About this role
Tactical Analyst II
Job Description: Tactical Analyst II – Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) Advisor – AI Systems Company: Covan Group Location: Remote-first with travel BLUF The Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) Advisor serves as the operational bridge between technology developers and the future warfighter. This role combines deep military operational expertise with research, systems thinking, and technology integration to help government and commercial clients develop capabilities that improve combat effectiveness. The advisor translates doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures into actionable guidance for engineers, software developers, researchers, and program managers while helping shape the next generation of human-machine teams. Working directly alongside senior advisors and customer leadership, the HMT Advisor supports multiple technology development efforts simultaneously, ensuring emerging capabilities remain grounded in operational reality while identifying opportunities to fundamentally improve how military units plan, decide, coordinate, and fight. Company Overview Covan Group is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) headquartered in the National Capital Region. Our veteran-led team operates at the intersection of experimentation, human-machine teaming, and professional wargaming, helping government organizations accelerate the transition of concepts into operational capability. Our Wargaming and Simulation Team partners with the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps to support operational planning, concept exploration, decision support, force design, and leader development through AI-enabled simulation and wargaming. These efforts complement Covan's Experimentation and Human-Machine Teaming Divisions, creating an integrated learning environment where tactics, technology, and human performance evolve together. Key Outcomes (First 90–180 Days)
• Establish credibility with multiple government and industry customers as a trusted operational advisor.
• Provide doctrinal and tactical guidance supporting multiple technology development efforts.
• Develop operational concepts, tactical vignettes, scenarios, and military planning products supporting experimentation and demonstrations.
• Support the expansion of Covan's Human-Machine Teaming assessment methodology into new technology domains.
• Produce clear, defensible analyses that help developers understand operational strengths, limitations, and opportunities for improvement.
• Contribute innovative concepts that improve future human-machine collaboration across tactical and operational environments.
Core Responsibilities Operational Technology Advising
• Advise government and commercial technology developers on military doctrine, tactics, operational planning, and future employment concepts.
• Translate operational problems into technical requirements that inform software, AI, robotics, autonomy, and decision-support system development.
• Research doctrine, historical operations, emerging conflicts, and future warfare trends to answer customer questions and inform system design.
• Evaluate proposed capabilities against realistic operational requirements and identify opportunities for improvement.
Human-Machine Teaming
• Support the development and refinement of methodologies used to assess Human-Machine Teaming performance.
• Evaluate emerging technologies through the lens of human performance, trust, workload, decision quality, mission effectiveness, and operational utility.
• Assist in developing new analytical methods for measuring technology effectiveness within military organizations.
• Support experimentation that validates how technologies integrate into existing military processes and future operational concepts.
Scenario & Experiment Development
• Develop realistic tactical scenarios supporting experimentation, demonstrations, synthetic environments, and live exercises.
• Produce military planning products including operations orders (OPORDs), fragmentary orders (FRAGOs), synchronization matrices, decision support products, and mission planning artifacts.
• Design representative operational problems that challenge emerging technologies in tactically relevant ways.
• Support planning and execution of experimentation events while ensuring operational realism.
Customer Engagement
• Meet regularly with multiple government and industry customers to understand development goals, technical challenges, and operational questions.
• Translate customer objectives into actionable operational research, planning products, and technical recommendations.
• Present findings to technical and non-technical audiences including engineers, program managers, military leaders, and senior executives.
• Build long-term trusted advisor relationships across multiple customer organizations.
Research & Innovation
• Conduct independent research on doctrine, emerging technologies, future operational concepts, and lessons learned from modern conflicts.
• Identify emerging trends in autonomy, AI, robotics, human performance, and military decision-making.
• Contribute to white papers, concept papers, research proposals, and customer-facing technical products.
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve how technology is designed, evaluated, and transitioned to operational users. Characteristics of a Successful Candidate The ideal candidate is intellectually curious, operationally grounded, and comfortable working at the intersection of military operations and emerging technology. They can move fluidly between doctrinal research, customer engagement, concept development, experimentation, and executive communication. They are equally comfortable discussing tactical employment with military operators and system architecture with software engineers, serving as the translator between operational need and technical possibility. Above all, they possess a passion for improving the effectiveness and survivability of the future warfighter by ensuring emerging technologies are developed with operational relevance from the outset. Compensation
• 2026 Pay Band:$88,000 – $126,000
Certificates/Security Clearances/Other: Clearance Requirements
• Secret clearance eligibility required; active Secret preferred.
• Compliance with all security and reporting protocols.
Additional Qualifications/Responsibilities: Work Environment & Travel
• Remote-first role with periodic travel for wargames, experiments, and customer support.
• Frequent CONUS travel governed by Covan Group’s Travel Policy.
Required Experience: Desired Experience Candidates should demonstrate experience in several of the following areas:
• Military operational planning.
• Combined arms operations.
• Human-Machine Teaming.
• Artificial Intelligence or autonomous systems.
• Operational analysis.
• Military experimentation.
• Wargaming.
• Test & Evaluation.
• Capability development.
• Concept development.
• Requirements generation.
• Technology transition.
• Research and development support.
• Decision support systems.
• Military training and education.
Required Skills: Required Qualifications
• U.S. Citizen.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Security Clearance.
• Former military officer (O4–O6 preferred) or senior enlisted leader with extensive operational planning experience, or equivalent government/industry experience.
• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred. Advanced education in military studies, engineering, operations research, AI, systems engineering, human factors, or related disciplines is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex operational concepts to technical audiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking abilities.
• Ability to independently research unfamiliar topics and rapidly develop defensible recommendations.
Preferred Skills: Preferred Qualifications
• Experience supporting DoD research, experimentation, or technology development programs.
• Experience advising software developers, engineers, or research organizations.
• Experience with military AI, autonomy, robotics, or decision-support technologies.
• Familiarity with Joint and Service doctrine.
• Experience designing or evaluating military simulations, digital twins, or wargaming environments.
• Experience conducting operational assessments or technology evaluations.
• Familiarity with Human Factors Engineering, Human Systems Integration, or Human-Machine Teaming research.