Business Development Senior Manager (Space)

Join the Peraton Labs team to provide business development and capture support with a focus on space systems research.  This exciting domain includes technical areas such as space domain awareness, command and control, multi-domain operations, cislunar space, and space digital twins.  We are seeking a versatile business development and capture manager to help grow our space research portfolio by identifying new opportunities, shaping capture strategies, engaging customers, and coordinating proposal development. This role requires a blend of customer-facing business development skills, domain experience in space research, and hands-on proposal leadership. As part of a small, agile team, the successful candidate will take ownership across the opportunity life cycle from early customer engagement through proposal submission and award.

Key responsibilities include:

Business Development and Opportunity Identification

• Identify, qualify, and pursue new business opportunities across multiple customers in the space research domain
• Develop and maintain strong customer relationships to understand mission needs, research priorities, and funding trends
• Monitor solicitations, roadmaps, and research initiatives to anticipate future opportunities
• Collaborate with management and technical leadership to align customer needs with organizational capabilities and strategic objectives

Capture and Solutioning

• Lead capture activities, including win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, and solution shaping
• Apply space domain expertise to inform approaches, discriminators, and value propositions
• Work closely with architects, engineers, and researchers to develop compelling, executable solutions
• Support pricing, risk identification, and execution planning in coordination with internal stakeholders

Proposal Management and Development

• Serve as Proposal Manager for selected opportunities, particularly in support of a small-team environment
• Develop proposal schedules, outlines, compliance matrices, and color team plans
• Coordinate inputs from technical, management, and business contributors
• Ensure proposals clearly articulate customer value, technical credibility, and competitive differentiation
• Manage reviews, track action items, and ensure on-time delivery

Required Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience, including at least 5 years of experience in a business development role
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, business, or a related field.
• Prior experience identifying and pursuing opportunities in space or adjacent domains
• Ability to navigate unfamiliar customer organizations, develop and foster relationships, and secure meetings
• Experience supporting or leading proposal development, including strategy, compliance and integration for competitive bids.
• Strong understanding of research-focused customers, funding mechanisms, and acquisition processes
• Ability to work across multiple opportunities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment
• Self-motivated, independent, detail oriented, responsible team-player
• Strong written and oral communication skills with an ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to travel regularly to support customer meetings and conferences
• U.S. Citizenship and the ability to maintain a TS/SCI clearance

Desired Qualifications:

• Familiarity and/or existing customer relationships with government research and acquisition organizations (DARPA, AFRL, NRL, SSC, IC, etc.) and/or commercial space companies
• Experience developing and managing relationships with partner companies
• Prior technical and/or management experience in a software-intensive field

Security Clearance:

Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility

Location:

Local to the DMV area