Quick facts
- Name: Joel Chenette
- Location: DC / Northern Virginia (in-office, no relocation)
- Clearance: Active TS/SCI
- Veteran: U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve 2006–2012, Iraq deployment 2008)
- Current role: Lead Engineer, Two Six Technologies (3.5 years)
- Email: joelchenette@gmail.com
- Phone: 703-477-8409
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joel-chenette-2269b993
Who I am in one paragraph
Cross-discipline technical leader with 15 years of hands-on engineering across firmware, electrical, mechanical, FPGA, and cryptographic systems. I have written production firmware deployed on AC-130 gunships, designed and fabricated PCBs, and delivered mechanical enclosures from CAD through fabrication. I currently lead a 20-engineer hardware product organization through production delivery. I reduce systems to their minimal viable form and unblock execution where single-discipline leaders cannot.
What I'm looking for
Role: Open. Strong fit for Senior Technical Program Manager, Technical Lead, Engineering Program Lead, or a senior individual contributor role with real scope. I am most useful where the work crosses disciplines (firmware, electrical, mechanical, FPGA, security) and where someone needs to convert ambiguous program goals into a delivery plan and unblock the team.
I'd rather find the right company and let the role shape around the work than chase a specific title. If you know a place where my background fits and the mission is right, I want to talk.
Mission: Defense, cleared work, dual-use hardware. I care about real-world impact and I have spent my career delivering systems that get deployed on actual platforms. I am not interested in pure software-as-a-service or consumer companies.
Compensation expectations: Roughly equivalent to my current role or better. I'm flexible on the exact mix of base and equity if the role is right.
Location: DC / Northern Virginia, in-office or hybrid. Family is here, no relocation, not interested in fully remote roles.
Start date: Flexible. Two weeks notice from when I sign.
What I bring (concrete)
Engineering leadership
- Currently leading a 20-engineer hardware product organization through production delivery (initial 4-unit run shipped, 30-unit scale-up underway)
- Stood up and now manage three sub-teams (embedded software, FPGA, hardware/manufacturing) each with their own technical leads
- Owned the technical architecture spanning embedded Linux, FPGA, STM32 secure boot, cryptographic backends, host software, and GUI
- Established configuration management system and production workflows for hardware manufacturing
Cross-discipline depth
- Firmware: 15 years of C / C++ embedded development across AVR32, STM32, FPGA-coupled systems. Authored a custom UDP/IP stack (UUIP) deployed on tactical systems.
- Electrical: PCB design and fabrication (ECAD). Reverse-engineered and replaced degraded Ethernet rotary encoders on AC-130 under deadline pressure; that work became the long-term production gun controller.
- Mechanical: Self-taught CAD on a DARPA program when the team collapsed; designed and fabricated modular electronics enclosures to keep the program on track.
- Security: Reverse-engineered Apple Find My cryptographic protocol and built a custom BLE tracking device using nRF52. Built a non-attributable WiFi monitoring system with end-to-end opsec.
Programs I've delivered on
- AC-130 Gun Control System (2012–2020) — sole firmware engineer for the networked gun control system used on the AC-130. Still operationally deployed. Short video showing the system in action — details are classified, but ask me about it.
- Advanced High Energy Laser (AHEL) (2020–2022) — firmware for the air handling and environmental control system of a solid-state laser weapon designed to replace the AC-130's 105mm gun.
- DARPA Morpheus (2023–2025) — Principal Investigator on a 7-engineer team. When the team was reduced to one engineer mid-program, I personally delivered through all six integration events.
- HSM (2025–present) — leading 20-engineer team taking a security hardware product line from internal R&D through production.
Personal / side projects
- Trinity Firefighting — video. (One-line description TBD — Joel to fill in.)
What an interviewer will hear from my former colleagues
- "Highly trusted among his team because he delegates effectively without micromanaging" (direct quote from current manager's written evaluation)
- "Strong advocate for his entire team, working tirelessly to clear obstacles and mitigate risks"
- "Trusted resource for his technical leads"
I have multiple recent former colleagues (who left Two Six for Anduril, SHIFT5, and elsewhere) who can speak directly to what it's like to work for me.
Target companies
Primary (DC defense tech): Anduril (Herndon office), SHIFT5, BlueHalo, HawkEye 360, Vannevar Labs, Rebellion Defense, Strider Technologies
Also considering: Govini, Capella Space, Federated Wireless, Second Front Systems, MITRE, JHU APL
If you know anyone at any of these, an introduction is the single most useful thing you can do for me.
How you can help
The most useful thing is a specific introduction — a name and a one-line context.
Three concrete asks if you're willing:
- Anyone you know at one of the target companies above. Even a junior contact is valuable; they often know who's hiring on which team.
- Anyone you know in DC defense tech that I might not have heard of. I'm sure I'm missing companies.
- Honest read on any of these companies if you have inside information — "the manager you'd be working for is a nightmare" is just as valuable as "this team is amazing."
If you'd rather just share my resume with someone, please do — the full version is below.
Full resume
See resume.md (or attached).
If anything in this packet raises questions or you want more detail on a specific program, just ask. I'd rather over-share than make you guess.