Strategic National Security Partnerships Director

Katalyst Space Technologies; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 175,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options & equity

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k)

Unlimited PTO

Catered lunches

Job summary

Katalyst Space Technologies in Washington, DC seeks a Director of National Security Partnerships to lead strategic relationships with U.S. government partners across space missions.

You will shape opportunities, coordinate with product, engineering, and contracts, and drive capture from qualification to award. Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in national security acquisitions, strong executive communication, and the ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience; technical, aerospace, defense, policy, business, or national security degrees are relevant if paired with strong mission and acquisition fluency.
• 10+ years of experience in national security acquisitions, business development, capture, partnerships, government programs, defense technology, or a closely related role.
• Demonstrated experience developing relationships with U.S. government partners and converting capability gaps into funded opportunities, contract awards, strategic partnerships, or measurable advancement toward a program objective.
• Strong understanding of the U.S. defense/intelligence acquisition environment and the practical differences between user need, program sponsorship, budget authority, contracting mechanism, technical evaluation, and award.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, and own strategic relationships across U.S. national security space mission partners, primes, integrators, FFRDCs, labs, and other ecosystem participants relevant to Katalyst’s mission portfolio.
• Develop stakeholder strategies for organizations such as USSF, USSPACECOM, USAF, NRO, and other government partners, identifying mission owners, technical influencers, acquisition stakeholders, budget owners, decision timelines, and barriers to entry.
• Shape opportunities early by connecting government capability gaps to credible Katalyst solutions, developing clear value propositions and mission concepts, and creating internal alignment before solicitations or funding decisions.
• Own or lead capture strategy from opportunity qualification through award, including win themes, competitive positioning, teaming strategy, customer engagement plans, gate reviews, proposal strategy, executive actions, and post-submission follow-through.
• Understand and navigate government acquisition and funding pathways such as SBIR/STTR, OTA, IDIQ/task-order vehicles, BAAs, CSOs, traditional FAR-based procurements, and other pathways appropriate to the opportunity.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Programs, Mission Operations, Finance, Contracts, Security, and executive leadership to ensure external commitments are technically feasible, properly scoped, resourced, and aligned with company strategy.
• Build and maintain a disciplined national security opportunity pipeline with clear qualification criteria, next actions, relationship ownership, probability, timing, funding path, competitive posture, and decision gates.
• Support and lead external briefings, capability demonstrations, white papers, RFIs, proposals, oral presentations, industry engagements, and executive-level meetings; communicate Katalyst’s technical and mission value with precision and credibility.
• Create repeatable capture and partnership mechanisms that scale national security business development without relying on informal relationships or heroics.

Skills

Strategic relationships

Capture leadership

Executive communication

Acquisition fluency

Security clearance

Technical fluency

Autonomy

Proposal strategy

Government contracts

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

Katalyst Space Technologies in Washington, DC seeks a Director of National Security Partnerships to lead strategic relationships with U.S. government partners across space missions.

You will shape opportunities, coordinate with product, engineering, and contracts, and drive capture from qualification to award. Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in national security acquisitions, strong executive communication, and the ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced environment.