Highrise AI Introduces New Chief Technology Officer, Former Head of AI and R&D for the IDF Sigma Branch, Mark Mendelman

Veteran defense technologist and AI systems architect leading development of resilient, secure cloud infrastructure for mission-critical AI workloads

Highrise AI, an AI infrastructure platform and subsidiary of Hut 8 Corp. introduced its new Chief Technology Officer, Mark Mendelman. A veteran defense technologist and AI systems architect, Mark leads the development of Highrise’s cloud platform, which combines bare-metal performance with full-stack orchestration for AI workloads.

Mark joined Highrise following a 20-year tenure with the Israel Defense Forces (“IDF”), where he most recently served as Head of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research & Development (R&D) branch of Sigma, a specialist unit within the IDF’s elite C4I Directorate. Sigma is responsible for developing and operationalizing advanced AI and computing technologies. As Head of AI and R&D, Mark directed cutting-edge AI research groups comprising data scientists, MLOps engineers, and domain experts, leading the IDF’s work in multimodal foundation models, real-time sensor fusion, low-power edge inference, and training pipelines.

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Mark has architected and deployed large-scale AI data platforms that ingest, label, and curate structured and unstructured data from dozens of classified sources. These platforms support rapid experimentation, scalable training, and secure data sharing with defense partners. His technical leadership shaped mission-critical systems such as Dror, a secure operational cloud platform that delivers natural-language battlefield intelligence contextualized across time and geography.

Mark is a graduate of Mamram, the IDF’s legendary computer corps established in 1959, which has trained generations of Israel’s top full-stack engineers, data scientists, and systems architects. Mamran alumni are currently entrepreneurs in approximately 25% of Israeli unicorns, with exits totaling approximately $1.9 billion in 2024. We believe Mark’s deep roots in this ecosystem, particularly across Israel’s advanced AI and cybersecurity sectors, will be instrumental in shaping Highrise’s global innovation and partnership strategy. His work has been recognized with both the IDF Chief of General Staff Innovation Award and the Israel National Defense Prize, one of the country’s highest honors for technological contributions to national security.

“In high-stakes environments, systems must be designed with the expectation that failure is not an anomaly but a constant variable,” said Mark Mendelman, CTO of Highrise AI. “Engineering under that principle requires a focus on security, fault tolerance, and operational integrity. My mandate at Highrise is to apply that discipline to develop a differentiated AI cloud platform purpose-built for developers and enterprises operating in sensitive, performance-critical domains, who need systems they can trust to perform securely and predictably, even under pressure.”

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“Mark brings a proven track record of architecting large-scale, AI-driven platforms engineered for resilience, precision, and continuity,” said Vince Fong, Co-Founder and CEO of Highrise AI. “He’s worked at the front lines of operational AI in one of the world’s most demanding environments, where uncompromising security is table stakes and system failure is not an option. As demand accelerates for performant, secure, and predictable AI platforms, we believe his experience positions Highrise to build a platform that sets a new standard for developers and enterprises who cannot afford compromise. We’re thrilled to welcome Mark to the team.”