Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Our goal: build technology that touches the lives of 100 million residents by the end of the year.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn't be a luxury in government. It's how you earn trust back.

The Role

Kaizen's proposal and capture function is expanding to keep pace with the increasing volume of competitive Federal solicitations! This role addresses this demand head-on: a hire fully dedicated to Federal proposal and capture, responsible for the writing, strategy, and process that win competitive contracts with the U.S. Government. You'll own solicitation responses, white papers, solution briefs, and unsolicited proposals end-to-end, and shape how Kaizen's Federal proposal function scales as the team grows. This is a rare chance to build something from the ground up at a company that has already proven it can win, at a moment when Federal demand for what Kaizen builds keeps climbing.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of either our New York City HQ or DC office. Candidates must be able to commute to either NYC or DC to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays).

What You'll Do

• Own the full development and submission of Federal solicitation responses, including RFx responses, white papers, solution briefs, and unsolicited proposals, from first draft through submission.

• Monitor Federal contracting channels beyond SAM.gov to surface new opportunities that fit Kaizen's strengths.

• Partner with product, engineering, and partnerships to translate technical work into narratives that win with Federal contracting officers, work that ultimately gets modern tools into the hands of the agencies serving millions of Americans.

• Build the AI-assisted workflows and templates that let Kaizen's Federal proposal function move faster as the team grows.

• Work alongside David to sharpen capture strategy, spot what a strong-fit opportunity looks like, and prep for competitive deals with the Federal BD team.

• Catch the requirements a solicitation does not explicitly spell out, since missing them is often the difference between a compliant response and a losing one.

• Represent Kaizen at virtual industry days and other Federal BD activities as needed.

What You'll Bring

• At least 8 years of experience writing and winning proposals for Federal government solicitations.

• Experience at a startup or fast-moving tech company, not solely at large, established Federal contracting firms.

• Deep fluency in Federal procurement, including working with contracting officers, developing unsolicited proposals, knowing which procurement channels to monitor beyond SAM.gov, and understanding the terminology and mechanics of different solicitation types.

• A sharp eye for detail. In this role, missing a small requirement can sink an otherwise strong response.

• A self-starter who takes on work without needing to be told what is next, and who asks for feedback rather than waiting for it.

• Real, hands-on experience using AI tools in proposal and capture work, not just familiarity with the concept.

Strong Candidates May Also...

• Have experience at a fast-growing, mission-driven technology company, think Palantir, Anduril, or similar, rather than a large traditional Federal contracting firm.

• Have been part of a small, nimble proposal and capture team before.

• Have owned the full spectrum of both capture strategy and proposal development, not just one half of the process.

Don't Apply If...

• You need a highly structured environment with a clear playbook for every task. This role is still being built, and you will be shaping the process as much as executing it.

• You are not genuinely energized by government work. Federal contracting has a learning curve, and half-hearted interest shows up fast in the writing.

• You would rather wait for direction than figure out the next right move yourself.

• You are comfortable letting small details slide. In Federal solicitations, the fine print is often the whole ballgame.

If you want to help decide how the Federal government experiences modern software, and you are willing to do the unglamorous work of winning the right to build it, this is worth a conversation.

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.

• One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.

• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.

• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)

• Closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.

• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.

• $500/year professional development.

• $250/year recreation.

• $300/quarter pet care stipend.

Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Our goal: build technology that touches the lives of 100 million residents by the end of the year.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn't be a luxury in government. It's how you earn trust back.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays through Thursdays), with additional days as needed for onsite candidate hosting, which is core to this role.

The Role

Kaizen is scaling from 35 to 60 people this year, and this role is how we do it without dropping any candidates or processes along the way. You'll run point on the parts of recruiting that make everything else work: the loops that stay on schedule, the data that's actually trustworthy, the sourcing lists that keep pipelines full, and the small automations that quietly save the team hours every week. Coordination is still the core of the job. It's just no longer the whole job. This is a rare seat to learn how a company hires end-to-end, with a recruiting team that will teach you the craft as you go. It starts as a 3-6-month contract with a genuine path to extend or convert to full-time, based on performance and 2027 hiring goals.

What You'll Do

• Own interview scheduling end-to-end: multi-interviewer panels, confirmations, reschedules, and debrief logistics

• Host candidates onsite, keep loops running on time, and make sure every candidate leaves with a strong impression of Kaizen, offer or not

• Run the ops backbone of recruiting: clean ATS data, accurate stages, current postings across platforms, and reporting the team can actually trust

• Work on recruiting related marketing and events, from career page updates to employer brand content to coordinating events like our NYC Tech Week presence

• Prep interviewers with plans and scorecards so every loop is structured and every debrief moves fast

• Pitch in on sourcing and shadow the team as you ramp, building toward real ownership of lists and outreach

• Find the manual, repetitive work in the recruiting process and fix it, including where automation or AI tools can take it over

What You'll Bring

• 0-2 years of experience in recruiting coordination, talent ops, executive/administrative support, customer-facing work, or another high-volume operations role, or equivalent experience

• Real calendar management skill: you can schedule a 4-person panel across busy schedules without breaking a sweat

• Obsessive attention to detail, especially with candidate data and communications, where small misses show

• Genuine warmth hosting people in person: this isn't a side duty, it's core to the job

• High ownership and bias toward action: you fix what's broken, you don't wait to be told

• Comfort holding a few different threads at once: scheduling, data, and a sourcing or marketing task on the same day

Strong Candidates May Also...

• Have hands-on Ashby experience, or have built workflows in a comparable ATS

• Have sourced candidates, built talent lists, or worked on employer brand or events, or want to grow into it

• Have used AI tools or automation to eliminate repetitive work

• Have worked at an early-stage startup where they built process rather than inherited it

Don't Apply If...

• You need a fully mapped-out process to know what to do next: this role rewards people who spot the gap and close it themselves

• You want a fixed script for every conversation instead of learning to read the room with candidates and interviewers

• You're looking for a purely behind-the-scenes role: hosting candidates in person is the job, not an occasional add-on

• You want one lane and nothing else: this role touches coordination, data, sourcing, and marketing in the same week

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.

• One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.

• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.

• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)

• Closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.

• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.

• $500/year professional development.

• $250/year recreation.

• $300/quarter pet care stipend.

Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Our goal: build technology that touches the lives of 100 million residents by the end of the year.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn't be a luxury in government. It's how you earn trust back.

The Role

Kaizen has built something real: 40M residents, 50+ agencies, 17 states. Most people have never heard of us. That changes now - we're at the point where our brand needs to do serious work: recruit mission-driven talent, win federal contracts, build credibility with investors, and make Kaizen a name that people in government, tech, and public life actually know. This is not a production role, it's a builder role, for the person who figures out what Kaizen's brand should be and then makes it happen across every channel. You'll own editorial content, short films, the website, social presence, executive storytelling, and the long game of making this company iconic. You'll work directly with our co-founders, and you'll have the latitude to move fast and make big calls.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays).

What You'll Do

• Define and execute Kaizen's external brand strategy: what we stand for, how we show up, and how we build recognition across government, tech, and the public

• Own the content engine: editorial (LinkedIn, Substack, written longform), short films, YouTube, podcasts, and anything else that puts Kaizen on the map

• Write and produce executive communications that travel, including board updates, investor narratives, op-eds, and media appearances

• Build toward long-term brand goals and treat distribution as part of the creative work, not an afterthought

• Partner with sales and proposals on assets that win contracts: case studies, one-pagers, pitch materials

• Quarterback external vendors and contractors (PR firms, video production, freelancers) and direct their output without being dependent on them

What You'll Bring

• 6–10 years building brand and content at a company where the brand actually mattered. Not maintaining it, building it

• A portfolio that shows range and point of view: editorial content, brand systems, video storytelling, executive comms, plus evidence that your work traveled beyond its original channel (a portfolio link is required as part of your application)

• Sharp instincts for narrative and positioning. You think about why something should exist before you make it

• Comfort operating as a one-person function to start, with proven ability to build and scale a team of contractors and FTEs

• AI-native workflow: you use tools to scale your output and stay ahead of what's possible

• Strong writing skills, good enough to ghost-write for executives and produce editorial content that earns an audience on its own

Strong Candidates May Also…

• Have built a brand function from scratch at an early-stage company, before there was a playbook

• Have experience in govtech, defense tech, or any sector where the buyer is skeptical and the mission is serious

• Have grown an audience on their own (a newsletter, a channel, a following) and understand distribution from the inside

Don't Apply If…

• Your portfolio is mostly B2C ad campaigns, short-form social videos, or content built for large production teams

• You need a detailed creative brief, a structured process, or a large team of full-time staff underneath you to do your best work

• You think brand is a support function that executes what sales or product asks for

• You're not energized by the idea of making Kaizen a name that people recognize in DC, in government offices, and in the broader conversation about what technology for the public sector should look like

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.

• One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.

• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.

• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)

• Closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.

• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.

• $500/year professional development.

• $250/year recreation.

• $300/quarter pet care stipend.

Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Our goal: build technology that touches the lives of 100 million residents by the end of the year.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn't be a luxury in government. It's how you earn trust back.

The Role

Kaizen's platform reaches 40M residents across 50+ agencies in 17 states. We've already signed multiple federal customers with many more in the pipeline, and the work of making Kaizen federal-ready is currently spread across a handful of engineers. That doesn't scale. We're hiring our first dedicated security engineer to sit on the platform team and own this end to end: architect the controls, write the SSPs, and partner with engineering to embed compliance into how we ship rather than bolt it on after.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays).

What You'll Do

• Architect and operationalize security across infrastructure, platform, CI/CD, and application layers, with a focus on AWS (including GovCloud) and Terraform

• Lead readiness across federal compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, CMMC, and DoD Impact Levels), translating NIST 800-53 and related controls into real engineering implementations, and owning the SSPs, POA&Ms, and technical policy documentation

• Build continuous compliance and audit-readiness workflows that make accreditation a byproduct of how we ship, not a separate workstream

• Be smart about AI and tooling. Use automated AI-driven security scanning, modern hardened-image platforms like Chainguard, and other leverage points to multiply the impact of a small security team

• Establish secure software supply chain practices: SBOMs, image signing, workload identity, and hardened deployment pipelines

• Own the technical relationship with assessors, auditors, and federal security stakeholders. You are the credible technical voice in those rooms

• Drive a secure-by-default engineering culture so residents and public servants can trust the systems we put in front of them

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of hands-on experience building and securing cloud-native platforms in AWS and Terraform. You can architect controls and also implement them yourself

• Direct experience with federal authorization work in FedRAMP, CMMC, DoD IL, or comparable regulated environments. You don't need to have shepherded a full authorization across the finish line, but you've done enough of the real work to know what it takes

• Deep familiarity with NIST 800-53 and the ability to translate controls into pragmatic engineering work rather than checkbox compliance

• Strong working knowledge of modern supply chain security: SBOMs, image signing, workload identity, secure CI/CD

• Track record operating effectively in early-stage or fast-moving environments where you set the bar rather than inherit it

Strong Candidates May Also...

• Have supported federal SaaS, defense tech, or regulated infrastructure companies through accreditation

• Have led a company through its first federal authorization rather than maintaining an existing one

• Have hands-on experience with Chainguard, AI-powered security tooling, or similar leverage-multiplying platforms

• Have worked with platforms like Second Front or similar federal compliance accelerators

Don't Apply If...

• You want to own policy and hand the implementation to someone else. This role lives in the code and the infrastructure

• You think compliance is paperwork. At Kaizen it's a load-bearing engineering discipline

• You think AI tools are a crutch rather than a force multiplier

• You need a mature security program already in place to be effective

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.

• One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.

• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.

• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)

• Closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.

• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.

• $500/year professional development.

• $250/year recreation.

• $300/quarter pet care stipend.