Account Director Department of War/Department of Defense

REI Systems • Sterling, VA

2d • $190,000 - $240,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

REI Systems is seeking an experienced Account Director to lead client delivery, workforce management, financial performance, and account growth across its Department of Defense and Department of War portfolio. This highly visible leadership role carries broad responsibility for customer satisfaction, program execution, employee engagement, financial results, organic growth, and the overall performance and health of the account.
The Account Director will manage a portfolio of existing federal programs while identifying and pursuing opportunities with new customers across the account. This individual will serve as the primary executive relationship leader and will work closely with the Account Business Development Director, Account Architect, program leaders, capture teams, and corporate support organizations to develop and execute an integrated account strategy.
The individual will manage and help shape a high-value pipeline of $50M–$500M+ federal IT opportunities within the Department of Defense and broader defense agencies, while ensuring successful delivery across the existing portfolio. The Account Director will apply customer insight, competitive intelligence, pricing awareness, and delivery credibility to support pre-RFP shaping, opportunity qualification, win strategy development, and account expansion.
This is not solely a program management or business development role. The Account Director will balance delivery, customers, people, financial performance, operational excellence, and growth while serving as a trusted advisor to both government stakeholders and REI Systems executives.
AI-Enabled Account Management
Use AI-enabled tools to accelerate customer research, market intelligence, account planning, opportunity identification, and competitive assessment.
Apply AI to analyze customer priorities, acquisition trends, contract data, delivery performance, and market activity.
Use AI-generated insights to improve customer call planning, account reviews, risk assessments, workforce planning, and executive decision-making.
Improve the speed and quality of account artifacts, including account plans, customer profiles, opportunity assessments, performance reports, and executive briefings.
Promote responsible and effective use of AI across account delivery and growth teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Engineering, Public Administration, Public Policy, or a related field.
• Minimum of 12 years of progressive experience in federal account management, program delivery, technology consulting, business development, or government contracting.
• At least 7 years of experience leading complex federal programs, portfolios, or customer accounts.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the Department of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, or related defense and national security organizations.
• Proven ability to lead client delivery, people management, account operations, financial performance, and business growth.
• Experience managing multiple complex programs, program leaders, technical teams, subcontractors, and business partners.
• Strong record of building trusted relationships with senior government customers and internal executives.
• Experience managing revenue, profitability, budgets, forecasts, staffing plans, and operational performance.
• Demonstrated success identifying and securing organic growth within existing federal programs.
• Experience supporting capture management, proposal development, competitive assessments, and strategic business development.
• Strong understanding of federal acquisition processes, government contracting, contract vehicles, and procurement practices.
• Experience in digital transformation, IT modernization, cloud, data analytics, AI/ML, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, or automation.
• Ability to travel to customer, partner, and REI Systems locations as required.
• U.S. citizenship is required.
• Candidate must be able to obtain a Public Trust.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Public Policy, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• PMP, SAFe, ITIL, Agile, or comparable professional certification.
• Existing relationships with Department of Defense or defense agency stakeholders.
• Experience managing a large, multi-program federal IT portfolio.
• Experience supporting or leading federal captures valued at $50M or more.
• Experience with price-to-win, Black Hat reviews, competitive intelligence, capture planning, and opportunity shaping.
• Experience leading contract transitions, program startups, recompetes, or troubled-program recovery efforts.
• Experience using AI-enabled tools for market research, account planning, delivery analysis, competitive intelligence, or business development.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall strategy, performance, and long-term development of the DoD/DoW account.
• Develop and execute an integrated account plan aligned with REI Systems’ corporate growth, delivery, financial, and customer objectives.
• Establish account-level goals for revenue, profitability, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, delivery performance, and growth.
• Partner with executive leadership to shape account priorities, market positioning, capability investments, and resource allocation.
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of customer missions, organizational structures, budgets, acquisition strategies, contract vehicles, and emerging requirements.
• Ensure alignment across delivery, business development, capture, solution architecture, finance, contracts, recruiting, and corporate leadership teams.
• Serve as the primary executive relationship manager for senior government stakeholders across the account.
• Build trusted relationships with mission leaders, program executives, contracting officials, technical leaders, and other key customer stakeholders.
• Conduct regular customer engagement to assess satisfaction, identify unmet needs, and confirm REI Systems is delivering measurable mission value.
• Represent REI Systems in executive reviews, program governance meetings, customer briefings, industry engagements, and strategic account discussions.
• Proactively identify customer concerns and ensure timely resolution of delivery, staffing, technical, contractual, and relationship issues.
• Develop relationships beyond current programs to support expansion into additional customers and mission areas.
• Provide executive oversight across a portfolio of concurrent, complex, and highly visible federal programs.
• Ensure programs meet contractual requirements, delivery commitments, service levels, quality standards, financial objectives, and customer expectations.
• Partner with program and project managers to monitor schedules, budgets, staffing, deliverables, technical performance, risks, dependencies, and customer outcomes.
• Conduct regular program health reviews and monitor performance against delivery, financial, staffing, quality, and customer satisfaction metrics.
• Proactively identify delivery risks and issues and implement or recommend corrective actions.
• Oversee program startups, transitions, recompetes, option-year planning, and troubled-program recovery when required.
• Promote operational excellence and modern delivery practices across digital transformation, cloud, data, AI/ML, cybersecurity, Agile, DevSecOps, and automation.
• Manage and help shape a high-value pipeline of $50M–$500M+ federal IT opportunities within the Department of Defense and broader defense agencies.
• Partner closely with the Account Business Development Director and Account Architect to execute the account growth strategy.
• Identify and pursue organic growth opportunities within existing programs and expand into new customers, mission areas, and contract vehicles.
• Maintain awareness of customer budgets, acquisition plans, recompetes, market activity, and emerging requirements.
• Participate in opportunity qualification, pre-RFP shaping, customer call planning, capture strategy, competitive analysis, teaming, solution development, and proposal planning.
• Provide account intelligence, delivery lessons learned, customer insights, and past-performance information to strengthen win strategies.
• Support development of price-to-win, Black Hat analysis, win themes, discriminators, call plans, and executive gate-review materials.
• Contribute to bid/no-bid decisions by assessing customer alignment, competitive positioning, delivery feasibility, staffing requirements, financial potential, and probability of win.
• Ensure successful transition from capture and proposal activities into program startup and delivery.
• Own account-level revenue, profitability, backlog, utilization, forecasting, and financial performance.
• Develop and execute annual operating plans, budgets, staffing plans, and financial forecasts.
• Monitor program revenue, margins, labor utilization, subcontractor costs, funding, and profitability.
• Partner with finance and program leadership to identify variances and implement corrective actions.
• Balance customer satisfaction, delivery quality, employee engagement, growth, and financial performance.
• Provide executive leadership with clear analysis and recommendations regarding account investments, financial risks, and growth potential.
• Build, lead, and sustain a resilient, inclusive, and high-performing account organization.
• Lead and mentor program managers, project managers, technical leaders, delivery leaders, and emerging account leaders.
• Establish clear expectations, accountability, performance objectives, and leadership standards.
• Develop leadership bench strength and succession plans for critical account and program roles.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition and Human Resources to attract, hire, onboard, retain, and develop qualified employees.
• Anticipate workforce needs based on delivery requirements, contract growth, expected attrition, and future opportunities.
• Promote collaboration, innovation, accountability, employee ownership, and continuous learning.
• Proactively identify delivery, contractual, financial, staffing, customer, security, operational, and reputational risks.
• Ensure significant risks are escalated with clear impact assessments, mitigation plans, owners, and timelines.
• Ensure programs comply with applicable federal contracting requirements, security obligations, quality standards, and company policies.
• Support internal audits, customer assessments, quality reviews, security reviews, and program evaluations.
• Collaborate with contracts, legal, finance, security, human resources, and quality teams to resolve compliance concerns.

Benefits

• $190,000 – $240,000 base salary + performance-based incentives
• 100% employee-owned (ESOP) — share directly in company growth
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision + HSA contributions
• 401(k) with automatic enrollment (6%) + company-paid life & disability
• Hybrid work + generous PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Wellness programs, mental health support, and professional development opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior