Warhound launched in October with $200 million and a CEO who has worked inside the Pentagon and at Palantir. Boards seeking that mix should first decide which customer funds the next two years, then check the candidate's clearance status.
Before taking the job, David Spirk served as chief data officer at both the Defense Department and U.S. Special Operations Command, and as senior counselor at Palantir. Other boards in the sector have bet on single-track careers instead: Shield AI handed the top job to former Splunk CEO Gary Steele in 2025 with co-founder Ryan Tseng becoming president, and in October GALT Aerospace promoted president and chief operating officer Dave Webb to CEO after three decades in aerospace and defense. Each board was hiring for the customer it expects to fund the next stage, and a dual-use board has to settle that question before the search opens.
Key Takeaways
- A cleared contractor’s senior management official, usually the CEO, must hold a clearance at the facility clearance level. Federal law allows an approved workaround, but it leaves an uncleared CEO without access to classified programs.
- An initial industry Top Secret clearance averaged 243 days in Q3 FY2026, so a finalist’s clearance status should be confirmed before the offer.
- The CEO profile should match the customer expected to fund the next two years.
What Does a CEO's Clearance Change for a Defense Company?
Federal rules for cleared contractors require the senior management official, typically the CEO, to hold a personnel clearance at the level of the company's facility clearance. If the CEO isn't cleared, federal law allows the Pentagon to grant the facility clearance anyway when the company appoints a cleared senior officer to act as senior management official for the facility, keeps uncleared executives away from all classified information and certifies that the appointee can act independently. This arrangement can let a company maintain its facility clearance, subject to the required approvals, while the uncleared CEO remains excluded from classified information.
Commercial technology executives seldom hold clearances, partly because a clearance has to be sponsored by an employer or agency that needs one, and nobody can apply on their own behalf. Getting one after the hire takes time: an initial Top Secret clearance for industry averaged 243 days end to end in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, according to Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) figures reported by ClearanceJobs. Reinstating an existing clearance usually moves much faster, which is why a finalist's status should be known before the offer goes out.
[Table 1]
Status is best confirmed through the company's facility security officer, because candidates sometimes describe their clearance in looser terms than the records support. A senior government background, however distinguished, doesn't confirm a current clearance on its own.
Why Would a Senior Government Leader Join a Dual-Use Startup?
In my view, senior officials usually weigh the chance to build and field the kind of capability they spent years trying to buy, with the authority to make decisions that took months inside government, above pay. Federal salaries are capped under the Executive Schedule, which sets a Deputy Secretary of Defense’s 2026 pay at $228,000. The sector also has more capital behind it than ever: defense tech venture deal value reached a record $49.1 billion in 2025, up from $27.2 billion in 2024, according to PitchBook data. Equity matters most to someone mid-career who has never held any, and a company that wants these candidates should be able to show them a product tied to a mission they know and a board willing to hand over real operating authority.
Moves of this kind reach beyond the Pentagon: in May, Sean Plankey, a senior adviser on the Coast Guard at the Department of Homeland Security, became U.S. chief executive of UFORCE, a drone maker formed from nine Ukrainian firms and reportedly valued at $1 billion. He took the job less than a month after withdrawing his nomination to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
For AI-focused defense and intelligence platforms, the strongest candidates have usually worked where the government decides how it buys and uses AI, such as the Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Office, SOCOM or the Defense Innovation Unit. Alumni of software companies that sell into government, Palantir and Anduril among them, add experience of moving at commercial speed inside a government sales cycle. Who controls AI use inside defense organizations is covered in a separate guide, and those are the people these leaders will end up selling to.
What Should Each Candidate Profile Prove?
The table sets out the three backgrounds most candidates come from and what each should be asked to prove.
[Table 2]
Among these appointments, Spirk sits closest to the government profile, though his time at Palantir adds commercial experience. A commercial operator tends to make most sense once defense revenue is established, which describes Shield AI when it brought in Steele after years of Pentagon contracts. Bringing in someone from outside the sector raises its own assessment questions, covered in more depth in assessing cross-industry leaders in aerospace and defense. GALT made its change as it expands production capacity, a stage where experience with suppliers and prime contractors counts for more than government access or venture-style growth.
Two interview questions separate candidates quickly, starting with a request to walk through a contract they won, from first contact to award, which shows whether they know how programs get funded. Strong answers name the program office and what nearly sank the deal. Asking how they would keep classified and commercial work apart shows whether they see security as a leadership responsibility or leave it to the facility security officer.
Which Customer Funds the Next Two Years?
Before the search opens, the board should be able to name the customer that pays for the company's next stage. Growth that depends on program-of-record contracts calls for a CEO who knows how the Pentagon buys. If the plan is to sell the same technology to utilities or logistics companies, commercial sales experience matters more than any clearance. Boards that skip the question tend to write a brief asking for both backgrounds at full strength, which narrows the pool to a handful of people.
How to Structure a Dual-Use CEO Search
- Name the customer that funds the next two years, then choose the profile to match.
- Check whether the company holds or needs a facility clearance, and at what level, since that decides how much the CEO's own clearance matters.
- Choose a search partner by its recent placements at defense tech and space companies and by how it verifies clearance claims, two of the tests worth applying when choosing between aerospace recruiters.
- Confirm each finalist's clearance status through the facility security officer before an offer goes out.
- Have ethics counsel review post-government restrictions for any former official.
- Test the commercial record as hard as the government one, with references from both sides.
Off-limits agreements and confidentiality belong in the early conversation with any search firm, particularly when a founder is stepping aside.
The Risks of Getting This Wrong
The costliest mistake is hiring an uncleared commercial CEO into a company that depends on classified work. Even if the company appoints a separate cleared official to keep its facility clearance, the CEO stays shut out of the classified programs that drive revenue until their own clearance comes through, which can take months. A government veteran hired to open commercial markets carries the opposite risk, since a record of winning defense contracts says little about building a sales team for utilities or manufacturers.
Former officials can also face federal post-employment restrictions on dealing with their old agencies for a period after leaving, and a board that discovers those limits after the offer may find its new CEO unable to lead the company's most important customer relationship. A company that sells only unclassified products, with no facility clearance and no plans for one, avoids most of these risks and can hire purely on commercial ability, adding cleared leaders below the CEO later. Founder-CEOs can also carry a company a long way, as Tseng did at Shield AI from its 2015 founding until Steele's arrival.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a CEO Without a Security Clearance Run a Defense Company?
If the company holds or needs a facility clearance, its senior management official normally must be cleared to that level. Federal law allows the Pentagon to approve a cleared senior officer in that role for a facility instead, with the uncleared CEO excluded from all classified information. A CEO can also be sponsored after joining, though the investigation may take months.
How Long Does It Take to Get a Top Secret Clearance?
DCSA figures for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 put the average end-to-end time for an initial industry Top Secret clearance at 243 days. Reinstating an existing clearance is usually much faster.
What Happens to a Security Clearance When Someone Leaves Government?
Leaving a cleared job ends access to classified information, but eligibility stays on record. Under longstanding DoD reciprocity guidance, a continuous break in federal service of 24 months or more generally means a new investigation, and the facility security officer can confirm what current rules require for a specific candidate.
What Should a Board Look for in a Dual-Use Defense Tech CEO?
The right profile depends on which customer funds the company’s next two years. Growth from program-of-record contracts favors a leader who knows how the Pentagon buys. Commercial expansion favors someone who has built a commercial sales organization. Companies handling classified work also need to establish whether the CEO must hold a clearance at the facility’s level or whether an approved alternative senior management official can meet the requirement.
How Do You Choose a Search Firm for a Cleared Defense Tech CEO?
A firm’s recent placements at defense tech and space companies, and whether those leaders are still in the role, tell you more than its claims about networks. It’s also worth asking how the firm verifies a candidate’s clearance status, since confirmation ultimately runs through a cleared company’s facility security officer.
Where to Start
Write down the facility clearance level the company needs and the customer expected to fund its next stage, since the brief and the offer both depend on them. Companies ready to approach candidates can contact Christian & Timbers, an executive search firm focused on AI, technology and aerospace and defense leadership, to discuss a confidential CEO search.
