Federal Capture Lead — Build a Repeatable Win Engine

Cognition; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognition in Washington, DC is hiring a Capture Lead to build and own the federal capture engine from identification of pursuits to repeatable, scalable win strategies. You will collaborate across GTM, Mission Success, and Engineering to shape pricing, deal structuring, and contract vehicle strategies.

You will create the capture function from the ground up, manage RFI-to-RFP workflows, and drive measurement through dashboards and playbooks to improve win rates in a fast-paced federal market.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in federal business operations, capture management, or revenue strategy (defense tech, federal SaaS, or government services).
• Fluency in federal procurement processes, contract vehicles, FAR/DFARS, capture lifecycle, and federal sales rhythms.
• Strong analytical foundation to build models, run analyses, and tell a compelling story.
• Proven track record of starting capture programs in fast-moving environments.
• Comfortable operating without a fixed playbook and willing to do hands-on work.
• Based in Washington, DC, or willing to relocate.
• Security clearance preferred or ability to obtain one.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Federal sales leadership on quarterly and annual capture planning.
• Collaborate with GTM, Mission Success, and Engineering on deal structuring, pricing strategy, and negotiation across contract vehicles.
• Track and prioritize contract vehicles (GSA, OTAs, IDIQs, SBIR) and prime/sub relationships.
• Identify and track relevant federal solicitations from RFI to final RFP.
• Build the proposal operations backbone: intake, qualification, bid/no-bid decisions, color team reviews, and compliance.
• Manage relationships with proposal and capture partners supporting RFI-to-RFP responses.
• Develop and maintain proposal collateral and libraries for past performance, capabilities, and pricing.
• Define metrics for federal GTM and build dashboards to surface them.
• Own solicitation response tracking across active pursuits.
• Run red-team/AAR reviews on wins and losses and codify lessons learned.
• Identify bottlenecks and build systems, processes, and tooling to remove them.

Skills

Federal procurement

Capture management

Analytical

Program building

GTM collaboration

Job description

Cognition in Washington, DC is hiring a Capture Lead to build and own the federal capture engine from identification of pursuits to repeatable, scalable win strategies. You will collaborate across GTM, Mission Success, and Engineering to shape pricing, deal structuring, and contract vehicle strategies.

You will create the capture function from the ground up, manage RFI-to-RFP workflows, and drive measurement through dashboards and playbooks to improve win rates in a fast-paced federal market.