Max Fend is an agent with the CIA.
He will be and, perhaps, he already has been. The last part is because as the first recorded adventure begins, we quickly learn that Fend has some history that requires keeping very confidential and it may be related to the Agency.
What we know for certain as the series begins is that Max Fend is the son of Charles Fend, founder, CEO, and principle owner of Fend Aerospace, a massively successful aeronautics business which is just about to unveil its latest innovation, a computer-automated commercial airliner.
"Everyone had heard of Fend Aerospace. When Max was growing up, most people that he met assumed that he was some spoiled rich prep school kid. And he had gone to all the best schools. They'd never been short of money. His father had taken him around the world on fabulous vacations. But he'd always had a chip on his shoulder. Max wanted to forge his own path. He hadn't gone on to work on Wall Street or as an investment banker, like many of his classmates at Princeton. Instead, he had chosen to take a job that allowed him to see the world, live an exciting life, and do something fulfilling."
We learn early on the younger Fend, now just about to enter Georgetown to get his MBA, has spent the past 12 years obtaining "prior work experience [which] would qualify him for an elite subset of jobs, but those jobs were unrelated to managing an aerospace company". "It just wasn't the type of occupation that he could talk to people about. In that field, talking about your work was the quickest way to ending up dead in a ditch." Hence the earlier comment about already having been with the Agency.
Our introduction to Fend finds him entering another phase of his life to try something new. This means that Fend the younger, having earned his BA prior to this other work, is likely nearing his middle 30's. He is planning on earning that MBA and then joining the family business, working his way up a corporate ladder that his father has admitted is all set for his assent.
Unfortunately for Max Fend, someone has decided to throw Fend under a very heavy bus over something he had nothing to do with.