Red Queen · Funding Strategy v1.0

Dependency Release Plan & Headcount Allocation

148 FTE requested to deliver the Hyperforce Foundation Platform + Core into the AWS Secret Region (LCK/IL6), released across four milestone-gated tranches over a 24-month horizon.

Total Headcount148 FTE
HorizonT+0 → T+24 months
AuthorDJ Mahon
SponsorJim Wiese

Executive Summary

148 FTE, released in four tranches gated on demonstrated milestones, funds Red Queen's uplift of the Hyperforce platform for delivery into an air-gapped AWS Secret Region. Product scope is still pending Mission Force ELT authorization as of Aug 19, 2026 — the 148 figure is subject to change.

Why it matters: Red Queen operates at a different classification level than Blackjack and cannot share infrastructure, tooling, or emulation vendors with it. That forces net-new investment in bootstrap/trust ("Inception"), a dedicated partition, GovCloud-run emulation, first-ever innerloop support, and day-1 paved-path parity with commercial Hyperforce.

Scope statusDecision pending (as of 8/19)
Largest allocationDXO — 46 FTE
Largest single line itemManaged Release — 10 FTE
Unscoped tail"To Be Confirmed" bucket, Tranche 4

Overview

Requested budget funds delivery of the Hyperforce Foundation Platform + Core into the AWS Secret Region (LCK/IL6). Costs are subject to change pending product scope authorization by Mission Force ELT. Headcount is allocated directly into the GovCloud Organization and embedded into Hyperforce Platform teams for scoped uplift of the platform and delivery into the target AWS Secret Region — it is not a standalone Red Queen org.

Read this as a draft ask, not a locked budget. The source doc marks product scope "Decision Pending" while presenting 148 FTE throughout as if final. Treat every number on this page as provisional until ELT authorizes scope.

Why Funding Is Needed

Delivering Hyperforce Core into a SECRET-level air-gapped partition requires changes Blackjack-A and Blackjack-J never had to make. The six justification points in the source doc all reduce to one theme — nothing about Red Queen can be inherited as-is — expressed here as what's structurally different, not why it's different six times over.

Inception

New air-gapped AWS partition needs its own bootstrap sequence to establish trust/identity between Hyperforce Grid (ESVC) and Falcon instances before Spinnaker can deliver software.

Net-New

Partition

Different classification level than Blackjack — dedicated infrastructure, no shared resources or network. New ESVC instances required for artifact/data transfer.

No Sharing

Emulation

Emulated environments provisioned and managed entirely by GovCloud — departs from the third-party vendor (Sequoia) used in Blackjack.

Vendor Change

Innerloop

First-ever innerloop experience for Service Owners to test/iterate builds from local dev into emulated substrate(s).

First of Its Kind

Paved Path

Establishes paved-path from Day 1, matching Hyperforce Commercial and GCP — many of these capabilities don't exist in Blackjack yet.

Day-1 Requirement

Observability

New governed high→low telemetry egress, giving service owners Day-2 operational signal without breaching the air-gap.

Net-New

Tranche Release Schedule

Funding is released in four milestone-gated tranches — each unlocking a defined slice of headcount only after the prior gate is achieved, sequencing spend behind demonstrated progress.

T+0 Program Start
T1 Discovery +95 → 95 FTE Gate: Build Schedule
T2 Planning +21 → 116 FTE Gate: Established Dev Innerloop
T3 Hyperforce Uplift +8 → 124 FTE Gate: Achieved LLS
T4 Build +24 → 148 FTE Gate: Begin Product Onboarding ~T+24mo

Nodes represent sequential milestone gates, not fixed calendar dates — the source doc only anchors T+0 (start) and ~T+24 months (target horizon). See the open gap below on missing exit-criteria dates.

T1 Discovery — +95 T2 Planning — +21 T3 Hyperforce Uplift — +8 T4 Build — +24
95
21
8
24
95Cumulative after T1
116Cumulative after T2
124Cumulative after T3
148Cumulative after T4
TranchePhaseStaff AddedCumulative FTEWhat It FundsMilestone Unlocked
T1Discovery+9595Platform UpliftBuild Schedule
T2Planning+21116Emulation BuildEstablished Dev Innerloop
T3Hyperforce Uplift+8124Highside InceptionAchieved LLS
T4Build+24148Stage/Prod BuildsBegin Product Onboarding
Milestone labels ("Build Schedule," "Achieved LLS," "Begin Product Onboarding") aren't defined with dates or measurable exit criteria in the source doc — worth pinning down before using these as real gate/no-gate checkpoints.

Stage-by-Stage Breakdown

Each deliverable in the Outcomes table has a named L4 owner. Cross-referencing owner → org (Allocation Summary) and owner → tranche (Outcomes table) reconstructs exactly which orgs deliver what, and how much headcount lands per org, at every gate. Verified: every stage sums to its tranche total, and every org's per-stage sums add up to its Allocation Summary total.

T+0 → T1

Discovery

+95 FTE · cumulative 95

The bulk of the ask lands here: bootstrap/inception, emulation, the full outer-loop release chain, monitoring, network, IAM, and CoreApp — the platform-uplift work needed before any service can build.

0 → 95 cumulative+95 new
Prior cumulativeNewly funded this tranche
DXOKedar Doshi
39/46 · +39
HTPHerman Kwong
29/33 · +29
HPSPaul Constantinides
19/22 · +19
GOVJim Wiese
4/33 · +4
EPIQAlex Hu
2/2 · +2
A&IENishant Gupta
2/4 · +2
DXO39
Kedar Doshi
  • Inception — bootstrap sequence into AWS Secret Region 2
  • FEDX Addons — substrate-agnostic addon parity 3
  • Falcon-CLI — innerloop into target DEV FI 2
  • Managed Release — safe-change release into FI targets 10
  • Managed Pipelines — retires custom j2 templates 4
  • BOM Hydration — automated BOM derivation 2
  • Artifact Transfer — versioned transfer into FI targets 4
  • FIT — safe-change compliant build testing 2
  • Managed Operations — ESVC-driven ops execution 2
  • Monitoring — commercial-parity observability stack 8
HTP29
Herman Kwong
  • Redwood — real-time threat detection/response 4
  • NetworkV2 — flat, multi-agency network isolation 12
  • DREAM — L7-WAF DDoS response/mitigation 3
  • EDGE — Salesforce Edge CDN / perimeter ingress 4
  • IAM — Hyperforce production IAM stack 6
HPS19
Paul Constantinides
  • FKPv2 — managed Kubernetes compute runtime 8
  • UBO — Unified Business Operations org 2
  • CoreApp Config — canonical config naming scheme 3
  • Cell Build — automated cell-builds, retires per-cell files 3
  • Schema — consolidated bootstrap/deploy pipeline 1
  • Endpoint Resolution — air-gapped registry/auth endpoints 2
GOV4
Jim Wiese
  • Canopy — low-side emulation platform 2
  • Policy as Code — substrate requirement detection 1
  • Runbook Assessment — AI-assisted runbook validation 1
EPIQ2
Alex Hu
  • ENG360 — standards adoption reporting 2
A&IE2
Nishant Gupta
  • ACP — outside-in build & destroy automation 2
Gate Unlocked Build Schedule Funds "Platform Uplift" → unlocks T2 · Planning
T1 → T2

Planning

+21 FTE · cumulative 116

Smaller, security- and hardening-heavy tranche: runtime security scanning is the single largest line, plus the second wave of outer-loop/Day-2 tooling and data protection.

95 → 116 cumulative+21 new
Prior cumulativeNewly funded this trancheAlready fully funded
SECIain Mulholland
8/8 · +8
DXOKedar Doshi
46/46 · +7
HTPHerman Kwong
33/33 · +4
HPSPaul Constantinides
21/22 · +2
GOVJim Wiese
4/33
EPIQAlex Hu
2/2
A&IENishant Gupta
2/4
SEC8
Iain Mulholland
  • Runtime Scans — security/config detection appliances 8
DXO7
Kedar Doshi
  • GATER — real-time feature-gate deployment 2
  • OrgFarm — org-lifecycle management 2
  • WardenAI — Day 2 Ops platform 2
  • Audit Log Lifecycle — security/audit event logging 1
HTP4
Herman Kwong
  • Outbound Governance — system vs. customer egress classification 2
  • Data Security — air-gapped PKI trust store distribution 1
  • Data Resilience — ransomware-resilient backup/recovery 1
HPS2
Paul Constantinides
  • Secrets Mgmt — safe-change compliant secret ops 1
  • Identity & Access Controls — password policy, SCIM, lockout 1
Gate Unlocked Established Dev Innerloop Funds "Emulation Build" → unlocks T3 · Hyperforce Uplift
T2 → T3

Hyperforce Uplift

+8 FTE · cumulative 124

The smallest tranche — highside inception, cross-domain transfer, PCE support, and the last compliance-banner item round out CORE.

116 → 124 cumulative+8 new
Prior cumulativeNewly funded this trancheAlready fully funded
GOVJim Wiese
9/33 · +5
A&IENishant Gupta
4/4 · +2
HPSPaul Constantinides
22/22 · +1
DXOKedar Doshi
46/46
HTPHerman Kwong
33/33
EPIQAlex Hu
2/2
SECIain Mulholland
8/8
GOV5
Jim Wiese
  • Cross-Domain Transfer — Airlift (low→high) / Vantage (high→low) onboarding 2
  • PCE — Private Cloud Edition path-to-production 3
A&IE2
Nishant Gupta
  • Chaos Testing — quarterly gameday testing schedule 2
HPS1
Paul Constantinides
  • Compliance Banners — classification header/footer, login banners 1
Gate Unlocked Achieved LLS Funds "Highside Inception" → unlocks T4 · Build
T3 → T4

Build

+24 FTE · cumulative 148

All 24 FTE in the final tranche are Day-2 operations staffing for the highside environment — a single line item, no new product deliverables.

124 → 148 cumulative+24 new
Prior cumulativeNewly funded this trancheAlready fully funded
GOVJim Wiese
33/33 · +24
DXOKedar Doshi
46/46
HTPHerman Kwong
33/33
HPSPaul Constantinides
22/22
EPIQAlex Hu
2/2
A&IENishant Gupta
4/4
SECIain Mulholland
8/8
GOV24
Jim Wiese
  • SNS Operations — highside Builds, Release, Test, Site Reliability 24

Platform's "To Be Confirmed" bucket (Scott Yancey — Scale-Test, Privacy Center, OrgStore, ZOS, EventBus, etc.) has no FTE or tranche assigned in the source doc, which is why it isn't in this stage total or the 148 grand total.

Final Gate — 148 / 148 FTE Begin Product Onboarding Funds "Stage/Prod Builds" — program target horizon reached (~T+24mo)

Allocation by Org (L4 Leader)

Allocations are weighted on the scope of services and uplift required per T&I portfolio that have not yet achieved operational maturity in existing Blackjack environments.

DXO
46
HTP
33
GOV
33
HPS
22
SEC
8
A&IE
4
EPIQ
2
PLATFORM
0
Grand total: 148 FTE. This view (by org) and the Outcomes table below (by delivery area) both sum to 148 — but the source doc never shows the cross-check between the two. Verified independently while building this page: they reconcile.

Outcomes & FTE Detail

Every FTE maps to a named deliverable. Grouped here by delivery area (the source doc lists these flat); each group header shows the area subtotal.

DeliverableSupplement / ComponentsFTETranche
Service Standards 2 FTE
ENG360
Deliver ENG360 reporting of standards adoption for all services declared in the Red Queen build manifest.		Scope by environment; reporting pre- and post-build2T1
Inception 2 FTE
Bootstrap Sequence
Fully scripted, automated bootstrap sequence seeding falcon-foundations into the AWS Secret Region to achieve Long-Lived Spinnaker.		Documented design, build manifest, PoC from commercial env — timeline to unlock STAGE build2T1
Emulation 3 FTE
Canopy
Low-side emulation platform reproducing AWS Secret Region service offerings, SDK support, network restriction, and behavior.		ISO-parameter/strictness enforcement, CAP portal emulation, NPE, API remapping to commercial endpoints2T1
Policy as Code
Code/configuration detection of Red Queen substrate requirements for on-demand and continuous PR-lifecycle enforcement.		SFCI, Falcon-Policy, Matrix, PRIZM1T1
Build / Destroy Automation 2 FTE
ACP
Outside-in execution of all build & destroy operations from the corporate environment into Red Queen target FIs.		FBOTv2, ACP, Temporal, FUN, FQM, FIT, SSR, FMI, KAIJU2T1
Inner-loop 5 FTE
FEDX Addons
Functional parity for all platform-managed FEDX Addons including substrate-agnostic provisioning (IAC) Addons.		Lifecycle testing support via Watchdogs3T1
Falcon-CLI
Established innerloop into target DEV FI for continuous testing from corp with falcon-cli support.		Full support for advertised CLI commands2T1
Outer-loop 26 FTE
Managed Release
Safe-change compliant release into Red Queen FI Targets, initiated by Service Owners from ESVC, governed via manual judgement by Operator within the FI production boundary.		Managed Pipeline, SCv2, SRS Stagger, Safe Change Scorecard Reporting, Argo Rollouts, Operator UX10T1
Managed Pipelines
Support for Managed Pipelines into Red Queen FI Targets, eliminating all custom j2 pipeline templates.		Includes v2 Deployment Addon4T1
BOM Hydration
Event-driven, automated BOM Derivation and Hydration for lowside Red Queen target(s); detects security-relevant changes requiring merge approval.		FDIC, PCS, PCSK2T1
Artifact Transfer
Service-centric, versioned artifact transfer into each Red Queen FI Target driven by MR, initiated by Falcon Services via immutable pipelines.		AMG, Airfilter, FUN, Selective Replication (CTS), Immutable Pipelines4T1
GATER
Safe-change compliant, real-time deployment/management of feature-gates from the corporate environment with central gate-status reporting per target.		Change-mgmt enforcement of production gate-changes2T2
FIT
Safe-change compliant FIT testing and reporting, including dependency-aware rollout enforcement through build phases.		FIT Strict Mode, Versioned FIT Tests, FIT API2T1
OrgFarm
Org-lifecycle management including automated provisioning and testing into Red Queen Production FIs — UX, Headless, Agentic integrations.		—2T2
Day 2 Operations 16 FTE
Managed Operations
Managed Operation execution from the corporate (ESVC) environment into Red Queen target FIs.		Full support of all standardized operations and associated addons2T1
WardenAI
Fully-encapsulated WardenAI Platform for Day 2 Operations within Red Queen production boundaries.		Predictive Autoscale, SDB Alerts, Fawkes2T2
Monitoring
Full paved-path, priority-0, and commercial-parity monitoring capability, aligned with commercial portfolio.		Terramon, Kaiju Testing, Argus, Mon UI/API, Grafana, Splunk, APM, Funnel, MARS, Collections, Events/Stream, SLO, Cipher, Tracer, Healthmap, OOB, Huron8T1
Audit Log Lifecycle
Product-level security/audit logging across the required event catalog, 5-year retention or customer export, in-product search, admin notification + lockdown on failure.		—1T2
Runbook Assessment
AI-assisted runbook content assessment validating completeness/accuracy before operators build/deploy/manage services; gates Falcon service definition sign-off.		Matrix, iDog, CX1T1
Chaos Testing
Chaos gameday testing into Red Queen production FIs with a maintained quarterly testing schedule.		AZ Failover, DB Recovery, Pod Deletion, Instance Termination, Cross-FD fault injection2T3
Runtime Security 8 FTE
Runtime Scans
Security/configuration detection appliances into Red Queen production FIs; operationalize reporting and bug/vuln assignment from lowside Dev FI into corp (GUS, Eng360, Security Hub) and in-boundary reporting within highside Stage/Prod.		FPolicy (CD), AST-Container, Skywalker CSPM, Nessus, Netscan, WebApp, Endpoint protection, Antivirus, SAI8T2
Logging and Detection 4 FTE
Redwood
Real-time detection, response, and containment of threats within Red Queen production environments, with in-boundary notification/response.		RedWood, Cascade, Asgard4T1
Network 21 FTE
NetworkV2
Flat-network supporting multi-agency network isolation per tenant.		IRIS, Menshen, IPAM12T1
DREAM
Automated L7-WAF DDoS response and mitigation.		Temporal, AWS CloudFront, Unified Controller, kWAF-enforcer3T1
EDGE
Salesforce Edge CDN / perimeter platform as north-south ingress — geo-distributed TLS termination, caching, edge security-policy enforcement.		Edge, perimetercdn, perimeter-provisioner, kWAF enforcer, shared cache4T1
Outbound Governance
Hyperforce-native classification of "system" vs "customer" outbound connections under default-deny, with GovCloud Architecture approval.		Non-standard TCP/IP, Explicit Proxy2T2
Runtime 16 FTE
FKPv2
Falcon Kubernetes Platform (v2) managed compute runtime — cluster provisioning, tenant onboarding, autoscaling, networking, observability.		Ingress Gateway, Managed Mesh, Serverless, Periscope8T1
Data Security
Automated, air-gapped distribution of PKI trust stores (CA trust anchors) to all Falcon pods/hosts, with Blackjack-operator-managed trust-bundle generation.		Bharosa1T2
Data Resilience
Ransomware-resilient, immutable backup and recovery for Tier 0/1 stateful Falcon services, with isolated bunker storage and recovery validation.		DRMC1T2
IAM
Hyperforce Production IAM stack aligned to FY27 IAM portfolio v1, incl. Production Remote Access for lowside DEV and managed RBAC provisioning via IDM.		PCSK-JIT, PRA, PLEX, IDM, QuantamK + addons6T1
Cross-Domain 2 FTE
Cross-Domain Transfer
Falcon managed-capabilities and onboarding supporting Artifact Transfer and Data Transport for Service Owners in Red Queen through AWS Secret Region CDS.		Airlift (low-to-high), Vantage (high-to-low)2T3
CORE 14 FTE
UBO
Unified Business Operations organization into Red Queen production FIs with build-safe credential delivery and a weekly deployment schedule.		Blacktab, Trialforce/Sandbox2T1
CoreApp Config
CoreApp environment configuration driven by Operating Zone metadata and Structured Config, single canonical naming scheme across coral, falcon BOM, and CASAM settingspath prior to build.		—3T1
Cell Build
Automated cell-builds migrating cell-specific overrides from Helm into structured config, eliminating per-cell environment files.		CASAM, Structured Config, Topological Config, Fast Core Config, FMT3T1
Schema
Consolidated CoreApp bootstrap, deploy, and schemaupdate pipeline executable via Managed Release into Red Queen FI Targets.		CASAM, Spinnaker-Pipegen1T1
Endpoint Resolution
Documented, automated resolution of air-gapped registry/auth endpoints, plus an independent path to update image-signature policy for Red Queen.		Stampy, Airlock (ECR), Vault/Keystone, FKP Integrations2T1
Secrets Mgmt
Safe-change compliant secret management and runtime operations for CoreApp in Red Queen.		Lion Turtle (PLT), Managed Operations1T2
Identity & Access Controls
Configurable password policy, federated auth, automated account admin (incl. SCIM), lockout, inactive-user disablement, attribute/role/discretionary access, concurrent-session limiting, remote-access disablement.		—1T2
Compliance Banners
Configurable login banners, persistent classification header/footer banners, logout confirmation, email subject/body banner injection, with system-default and customer-override values.		—1T3
PCE 3 FTE
PCE Support
Support for Private Cloud Edition product development, testing, and path-to-production.		AWS Account Mgmt and Provisioning3T3
Ops Staffing 24 FTE
SNS Operations
Highside Builds, Release, Test, Site Reliability.		—24T4
Platform Unscoped
To Be Confirmed
Scale-Test, Scale-Center, Apex Guru, EKM, Database Encryption, Security Center (Multi-Org), Privacy Center, Archive, VaaS, In-Boundary Hammer Testing, OrgStore, ZOS, Capstone, Platform Radio, EventBus, Digital Wallet.		No FTE estimate given?T4
Total148

Planning Phase Deliverables

Require prioritization and commitment from the existing staff of Architects and Technology Leads. All must be presented and approved by GovCloud Architecture before exiting the planning phase (T+90).

Inception

Documented Red Queen Inception Strategy — design, execution plan, component/service manifest, and timeline to achieve LLS in the air-gap region.

Owner: GovCloud

Innerloop

Design for outside-in testing from local/dev into RDev-0 with feedback loop — Falcon CLI, FEDX Addons, FPolicy, PRIZM, Workspaces, OrgFarm (+FIT).

Owner: DXO

Outerloop

Documented air-gap outerloop architecture — Managed Pipelines, Immutable Pipelines, Managed Ops, Artifact Transfer, FIT, FBOT, Operator Experience, BOM Hydration.

Owner: DXO

Environment Configurations

Operating Zone, PCS placeholders, Networking v2, DNS, CoreApp configs deployed and available via Structured Config.

Owner: HPS

Dependencies, Assumptions & Risks

Planning & Design

T1 depends on allocating Cloud Leads and Domain Experts (Product, Architecture, Engineering) from existing staffing for discovery/design/planning.

Government Sponsor

ATO accreditation pathway and timeline.

Owner: Irfan Nawaz

E360 Data Platform

Adoption reporting for paved-path benchmarks across in-scope services, required for onboarding into RStage-1.

Owner: Alex Hu
RiskLikelihoodImpactMitigationOwner
Cleared-SRE hiring & clearance delaysMediumHighStart requisitions early; phase the ramp; prioritize internal transfers of already-cleared staffProgram / Recruiting
Contract approval for shared-use of facilities (SECRET, TS Enclaves)MediumHighRequire per-substrate readiness ETAs and versioning; sequence adoption behind capability availabilitySNS / Computable Insights
Product scope expansionMediumHighGovernance gate and reallocation authority per Section 9; any change to total escalated to sponsorProgram owner
Upstream platform dependency slips (R266–R270)HighHighTrack dependency TDs; align prioritization with providing teams at each milestone gateProgram / RADX

Appendix A — Staffing Execution & Governance

PhaseActivityResponsibleDescription
1AllocationGovCloudGovCloud owns the total allocation and may rebalance headcount across platform teams as scope, risk, and business needs evolve; changes decided at milestone gates (M1–M4).
2AssignmentPlatformPlatform organizations distribute and assign allocated headcount against committed outcomes and are accountable for delivery through Day-2 production readiness.
3RecruitmentJointPlatform teams define role/skill profiles and initiate recruiting pipelines with a dedicated RBO team, including joint-interview panels across T&I.
4OnboardingJointGovCloud provides architectural guidance and requirements; assigned platform covers Falcon, Developer Setup, and Technology/Capability specifics.
5Operational TaskingPlatformPlatform delivery lead directs day-to-day work; GovCloud tracks progress against milestone gates.
6PerformanceGovCloudRetained by each engineer's manager of record, with input from the platform delivery lead where staff are embedded, on the standard cycle plus milestone checkpoints.
7ReassignmentJointTransitions initiated as engineering contracts are fulfilled (Production Build complete + successful Q2/Q3 Testing). Platform teams may request extended support with justification and GovCloud approval.
8Day 2JointHeadcount reports back into GovCloud Engineering & Operations, forming satellite teams for sustained support/operation in air-gapped production. A durable dotted-line to each originating platform team keeps architecture evolution continuous rather than ending at hand-off.

Open Gaps — Before This Goes to ELT

  • No dollar figure. A "funding strategy" doc that states 148 FTE but never states loaded cost or infra spend can't actually be approved as a budget — only as a headcount plan.
  • Scope-pending vs. firm-148 tension. The doc marks scope "Decision Pending" yet treats 148 as final everywhere else. Needs an explicit range or contingency note.
  • Unscoped tail inside a "final" total. The Tranche 4 "To Be Confirmed" bucket (Scale-Test, Privacy Center, OrgStore, ZOS, Capstone, EventBus, Digital Wallet, etc.) carries no FTE estimate but sits inside the 148 total.
  • Milestone gates lack dates and exit criteria. "Build Schedule," "Achieved LLS," "Begin Product Onboarding" are labels, not measurable checkpoints.
  • Template fields unfilled. Date field is blank; author/sponsor were bracketed placeholders in the source doc.

Sources