Project Lead - SOF RACER

BMNT; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

BMNT seeks a dynamic Program Manager to run the workstreams changing consortium management for SOF RACER. You will nurture relationships with SOCOM stakeholders, shepherd opportunities from initial contact to a formal problem statement, and ensure membership value through knowledge that accelerates vendors toward capability.

You will balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution in a small, autonomous team.

Qualifications

• Experience with government procurement processes (consortiums, OTAs, accelerators) and ability to earn program managers' trust.
• Ability to brief senior military officers and coach startup founders in the same day.
• Comfort with autonomy, ambiguity, and proactive communication.

Responsibilities

• Own the demand engine by building/maintaining SOCOM stakeholder relationships and shaping a defined problem statement.
• Own member value by ensuring SOF RACER delivers highly valuable knowledge/education to members.
• Run point on training days, curation sessions, demos, and post-event follow-ups with clear ownership and dates.
• Hunt growth signals by identifying new areas of interest and curating opportunities for SOF RACER.
• Work in a small, process-driven team with autonomy and measurable leading indicators.

Skills

Government acquisition

Federal BD

Public speaking

Discovery facilitation

Autonomy

Job description

Run the workstreams changing consortium management

This month, USSOCOM launched SOF RACER, a new consortium that is free for the companies in it, pays its operators only to perform, and exists to move commercial technology to SOF operators in weeks instead of years. BMNT runs the human engine of that consortium, and this role nurtures the relationships that fill the pipeline with real, funded problems, and the engagement that makes membership worth every company’s time.

You’ll be the person a SOCOM office calls when they have a challenge and no time, the reason a first-time defense vendor feels like membership was the best thing they ever signed up for, and the face of SOF RACER in the rooms where good questions and critical thinking influence what gets built.

What you’ll actually do

• Own the demand engine. Build and keep the relationships with SOCOM stakeholders across the enterprise. Take the call that starts with "I’ve got this challenge," run the structured intake conversation, and walk that need from first contact to a problem statement the whole consortium competes on. You’ll be on base regularly, because the pipeline is built in person.
• Own member value. Companies pay nothing to join SOF RACER. They stay engaged because we make it worth their time through knowledge and education that helps grow their businesses, including turning new defense contractors into credible competitors.
• Run point on the moments that matter. Training days, curation sessions, demo events, and the follow-through afterward, because a captured problem that nobody advances is worse than no problem at all. Every conversation ends with a named owner and a date.
• Hunt the growth signals. New areas of interest will activate, but you know that articulated demand rarely announces itself. You’ll combine public testimony and private conversation to curate opportunities, then help drive them through SOF RACER.
• Work as part of a small team built to move. A process-driven Program Manager runs the program, and you run your workstreams with real autonomy. We agree on the leading indicators of success and nobody looks over your shoulder.

Who thrives in this seat

• You’ve worked government acquisition from the industry side: consortium, OTA, accelerator, or federal BD experience where your job was earning the trust of program managers and walking them through a process until they owned it.
• You can brief a general officer in the morning and coach a seed-stage founder in the afternoon, and you genuinely like both conversations.
• You do only 25 to 40 percent of the talking in a discovery conversation and treat what you learn as the product of your effort.
• You know where the classification line sits, keep unclassified conversations unclassified, and know how to route what can’t be said to the right channel. What you learn in trusted rooms stays in trusted rooms.
• You’re comfortable with autonomy and ambiguity, and you ask for help early and loudly when it affects the mission.

Why BMNT

We’re the 40-person Silicon Valley company that has spent a decade proving commercial innovation methods work in national security. Our methods trace to the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (which our founder led); we run the DIU-funded Hacking for Defense program across 60+ universities; and our Innovation Pipelines have moved real technology like ocean sensors, photonic navigation, and edge AI into operational hands. We just helped end the consortium-fee model that taxed the defense industrial base for two decades. This role is where that argument gets proven. Small company, no layers, national mission, your fingerprints on all of it.

The details

• Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience; the range for this role is $135,000 to $155,000.
• BMNT is a certified SDVOSB and an equal opportunity employer.

As set forth in BMNT’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.