Defense Acquisition Domain Expert

Obviant; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible schedule

Equity

Flexible vacation time

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

Obviant is seeking a Defense Acquisition Data SME to ensure the data behind our platform is accurate and understood by acquisition professionals. You will sit between program elements, budgets, and contracts and guide engineers on data interpretation, QA, and product requirements.

You will support customers, evaluate AI outputs, and document SME knowledge to improve our systems, while leveraging deep defense acquisition expertise in a fast-growing team based in Arlington, VA.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in defense acquisition, budgeting, or contracting e.g., program office, comptroller/financial management, contracting, PPBE.
• Complete working knowledge of the defense acquisition system from requirements to funding to management.
• Fluency in budget concepts and how funds move from request to obligation.
• Understanding of contracting vehicles and how awards are made and reported.
• Deep familiarity with the DoW data systems of record behind acquisition, budget, or contracts.
• Strong analytical skills and experience with large, messy datasets in Excel or similar tools.
• Ability to explain complex concepts plainly to engineers, customers, and executives.
• Comfort with ambiguity and incomplete data.
• Strong written communication and documentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Be the authority on our sources and know what each defense data system contains and what it doesn’t.
• Explain reporting lags, coverage gaps, omitted data, and when sources disagree.
• Connect budget requests to funded programs, contracts, and managing organizations.
• Catch data and results that are technically valid but misaligned with acquisition realities.
• Advise product and engineering on data interpretation and presentation.
• Evaluate AI outputs with test questions and review model-generated answers.
• Assist customers by explaining data provenance and caveats.
• Capture SME knowledge to improve systems.

Skills

Defense acquisition

Analytical skills

Explain complex concepts

Written communication

Ambiguity tolerance

DoD data systems knowledge

Tools

Excel

SQL

Python

Job description

About Obviant

The defense market is surging, but the data that drives it hasn’t kept up. Companies, government, and investors are forced to perform heavily manual processes and piece together hundreds of disparate sources to make decisions. Obviant is building a data source of truth and AI tools for defense acquisition to solve this. We fuse information from thousands of sources – structured + unstructured – to provide a cohesive picture of budget, programs, the organizations running them, and much more. Whether it’s a company navigating GTM or a program manager developing capabilities, we’re providing all sides with the intelligence they need to execute effectively. We’re growing fast and backed by top funds and DoD/national security veterans.

We believe that public sector mission sets matter above anything else. If you feel the same way, we’d love for you to join us.
The role

As our Defense Acquisition Data SME, you make sure the data behind Obviant is right — and that it means what acquisition professionals think it means. You sit between the people who know how a program element, a contract line item, or a milestone decision actually works and the engineers and managers who turn that knowledge into models, pipelines, and products.

Who we’re looking for. Someone with deep defense acquisition expertise how requirements become programs, get funded, and get put on contract who also knows the data systems that track that process: what they contain, what they leave out, and how far they can be trusted.

What you’ll do

• Be the authority on our sources. Know what each defense data system contains and what it doesn’t, including how and when data is reported.

• Know the limitations. Explain reporting lags, coverage gaps, omitted or restricted data, inconsistent identifiers, and where official sources disagree and what that means for the conclusions users draw.

• Connect the dots across sources. Explain how a budget request relates to the program it funds, the contracts that execute it, and the organizations that manage it, and where those links break down.

• Catch what's substantively wrong. Flag data and results that are technically valid but don't match how acquisition, budgeting, or contracting actually work.

• Advise product and engineering. Tell the team how each source should be interpreted and presented, so the product reflects what the data actually says.

• Evaluate AI outputs. Write test questions and review model-generated answers so our AI features give acquisition professionals decision-grade results.

• Support customers. Join customer conversations, explain where our data comes from and its caveats, and help government and industry users trust what they see.

• Capture and encode SME knowledge to improve our systems
  

Who we’re looking for

You’re a defense acquisition expert first. You understand how the system works end to end, and you know the data systems that record it well enough to explain their strengths and blind spots.

Required:

• 6+ years in defense acquisition, budgeting, or contracting e.g., program office, comptroller/financial management, contracting, PPBE, either as a government employee or a contractor supporting those functions

• Complete working knowledge of the defense acquisition system from requirements (e.g., JCIDS), funding (e.g., PPBE), and management (e.g., DAS)

• Fluency in budget concepts: appropriations and colors of money, program elements and budget line items, justification exhibits (R-1, P-1, J-books), and how funds move from request to obligation

• Understanding of contracting vehicles, contract types, and how awards and modifications are made and reported

• Deep familiarity with the DoW data systems of record behind acquisition, budget, or contracts or related domains including what they contain, what they omit, reporting lags, and where they conflict

• Strong analytical skills; comfortable working hands-on with large, messy datasets in Excel or similar tools

• Ability to explain complex concepts plainly to engineers, customers, and executives

• Comfort with ambiguity and incomplete data you know what "good enough" is and isn't

• Strong written communication; you document what you know so others can use it
  

Nice to have:

• DAWIA / DAU certification (Program Management, Contracting, or Business – Financial Management)

• Experience at DoD/DoW, a military service, DIU, or a defense-focused consultancy or FFRDC

• Familiarity with LLMs, retrieval, or evaluating AI-generated answers

• Experience querying data with SQL or Python

• Active security clearance
  

What success looks like

• The product team and engineers come to you first when they need to know how a budget, program, or contract concept actually works.

• You've documented what each of our core sources contains, what it leaves out, and its known limitations, and the team uses that reference every day.

• Customers trust our data because you can explain where it comes from, what it means, and where its caveats are.

• Our AI features give accurate, acquisition-grade answers, backed by test questions and reviews you've built.

• You catch substantive errors numbers that look valid but don't match how acquisition works before users do.

• You've helped shape new product features by turning real acquisition workflows and user questions into clear requirements.
  

Our Principles

We live these every day. If they don't sound like you, this won't be a fit and we'd both rather know now.

• Impact. Our work matters. We take a lot of pride in building to advance mission outcomes.

• Overdeliver. We go above and beyond in everything we do - creating products and serving our users

• Hustle. We get stuff done, no matter what it takes.

• Empathy. Our users’ problems are our own. We don't push products, we solve problems.

• Humility. We’re not afraid to admit what we don’t know. Our job is to listen and grow.

• Integrity. Transparency & respect above all else. It’s non-negotiable, even when it isn't easy
  

Benefits & Structure

• We’re a tight-knit team headquartered in Arlington, VA. We work in the office together most days, and believe being in the same place is a competitive advantage.

• Flexible schedule - We all have other things going on our lives. Doctor visits, kids’ activities, dog walks - take care of it whenever you have to. And work from home when you need to.

• Sizeable equity - We’re building something with massive upside potential, and you’ll have ownership in that. This is ours.

• Flexible vacation time - Use what you want, as long as you’re taking care of what needs to get done.

• Full health, dental, and vision insurance.

Obviant is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.