space-based interceptor systems for orbital defense and space superiority capabilities.

ICEYE operates the world's largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, providing all-weather, day-and-night Earth-observation imagery and data intelligence. Its customers include governments, defense agencies, insurers, and maritime/disaster-response organizations. The company was spun out of Aalto University in Finland in 2014.

Vast is a US-based commercial space company building human-rated artificial-gravity orbital space stations, starting with its single-module Haven-1 station targeted as the world's first commercial space station. Founded by Jed McCaleb and headquartered in Long Beach, California ('Space Beach'), the company designs and manufactures its spacecraft hardware in-house. It is racing to provide a commercial successor to the International Space Station.

Autonomous drone manufacturer building AI-powered drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise inspection.

Helsing is a European defense AI company building autonomy software and hardware for democratic nations. It develops real-time battlefield decision software, AI-enabled drones, and sensor fusion systems for military applications across NATO allies. Founded in 2021, it has grown to become one of Europe's most valuable defense tech startups with an $18B valuation.

Defense technology company building unmanned defense systems and distributed manufacturing.

A defense technology company specializing in counter-drone radar and other defense solutions.

Muon Space is an end-to-end satellite constellation company that designs, builds, and operates mission-optimized spacecraft delivering Earth intelligence data for climate monitoring, weather, and national security customers including the NRO and Space Force.

Apex is a defense-grade satellite bus manufacturer producing configurable, productized spacecraft platforms (Aries, Nova, Comet) for LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits. The Los Angeles-based company serves commercial and sovereign government customers at scale with peak annual capacity exceeding 200 units per year. Apex launched Project Shadow, the first commercially-led on-orbit space-based interceptor demonstration.

General Matter is rebuilding domestic uranium enrichment capacity in the U.S., developing low-enriched and high-assay low-enriched uranium to support advanced nuclear power and American energy security.

Hadrian builds AI-enabled autonomous factories that manufacture precision components and systems for aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, and other industrial customers, combining software, robotics, machining, inspection, and factory operations.

Divergent Technologies develops the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), an end-to-end digital manufacturing platform that uses machine learning to design, 3D-print, and automate assembly of complex vehicle structures. Based in Torrance, CA, it serves automotive OEMs (Aston Martin, Bugatti, McLaren) and is expanding into aerospace and defense (Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Raytheon).

Varda Space Industries builds autonomous spacecraft that manufacture pharmaceuticals and other materials in microgravity before returning them to Earth, and sells orbital reentry and hypersonic-test services to government and commercial customers. Founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov, the El Segundo-based company became a unicorn after its 2026 Series D.

Neros designs and manufactures high-performance attritable FPV drones and ground control systems for the U.S. military and allied forces, building a vertically integrated, China-free supply chain. Founded in 2023 by former professional drone racers, it has scaled rapidly to supply the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Ukraine.

Radiant is pioneering mass-produced portable nuclear microreactors, with its flagship Kaleidos reactor delivering 1 MW of clean, zero-emission power in a shipping container-sized form factor. Valued at $1.8 billion, the company is building its factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Antares is developing mass-producible, inherently safe nuclear microreactors for terrestrial, underwater, and space-based applications, producing between 100 kilowatts and 1 megawatt of electricity. The company has a 145,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Torrance, California and is on track to achieve first reactor criticality by mid-2026. Founded by alumni of SpaceX, MIT, and Los Alamos National Lab, Antares is backed by over $130 million in venture capital and government funding.

Inversion Space is turning space into a transportation layer for Earth by building autonomous re-entry vehicles that enable precision delivery of cargo to anywhere on the planet in under an hour, creating an on-demand logistics network in Low-Earth Orbit.

Founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, Cowboy Space (formerly Aetherflux) builds vertically-integrated rockets and solar-powered orbital data centers to run AI/GPU compute workloads in low Earth orbit. The company pivoted from space-based solar power to orbital data centers, determining that building its own rockets was necessary to scale the economics.

Northwood Space designs and manufactures electronically steered phased-array ground stations that enable scalable, rapidly deployable satellite communication and tracking infrastructure. The company serves commercial and government customers including a $50M U.S. Space Force contract to modernize the Satellite Control Network.

Stoke Space Technologies develops the fully and rapidly reusable Nova rocket designed to operate with aircraft-like frequency. Founded by former Blue Origin and SpaceX employees, raised over $1.3B.

Develops factory-fabricated modular nuclear microreactors designed for AI data centers and industrial applications. The Aalo Pod is a 50 MWe power plant purpose-built for data centers.

The Nuclear Company operates as America's deployment platform for nuclear power, constructing a series of nuclear power plants using a design-once, build-many approach with proven and licensed technology to deliver safe and reliable electricity at the lowest cost.

Vulcan Elements manufactures sintered neodymium iron boron rare earth magnets at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina facility, aiming to build a U.S. supply chain independent of China. Founded in 2023, the company serves defense and commercial customers including the U.S. military branches.

Amca (Advanced Manufacturing Company of America) acquires and modernizes domestic factories to produce certified aerospace and defense components, combining engineering, qualification testing, and manufacturing on its RAPID AI platform. Based in El Segundo, California, it supplies parts for the F-35, F-16, M1 Abrams, and commercial aircraft to primes like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Honeywell.

Overland AI develops autonomous ground vehicle software and systems for off-road and contested environments, with defense-focused robotics deployments.

Epirus is a defense technology company that builds software-defined high-power microwave and directed-energy systems for counter-UAS, counter-swarm, and electronic-warfare missions. Its flagship Leonidas platform disables drones and electronic threats using solid-state, software-updatable hardware, and the U.S. Army has selected it for its Indirect Fire Protection Capability program.

Array Labs builds high-power, low-cost space radar systems and a formation-flying radar constellation for large-scale 3D Earth imaging and persistent monitoring.

Defense technology company building AI-powered software for national security missions.

BRINC Drones builds public-safety drone systems for 911 rapid response, indoor tactical operations, firefighting, and search and rescue, including the Lemur 2, Responder, and Guardian aircraft plus its LiveOps command-and-control software. Its platform integrates with Motorola Solutions' police radios, 911/CAD, and CommandCentral systems and is used by 900+ public-safety agencies and more than 20% of U.S. SWAT teams. Founded by CEO Blake Resnick and headquartered in Seattle, the company is scaling U.S. manufacturing with a new Queen Anne factory and HQ.

Fuse Energy Technologies builds pulsed-power machines (Marx generators like TITAN) for magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), generating near-term revenue from nuclear-effects radiation testing for the NNSA, national labs, and defense agencies while working toward commercial fusion power. Founded in 2019 by JC Btaiche and headquartered in San Leandro, CA.

Machina Labs develops AI-powered robotic manufacturing systems for sheet metal forming and industrial production, reducing the need for traditional tooling.

Privacy-first mobile carrier redesigning telecommunications from the ground up. Cape owns and operates its own mobile core and SIMs, providing ultra-private and secure connectivity for enterprises, government, and consumers.

Airbound builds the world's most efficient delivery drones, developing advanced autonomous aircraft using blended-wing-body designs for ultra-low-cost logistics. Founded by 20-year-old Naman Pushp, the Bengaluru-based company aims to achieve one-cent drone deliveries at scale, serving medical, defense, and industrial applications.

Pacific Fusion is building a high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion system designed to achieve net facility gain, delivering more fusion energy output than all stored energy input. The company develops affordable, modular fusion technology using common materials to provide abundant, clean energy for a prosperous planet.

Efficient Computer builds the world's most energy-efficient general-purpose processor, the Electron E1, offering up to 100x greater efficiency than traditional CPUs. Spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, their Fabric architecture minimizes data movement, enabling applications in AI, edge computing, space, defense, and consumer devices.

NODA AI is an AI-native defense company building autonomy orchestration software that enables command and control of mixed autonomous and manned assets across multi-domain military operations. Its platform serves as a vendor-agnostic reasoning layer coordinating heterogeneous autonomous systems for the Department of Defense and allied defense customers.

Builds containerized, forward-deployable drone manufacturing units that can 3D-print unmanned aerial systems in under 24 hours at or near the front line.

Kepler Communications is a Toronto-based satellite connectivity operator building a global low-Earth orbit constellation for broadband and IoT connectivity. The company deploys optical inter-satellite links and is expanding into orbital AI compute via Nvidia Orin chips. Founded in 2015, Kepler has raised over $177M to connect space-borne and ground assets worldwide.

Quartermaster (legally Quartermaster AI Inc.) builds SmartMast™, a weather-hardened COTS sensor package — HD camera, software-defined radio, and onboard AI — that mounts on commercial and civilian vessels and turns them into nodes of a distributed maritime sensing network. The platform fuses video, radar, RF sensing, and AIS into near-real-time maritime domain awareness for coast guards, navies, insurers, energy operators, and researchers, positioning itself as a replacement for the spoofable, opt-in AIS standard. The company reports 600+ sensors deployed across 25+ countries and over 400,000 vessels identified outside of AIS.

Elveo Mobile (formed in 2026 by the merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace) operates a satellite direct-to-device (D2D) network that connects standard, unmodified mobile phones directly to low-Earth-orbit satellites, combining Lynk's D2D platform with Omnispace's S-band spectrum.

HiddenLayer provides a security platform for AI models, applications, and agents, covering asset discovery, supply-chain scanning, adversarial testing, and runtime protection. The Austin-based company serves enterprise and U.S. federal customers securing generative, predictive, and agentic AI systems.

Niantic Spatial builds geospatial AI foundation models that help machines understand and operate in the physical world. Its products cover 3D capture, reconstruction into digital twins, vision-based localization for GPS-denied environments, and a semantic AI interface for querying 3D spaces. It serves enterprise customers in robotics, defense, and utilities, and was spun out of Niantic when Scopely acquired Niantic's gaming business.

Defense technology company providing software platform for military logistics and field operations optimization.

Catalyx Space builds orbital logistics infrastructure, combining spacecraft, software, and operations to move experiments and manufactured payloads to orbit and back. The company focuses on reusable capsules and faster, more predictable in-space deployment and downmass services.

Ent (incorporated as Athena Formation Inc.) builds an intent-aware workspace security platform that uses on-device AI to monitor and intervene in risky human and AI-agent actions in real time, preventing incidents before they occur. Founded by RiskIQ co-founders Elias Manousos and Brandon Dixon, it is deployed with Global 2000 customers across hospitality, financial services, and defense.

Fortastra builds intelligent, maneuverable spacecraft designed to protect government and commercial satellites through remote sensing, autonomous capabilities, and defensive rendezvous and proximity operations. The company targets satellite security, space infrastructure resilience, and operational risk in contested orbital environments. It is headquartered in Torrance, California.

Westmag (Western Magnetics Company) designs and manufactures drone motors and robot actuators at Factory 01 in South San Francisco, aiming to build a vertically-integrated, NDAA-compliant American supplier for the physical AI hardware stack. The company exited stealth in June 2026 after closing an $11M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, NFDG, and Menlo Ventures.

Digital engineering platform focused on digital twins and secure collaboration for modeling and simulation of complex systems.

Aurelius Systems builds Archimedes, an autonomous directed-energy laser platform that detects, tracks, and neutralizes drones without human operators. The San Francisco-based defense tech startup serves military and critical infrastructure protection use cases, offering a low-cost-per-shot alternative to missile-based counter-UAS systems.

Corelight provides network detection and response (NDR) software built on the open-source Zeek framework, giving security teams deep network visibility and evidence for threat hunting and incident response. Its platform pairs network traffic analysis with AI-driven detections and integrates with SIEM, XDR, and SOC workflows. Corelight sells to large enterprises and U.S. federal and government agencies.

Legion Intelligence (formerly Yurts) builds governed AI agent-orchestration software for defense, public sector, and enterprise operations. Its platform lets organizations securely deploy, manage, and scale autonomous AI agents across sensitive networks (including IL-4/5/6) for decision support and operational intelligence, with deployments at U.S. Special Operations Command and other DoD environments.

Substrate is America's next-generation semiconductor foundry, developing advanced X-ray lithography technology to challenge industry giants like ASML and TSMC. Founded by brothers James and Oliver Proud, the company uses compact particle accelerators to enable more cost-effective and rapid chip manufacturing in the United States. Backed by Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and In-Q-Tel, Substrate aims to restore American leadership in semiconductor production.

Aslan builds AI agents for national-security, intelligence, and law-enforcement missions. Its platform helps authorized teams collect and analyze digital evidence from criminal and adversarial networks. The company is US-focused and recently raised a $20.8M seed round to expand its technical team.

Valthos is an applied biological intelligence company developing AI and software to detect biological threats and design medical countermeasures in real time.

Electronic warfare company building AI-driven software and hardware—incl. SIGINT payloads and autonomous drones—for spectrum dominance.

Odin Dynamics is a defense technology company building autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and advanced robotics for undersea warfare, including precision strike, ISR, and mine-warfare missions. Its Dolphin-M and Dolphin-S UUV platforms emphasize high endurance, long range, and modular payloads, with in-house battery/powertrain engineering as a core differentiator. Founded by a former Tesla powertrain engineer and a 23-year Navy EOD officer, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles with a Washington, DC presence.

Grid Aero builds autonomous cargo aircraft for long-range, high-payload logistics solutions serving both military and commercial applications with rapid development cycles.

Provides AI-powered mapping tools like Farsight to help defense teams generate 3D terrain and plan missions.

Finnish deeptech company building autonomous, hydrogen-powered airships for persistent aerial surveillance and intelligence, serving both defense and civilian customers. Backed by the NATO Innovation Fund, it completed two phases of NATO's DIANA accelerator program.

Airbase builds a software platform for radio-frequency spectrum licensing, coordination, and intelligence, using AI pipelines to turn fragmented analog federal spectrum records into a real-time, machine-readable data layer for interference deconfliction. The dual-use, New York-based startup launched with an active federal government contract and is pursuing further Department of Defense deals.

Aitan builds edge-AI robotic weapon systems for allied militaries and national-security organizations, offering a "Robotic Sovereignty-as-a-Service" platform to deploy, coordinate, and sustain autonomous robotic combat capabilities. Its systems have been battle-tested with the IDF since October 2023, logging over 500,000 operational hours.

Arena Physica (formerly Arena/Arena.ai) is a New York-based AI hardware engineering company building 'electromagnetic superintelligence.' Its Atlas platform and Heaviside physics-native foundation model predict electromagnetic behavior from design geometry in milliseconds, helping customers like AMD, Anduril, and Sivers Semiconductors design, test, and validate hardware across semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, and defense.

AstroForge is a deep-space mining company focused on extracting valuable metals from asteroids, particularly platinum group metals (PGMs) and critical minerals. The company develops technology to locate, reach, and mine asteroids to provide sustainable resources for Earth and space industries.

Autonomous Cyber is an AI-native platform for offensive cybersecurity operations, offering FUZZ-E to support the full cyber kill chain from vulnerability discovery and exploit development to penetration testing and operationalization. The platform augments government and commercial security teams, compressing multi-day tasks into minutes. It was founded by former NSA and U.S. Army personnel and targets both defense and private-sector customers.

Fusion energy startup developing modular micro-fusion reactors for compact, scalable clean power and propulsion applications.

Axiom Space is a Houston-based commercial space infrastructure company building the world's first fully commercial space station, Axiom Station, as a successor to the ISS. It also conducts private astronaut missions to the ISS and develops the AxEMU next-generation spacesuit under a NASA contract.

Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos's private aerospace company developing rockets, spacecraft, and lunar landers for commercial, government, and civil space missions. It operates New Shepard suborbital flights and is developing the orbital New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lunar lander.

A venture-backed defense tech company building mass-producible hypersonic weapons systems using modern hardware development and manufacturing processes.

Diffraqtion builds quantum-camera hardware and AI for defense, space, and machine-perception applications, capturing optical information beyond conventional imaging limits for faster sensing and classification. The MIT and University of Maryland spinout is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and has demonstrated its technology through DARPA SBIR and NASA-backed programs.

AI-driven manufacturing platform that automates the creation and management of model-based work instructions from CAD files. BuildOS generates 3D animations of assembly steps, reducing documentation time from weeks to hours.

Earth AI is a vertically integrated mineral exploration company that uses an AI-powered Mineral Targeting Platform combined with proprietary low-disturbance drilling technology to discover critical minerals like copper, lithium, and rare earths. Founded in 2017, it validates AI-predicted deposits through its own drilling and sells proven mining projects to major mining companies.

Paris-based defense tech startup founded by former MBDA engineers building AI-powered air defense systems to detect and intercept hostile drones. Its platform, Mystique, combines electrically propelled interceptors with distributed sensors and AI-driven detection for layered, low-cost interception.

FieldAI builds Field Foundation Models, risk-aware AI software that gives robots a hardware-agnostic "brain" to operate autonomously in unstructured, GPS-denied industrial environments without prior maps. Founded by veterans of NASA JPL, DARPA, and Google DeepMind, its robots are deployed across construction, energy, security, and manufacturing sites globally.

Impulse Space is an in-space transportation and orbital maneuvering company based in Redondo Beach, California, building kick stages and vehicles to move satellites between orbits. Founded by former SpaceX propulsion lead Tom Mueller, it has reached unicorn status with $1.8B in total funding.

Isembard builds AI-powered, software-driven factories (via its MasonOS platform) to reshore high-precision manufacturing for aerospace, defence, energy, and robotics industries in Europe. It uses a franchise model to convert or launch machine shops that run on its proprietary automation and AI system.

Develops modular command-and-control platforms that integrate commercial sensors, drones, radar, and weapons systems for border security and battlefield operations.

MatrixSpace develops AI-enabled 4D radar sensing and edge-to-cloud situational awareness software for defense, security, and critical infrastructure applications.

Molten Salt Solutions develops isotope-enrichment technology for advanced nuclear and fusion supply chains, using a proprietary chromatography and mass-spectrometry approach to enrich lithium-6 and lithium-7. The company, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, says its platform is roughly 100x more efficient than legacy enrichment methods.

Nominal provides the connected hardware test stack used to capture telemetry, validate systems, and ship complex hardware faster. Its software supports aerospace, defense, and industrial teams running mission-critical test and operations workflows.

Onodrim Industries is an Amsterdam-based European defense and industrial technology company building a platform of hardware, software, and manufacturing capacity for defense manufacturing, multi-domain sensing, and networked systems. Founded in 2026 by Aistis Šimaitis, Alexander Blessing, and Christian Garrett (with Palantir and Lithuanian government backgrounds), it aims to strengthen Europe's defense industrial base, from border protection to resilient supply chains.

Swiss aerospace startup developing spacecraft and orbital transfer vehicles for in-orbit satellite transportation and servicing, including inspection, life extension, and docking. Based in Villeneuve/Lausanne, Switzerland, it aims to extend satellite life and support space sovereignty.

Perseus Defense builds affordable, portable guided micro-missiles to detect, identify, and destroy hostile drones for the U.S. Department of Defense and homeland security customers. Its flagship Harpe Interceptor offers a 2km range at under $10,000 per shot, positioned as "America's Golden Dome for Drones."

Phasic Energy combines applied AI with next-generation hardware to build 3D-printed heat exchangers for demanding thermal environments, including data centers, defense, geothermal, and industrial waste-heat recovery applications. The NYC-based startup is a small team of under 10 people that recently closed a $7.5M Venture round.

Pixxel is a space data company that builds and operates a constellation of hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellites, delivering high-resolution spectral imagery and analytics across 200+ wavelengths. Its Aurora platform serves agriculture, energy, environment, mining, and defense customers, with headquarters in Bengaluru, India and a facility in El Segundo, California.

RaySecur develops terahertz (T-ray) millimeter-wave desktop scanners and AI-powered software for detecting concealed threats and contraband in mail and packages. Its MailSecur imaging systems and 4D-AI threat-detection platform are used by Fortune 500 corporate mailrooms, government agencies, and correctional facilities. The company is expanding into a connected IoT ecosystem for fleet management and threat intelligence.

AI biosecurity company developing AI-powered defenses against biological threats and bioweapons. Spun out from mRNA therapeutics company Helix Nano, partners with frontier AI labs to identify emerging bio-risks and design countermeasures using advanced models, lab automation, and reinforcement learning to scale biological defenses at the same rate as AI capabilities grow.

Seekr builds SeekrFlow, an end-to-end enterprise AI platform for training, validating, and deploying explainable, trustworthy large language models and AI agents. It serves regulated industries and government sectors including defense, intelligence, telecommunications, and supply chain.

Sierra Space designs and builds commercial spacecraft, space station modules, and orbital infrastructure, including the Dream Chaser reusable spaceplane and components for the Orbital Reef commercial space station. The company is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, with additional operations in Broomfield and Centennial, Colorado.

Third Dimension AI is a 3D generative AI platform that creates high-fidelity, rendering engine-ready environments from text prompts and images. The platform serves professionals in gaming, film, autonomous vehicles, and defense.

UFORCE is a UK-based defense technology company formed from the merger of nine Ukrainian defense firms, bringing battle-proven autonomous aerial, maritime, and ground systems to Western allied militaries. Backed by Shield Capital, Lakestar, and Ballistic Ventures, it became the first Ukrainian-origin defense-tech unicorn in 2026.

Ulysses (legal entity Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering) builds vertically integrated autonomous underwater and surface vehicles for marine ecology restoration, offshore infrastructure inspection, and defense/ISR missions. Its modular Mako AUV, Leviathan surface vessel, and Kraken launch-and-recovery system target offshore energy, subsea telecom, port security, and allied defense customers.

Watchtower Labs is an AI-native decision and simulation engine built for contested logistics and operational planning in defense missions. Founded in 2024 by national security operators and distributed-systems engineers, it won a Defense Innovation Unit prototype contract to deliver the Joint Sustainment Decision Tool (JSDT) for USINDOPACOM, USNORTHCOM and the Defense Logistics Agency. The team is headquartered in Bellevue, WA with additional sites in Burlingame, Honolulu and the National Capital Region.