Executive Director- Open Innovation Center

Riverside Research Institute; Fair Oaks (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Riverside Research Institute seeks an Executive Director of Strategic Business Development to drive multi-agency revenue generation across DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and Army C5ISR Center. You will align major capture efforts with the VP Open Innovation Center and empower the shaping initiatives led by research directors. This role requires U.S.

citizenship and a Top Secret/SCI clearance. You will translate complex concepts such as formal software hardening, silicon-level vulnerability research,

Qualifications

• Active Top Secret / SCI clearance is required.
• Bachelor's degree and 15+ years of progressive experience in business development, capture management, or technical leadership within the defense cyber and hardware security landscape.
• Proven track record at deputy or executive level with major defense program wins ($10M+).
• Deep familiarity with DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and C5ISR funding lines and procurement mechanisms.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute multi-agency capture strategies across DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and Army C5ISR Center.
• Mature and manage cyber and hardware security pipeline including defensive/ offensive cyber operations and anti-tamper hardware reverse engineering.
• Integrate emerging capabilities from AI/ML and RF/EW into growth plays.
• Lead cross-functional coalitions to secure major program wins ($10M+).
• Provide strategic governance while safeguarding shaping efforts led by technical directors.

Skills

Executive leadership

Capture management

Strategic growth

Cross-agency collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Riverside Overview

Riverside Research is an independent National Security Nonprofit dedicated to research and development in the national interest. We provide high-end technical services, research and development, and prototype solutions to some of the country’s most challenging technical problems. All Riverside Research opportunities require U.S. Citizenship.

Position Overview

We are seeking a high-caliber, growth-oriented Executive Director of Strategic Business Development to serve as the Deputy to the Open Innovation Center Vice President. In this executive-level growth role, you will wield the authority to orchestrate, align, and execute our long-term growth strategy across the Department of War and Intelligence Community needs in cyber, hardware security, and tactical modernization ecosystems.

This position requires a leader who can balance high-level executive authority with strategic restraint. You will be responsible for driving multi-agency revenue generation across DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and the Army C5ISR Center, ensuring flagship portfolios in Defensive/Offensive Cyber, Cryptography, and Anti-Tamper Hardware Reverse Engineering scale into major programs of record. Crucially, you will act with the mandate of the VP to align major capture efforts, while deliberately protecting and empowering the smaller, highly agile "shaping" initiatives that our technical directors manage directly with research lab program managers.

Location: Fairfax, VA or Lexington, MA

Responsibilities

• Drive Joint Revenue: Design and execute capture strategies for joint initiatives spanning DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and the Army C5ISR Center.
• Manage the Cyber & Hardware Security Pipeline: Mature a multi-year portfolio focused on defensive cyber operations (DCO), offensive cyber operations (OCO), advanced cryptography, and Hardware Reverse Engineering specialized in Anti-Tamper (AT).
• Integrate Emerging Capabilities: Support adjacent growth plays by pulled-in capabilities from growing portfolios in AI/ML and RF/Electronic Warfare.
• Orchestrate High-Value Captures: Lead cross-functional coalitions of internal engineering groups, defense primes, and non-traditional partners to secure major program wins ($10M+).
• Provide Strategic Governance: Serve as an executive leader with authority for macro-captures while maintaining the strategic awareness to purposefully safeguard ongoing, grassroots shaping efforts led by technical directors at DARPA, service labs, and advanced research partners.
• Translate Technical Value: Convert complex concepts such as formal mathematically verifiable software hardening, silicon-level vulnerability research, and cognitive RF spectrum operations into clear win themes centered on risk reduction and mission acceleration.

Qualifications

• This position requires an Active Top Secret / SCI security clearance, for which U.S. citizenship is required.
• A bachelor's degree and 15+ years of progressive experience in business development, capture management, or technical leadership within the defense cyber and hardware security landscape.
• Proven track record of operating successfully at a deputy or executive level, with verifiable success driving major defense program wins ($10M+ individual award values).
• Deep, demonstrable familiarity with the funding lines, procurement mechanisms, and organizational structures of DARPA, USCYBERCOM, AFLCMC, and C5ISR, alongside DOD Anti-Tamper evaluation frameworks.
• Strong conceptual and operational fluency across cyber operations, cryptographic resilience, and hardware/silicon-level exploitation methodologies.
• Exceptional understanding of technology transition pathways, with a knack for moving rapid prototypes and OTA awards into sustained programs of record.
• Collaborative communicator who can comfortably bridge the gap between principal deep-tech engineers and executive buyers.

Desired Leadership Attributes

• Strategic Deference: The rare ability to wield significant corporate authority when aligning large captures yet consciously defer to frontline technical experts when they are quietly shaping early-stage R&D requirements with customer PMs.
• The Land and Expand Mindset: A strategic builder who views an initial prototyping or seed contract as a critical beachhead to deliver outsized mission value and organically scale our footprint.
• The Technical Bridge: A leader who can comfortably debate complex system architectures or silicon-level analysis methodologies with principal scientists and instantly translate those concepts into clear, strategic value propositions for mission needs.

Global Comp

$0.00000 - $0.00000 This represents the typical compensation range for this position based on experience, location and other factors.

Closing Statement

Riverside Research Institute is a not-for-profit, technology-oriented defense company, where service to our customers and support of our staff is our overall mission. Riverside is an affirmative action-equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws regarding recruitment and hiring. Riverside offers comprehensive compensation and benefit packages to our employees.

Riverside bases its employment decisions solely on technical experience, qualifications and other job-related criteria related to our organizational purpose as a not-for-profit company, and without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, veteran’s status or any other status legally protected by applicable federal, state, and local law.