Siddharth Iyer is a national security leader, Indo-Pacific strategist, and technology executive with two decades of experience shaping U.S. defense partnerships and driving technology adoption across complex government ecosystems. He is currently a Director at Vannevar Labs, where he develops strategy and leads growth across public and commercial markets for frontier technologies.

Siddharth is among a small number of practitioners who have both negotiated U.S. defense agreements with Asian governments and built commercial pipelines for defense and technology companies operating in these markets. His career spans the most demanding environments in U.S. national security, including the Pentagon, the White House, and the Intelligence Community.

At the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Siddharth led the team responsible for what became a historic expansion of U.S.-India defense ties, driving government approvals for co-production and sales of major defense systems, integrating supply chains, and launching a groundbreaking initiative to catalyze collaboration between U.S. and Indian technology companies (INDUS-X). He also negotiated bilateral agreements with Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, and Pakistan, strengthening U.S. military access, intelligence sharing, and capacity-building programs across the Asia. For this work, he received the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the department’s highest civilian honor.

In his most recent government role, Siddharth served as Special Advisor for Indo-Pacific Affairs to Vice President Kamala Harris, advising on the full range of U.S. policy in Asia and preparing senior officials for engagements with foreign leaders across the region.

Earlier in his career, Siddharth served at the Defense Intelligence Agency as a senior intelligence analyst and principal briefer to senior civilian and military officials directing U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Siddharth holds an M.A. in Comparative Politics from the Ohio State University and a B.A. in International Relations from Drake University.