Business Development Specialist / Manager – Aerospace & Defense

Auriga Space; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Auriga Space is hiring a Business Development Associate to drive defense and commercial pursuits from our Garden Grove, CA facility. You’ll shape proposals, coordinate capture efforts, and interface with government customers and primes. The role grows with you toward capture and closing responsibilities.

You’ll work closely with engineering and leadership, maintain a robust pipeline, and operate in a fast-moving startup environment. This is a hands-on, onsite role requiring proactive ownership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 3–6 years in business development, capture, proposal, or related roles in aerospace/defense.
• Proven proposal writing experience with concrete submissions.

Responsibilities

• Write, edit, and assemble proposals and white papers for solicitations (BAAs, OTAs, SBIR/STTR, RFIs).
• Own proposal logistics: compliance matrices, outlines, schedules, reviews, on-time submission.
• Translate technical input from engineering into clear customer narratives.

Skills

Proposal writing

Government/Defense BD

Written communication

Organization

Self-directed

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

CRM software

Proposal management tools

Job description

This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Auriga Space is revolutionizing propulsion by developing electromagnetic launch systems that offer significant advantages in launch cost, reliability, frequency, and responsiveness compared to rockets.

Role Summary:

Auriga is seeking a Business Development Associate to support and accelerate our defense and commercial pursuits. This is an intermediate-level role for someone who has a few years of government or aerospace business development behind them and is ready for more ownership without needing to run capture alone. You will be the engine behind our proposals, represent Auriga in meetings with government customers, primes, and partners, and keep the pipeline organized and moving. You will work closely with our business development leadership and with engineering, and you will get real exposure to senior stakeholders from day one. This is a place to grow into a capture and closing role rather than a place to sit still. This role is based onsite at our Garden Grove, CA facility.

Key Responsibilities:

Proposals and Capture Support

• Write, edit, and assemble proposals, white papers, and responses to solicitations including BAAs, OTAs, SBIR and STTR, IDIQ task orders, and RFIs.
• Own proposal logistics end to end, including compliance matrices, outlines, schedules, reviewer coordination, and on-time submission.
• Gather technical input from engineering and translate it into clear, compelling, customer-facing narrative.
• Support capture activities including P-win assessment, competitive research, and go/no-go recommendations.
• Build and maintain a reusable library of boilerplate, past performance, resumes, and graphics so each proposal starts further along.

External Stakeholder Engagement

• Take and lead meetings with government customers, defense primes, commercial partners, and research organizations, alongside senior team members at first and independently as you ramp.
• Prepare briefing materials, pitch decks, capability statements, and follow-up correspondence.
• Track action items and commitments coming out of customer engagements and make sure nothing goes cold.
• Represent Auriga at conferences, industry days, and trade shows, including booth support and lead capture.
• Build and maintain working-level relationships across customer and partner organizations that senior leadership can build on.

Market Research and Pipeline Management

• Monitor SAM.gov, agency forecasts, budget documents, and industry sources to identify and qualify new opportunities.
• Conduct market, competitor, and customer research, and turn it into concise, decision-ready recommendations for leadership.
• Maintain the opportunity pipeline and CRM, keep opportunity data and next steps current, and produce regular pipeline and status reporting.
• Support teaming discussions and help prepare NDAs, teaming agreements, and partner materials for leadership review.
• Help track contract deliverables and reporting requirements in coordination with program management and contracts.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree, or equivalent experience.
• 3 to 6 years of business development, capture, proposal, program, or closely related experience, ideally in aerospace, defense, or national security.
• Demonstrated proposal writing experience, with specific submissions you can speak to in detail.
• Excellent written communication, with the ability to turn technical material into clear, persuasive prose on a deadline.
• Highly organized, able to manage several deadlines at once and keep detail straight under proposal pressure.
• Proactive and self-directed, comfortable with ambiguity in a fast-moving start-up environment.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience at an aerospace or defense start-up, or at a non-traditional supplier selling into the government.
• Experience supporting or leading SBIR and STTR proposals through award and into execution.
• Familiarity with hypersonics, space access, missile defense, or counter-UAS markets.
• Existing working-level relationships within DoD program offices, defense primes, or research labs.
• Experience with CRM and proposal management tools, and with opportunity databases such as SAM.gov, GovWin, or similar.
• Experience coordinating across engineering, contracts, and finance to produce a compliant, on-time submission.
• Technically curious, able to hold a substantive conversation with engineers and explain complex systems in accessible terms.
• Comfortable and credible in customer-facing meetings and briefings.
• Proactive and self-directed, comfortable with ambiguity in a fast-moving start-up environment.
• Prior military, civil service, FFRDC, or national lab experience.
• Active or prior U.S. security clearance.
• Master's degree or MBA.
• Passion for advanced manufacturing and next-generation space and defense systems.
• Able to obtain a U.S. security clearance.

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. More details on ITAR are available on the U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls website.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Auriga provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Auriga, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.