Capture Manager

SMA: The Program Lifecycle Company; Lexington Park (MD); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

SMA: The Program Lifecycle Company is seeking an experienced Capture Manager to lead pursuit efforts with the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) centered around Patuxent River, Maryland. The role requires translating customer needs into differentiated capture strategies and coordinating cross-functional teams across BD, contracts, pricing, and proposals.

The ideal candidate will have deep NAVAIR knowledge, a track record of successful DoD captures, and the leadership to drive win themes and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Management, or related field or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years in federal business development, capture management, or related defense roles.
• Strong understanding of NAVAIR/NAWCAD customer environment and DoD acquisition processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead full lifecycle capture for strategic NAVAIR opportunities from identification to award.
• Develop and execute capture plans to maximize probability of win.
• Coordinate capture activities across BD, Operations, Technical, Contracts, Pricing, and leadership.
• Provide leadership in gate reviews with clear assessments of status, risks, and actions.
• Maintain relationships within the Patuxent River Naval Aviation community and with industry partners.

Skills

Capture leadership

Federal acquisition

NAVAIR knowledge

Proposal coordination

Cross-functional collaboration

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Capture Manager to support our client’s business growth and capture activities within the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) market, with particular emphasis on the Patuxent River, Maryland customer community.

The Capture Manager will lead capture activities for new-business and recompete opportunities across NAVAIR, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), Program Executive Offices (PEOs), Program Management Activities (PMAs), and related Naval Aviation organizations.

The successful candidate will bring a combination of NAVAIR customer knowledge, capture leadership, business development acumen, competitive intelligence, and understanding of the federal acquisition environment. The individual must be capable of rapidly integrating with the client’s business development, capture, technical, pricing, proposal, contracts, and operational teams to develop and execute differentiated win strategies.

This is a hands-on role requiring someone who understands both the formal capture process and the Pax River customer environment and can translate customer mission needs, acquisition strategies, competitive intelligence, and client’s capabilities into capture strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and support full lifecycle capture activities for strategic NAVAIR opportunities from initial identification and qualification through proposal submission, award, and post-submission activities.
• Develop and execute comprehensive capture plans designed to maximize probability of win.
• Establish capture schedules, milestones, action plans, resource requirements, and decision points for assigned pursuits.
• Coordinate capture activities across Business Development, Operations, Technical, Contracts, Pricing, Finance, Recruiting, Proposal Development, and executive leadership.
• Facilitate regular capture-team meetings and ensure actions, decisions, risks, and customer intelligence are documented and actively managed.
• Support internal gate reviews and provide leadership with clear assessments of opportunity status, competitive position, investment requirements, risks, and recommended actions.
• Maintain an understanding of the NAVAIR and NAWCAD customer environment, organizational structure, mission priorities, acquisition strategies, and emerging requirements.
• Establish/leverage relationships throughout the Patuxent River Naval Aviation community.
• Develop customer engagement and call plans that improve understanding of customer requirements, priorities, challenges, and acquisition objectives.
• Capture and communicate customer intelligence to the broader capture team.
• Maintain awareness of NAVAIR acquisition trends, contract vehicles, upcoming procurements, recompetes, and market developments.

Opportunity Shaping & Win Strategy

• Develop win strategies based on customer requirements, Peraton capabilities, competitive positioning, and acquisition environment.
• Identify and articulate compelling win themes, discriminators and value propositions
• Lead competitive assessments, including competitor strengths and weaknesses, incumbent positioning, likely teaming arrangements, and potential competitive responses.
• Conduct and facilitate Black Hat and other competitive assessment activities.
• Identify gaps in capabilities, experience, staffing, relationships, past performance, or technical solutions and develop strategies to mitigate them.
• Work with technical and operational SMEs to develop mission-relevant solutions aligned with NAVAIR requirements.
• Ensure capture strategy is effectively transitioned into proposal strategy and execution.

Teaming & Industry Engagement

• Identify potential teammates, subcontractors, small-business partners, and technology partners that strengthen our client's competitive position.
• Evaluate potential partners based on customer relationships, technical capabilities, past performance, contract qualifications, pricing position, and strategic value.
• Support development and negotiation of teaming strategies and agreements in coordination with Contracts and executive leadership.
• Maintain awareness of the contractor landscape supporting NAVAIR and the broader Patuxent River community.
• Develop productive relationships with industry partners and potential teammates.
• Analyze Requests for Information (RFIs), Sources Sought notices, draft solicitations, Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and related acquisition documentation.
• Assess acquisition strategy, evaluation criteria, contract type, contract vehicle, competitive environment, and potential barriers to award.
• Support development of questions, responses, white papers, capability briefings, RFIs, and other pre-RFP customer engagement materials.
• Work with pricing and finance organizations to support development of competitive pricing strategies and price-to-win assessments.
• Identify potential acquisition, contractual, technical, staffing, schedule, and pricing risks and develop mitigation strategies.

Proposal Integration

• Ensure capture strategy, customer intelligence, competitive analysis, and win themes are effectively communicated to and incorporated by the proposal team.
• Participate in proposal kickoff activities and solution development sessions.
• Support development of proposal outlines, themes, executive summaries, management approaches, staffing strategies, and technical solutions.
• Participate in Blue, Pink, Red, Gold, and other proposal/capture reviews as required.
• Maintain continuity between pre-RFP capture strategy and final proposal execution.
• Support oral presentations, customer discussions, clarifications, and post-submission activities as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Management, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• 10+ years of experience in federal business development, capture management, program management, acquisition, or related defense-industry roles.
• Demonstrated experience supporting Department of Defense and/or U.S. Navy business development and capture activities.
• Demonstrated understanding of the NAVAIR/NAWCAD customer environment at Patuxent River.
• Experience leading or making significant contributions to full lifecycle capture efforts for complex federal opportunities.
• Strong understanding of federal acquisition processes, competitive procurements, contract vehicles, and government contracting.
• Experience developing capture strategies, win themes, competitive assessments, customer engagement plans, and teaming strategies.
• Ability to work across technical, operational, pricing, contracts, proposal, and business development organizations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong facilitation, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with senior corporate executives, government customers, technical SMEs, and industry partners.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for assigned opportunities.

Highly Desired Qualifications

• Established professional relationships within NAVAIR, NAWCAD, PEOs, PMAs, and/or the Patuxent River Naval Aviation community.
• Previous experience supporting or working directly within NAVAIR or NAWCAD.
• Experience with NAVAIR Program Executive Offices and Program Management Activities.
• Knowledge of major NAVAIR acquisition programs, mission areas, and contracting organizations.
• Demonstrated capture experience resulting in successful awards within the U.S. Navy or NAVAIR market.
• Experience capturing large IDIQs, task orders, engineering/technical services contracts, SETA support, digital engineering, systems engineering, mission engineering, software, cyber, data/AI, or related Naval Aviation requirements.
• Knowledge of NAVAIR contract vehicles and acquisition strategies.
• Experience conducting competitive assessments and formal Black Hat reviews.
• Experience identifying and negotiating strategic teaming arrangements.
• Existing network within the Southern Maryland defense contractor community.
• Active DoD Secret or higher security clearance.

Key Attributes

The ideal candidate is a capture professional who knows the Pax River customer—not simply a capture-process expert.

The individual should be able to:

• Understand how NAVAIR organizations operate and buy.
• Navigate the PEO/PMA and NAWCAD environments.
• Establish credibility with customer and industry stakeholders.
• Translate customer mission requirements into actionable capture strategies.
• Identify competitive strengths, vulnerabilities, and opportunities early in the acquisition cycle.
• Bring together technical, operational, pricing, contracts, and proposal organizations around a unified win strategy.
• Challenge assumptions and drive the capture team toward decisions and actions.
• Operate effectively with limited direction while maintaining close coordination with Peraton leadership.

Measures of Success

Success in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Development and execution of disciplined capture plans for assigned NAVAIR opportunities.
• Increased customer and competitive intelligence across targeted pursuits.
• Early identification and shaping of strategic NAVAIR opportunities.
• Strong customer engagement and increased understanding of customer requirements and acquisition strategies.
• Development of differentiated and executable win strategies.
• Effective teaming and partner strategies.
• Successful transition of capture strategy into compelling proposals.
• Achievement of opportunity milestones and internal gate requirements.
• Increased probability of win for assigned pursuits.
• Contribution to successful awards and growth within clients's NAVAIR business.

Location:

Lexington Park, MD with travel to Reston, VA.