Dara Tumenbayeva

Dara is the Founder and CEO of Black Swan, known as the “Neuralink for Defense” — a pioneering company developing next-generation brain-computer interface and advanced AI systems for the U.S. military and allied forces. With a career bridging software engineering, technical leadership, and startup growth, she is leading Black Swan’s mission to deliver field-ready innovations that give operators a decisive advantage in modern warfare.

Before founding Black Swan, Dara worked as a Software Engineer at Amazon, building and optimizing large-scale systems used by millions worldwide. She went on to serve as CTO and Tech Lead at multiple startups, leading product and engineering teams that collectively raised over $1 million USD in funding. These experiences sharpened her ability to transform cutting-edge concepts into operationally viable technologies while scaling teams in fast-moving, high-stakes environments.

Now fully focused on Black Swan, Dara is guiding the company from MVP to a deployable defense platform, collaborating with military veterans, neuroscientists, and defense experts to ensure every solution meets the highest standards of performance, security, and mission relevance. She believes that well-designed technology — especially at the intersection of the human brain and machine intelligence — can protect lives, strengthen national security, and redefine the future of defense.