Capture & Proposal Lead

Avalanche • Seattle, WA

3d • $160,000 - $225,000

About The Position

Avalanche is seeking a Capture & Proposal Lead to build the pursuit strategies, communications, and operating discipline needed to convert qualified opportunities into funded government and commercial programs. The role owns the capture and proposal process from opportunity qualification and pursuit planning through white papers, proposals, negotiation support, award, and transition to program execution, with emphasis on technically complex R&D, prototype, demonstration, production, and strategic partnership opportunities.

Reporting to the Director of Strategy, the Capture & Proposal Lead works closely with business development, government relations, science and engineering, finance, legal/contracts, compliance, and program management. The role develops differentiated win strategies, shapes customer engagements, leads cross-functional proposal teams, and produces compelling, compliant, technically credible submissions and strategic communications. It also manages capture and proposal workflows, CRM and pipeline governance, reusable content, IP and data-rights coordination, and formal award handoffs to program teams. This is a hands-on writing and operations role as well as a process-ownership position, intended to make Avalanche’s pursuit organization more rigorous, repeatable, and scalable.

Avalanche is a Seattle-based startup developing compact fusion machines for clean, energy-dense power generation. The company describes a hands-on, collaborative development environment with a small team, changing priorities, and opportunities to learn and work closely with hardware.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in defense, space, or energy capture/proposal management, technical business development, or a related role in a complex technology sector.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, economics, finance, business, or a related field.
• Experience leading RDT&E proposals, BAAs, OTAs, SBIR/STTR transitions, prime-subcontract pursuits, or similar complex efforts within the DoW ecosystem.
• Demonstrated success managing cross-functional capture and proposal efforts to win DoW opportunities, with referenceable award wins.
• Strong command of structured capture and proposal practices, including qualification, win strategy, compliance, reviews, executive approvals, and debriefs.
• Exceptional writing, presentation, storytelling, and visual-communication skills, with experience developing executive briefings, white papers, proposals, RFI/RFP responses, and customer-facing technical materials.
• Working knowledge of federal acquisition and contracting, including non-traditional contracting and FAR/DFARS concepts, solicitations, prime/subcontract relationships, grants, cooperative agreements, SBIR/STTR, BAAs, OTAs, and government data-rights concepts.
• Experience administering a CRM, maintaining an opportunity pipeline, and producing decision-useful analyses, dashboards, forecasts, and executive reviews.
• Startup builder mindset, with comfort moving between strategy and execution, creating processes, working through ambiguity, and managing multiple high-priority workstreams.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI clearance.

Nice To Haves

• MBA, advanced technical degree, or equivalent experience.
• Direct experience with fusion, nuclear, isotopes, radiation systems, high-voltage technology, semiconductors, aerospace, defense technology, or an adjacent deep-technology sector.
• Experience building capture and proposal infrastructure inside a startup or non-traditional contractor.
• Experience developing or negotiating teaming agreements, subawards, subcontracts, service agreements, licensing arrangements, and IP or technical-data-rights positions.
• Experience developing cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, pricing strategies, and price-to-win analyses for proposals.
• Experience working with or proposing to DOE, NNSA, NASA, the Intelligence Community, national laboratories, or regulated commercial customers.
• Knowledge of DCAA/DCMA readiness, government accounting, indirect rates, contract audit, export controls, and/or CMCC/NIST compliance.
• Working knowledge of nuclear or fusion regulatory frameworks.
• Experience with CRM software, business-intelligence, and data-visualization tools.
• Active DoW security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Develop presentations, white papers, concept papers, capability briefs, technical marketing materials, proposals, applications, RFI responses, and other communications that advance customer discovery, capture, and strategic partnerships.
• Translate complex fusion, nuclear, engineering, market, and financial information into accurate, compelling narratives for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Support customer, partner, Departmental, policy, and Congressional engagements with research, market and technical data analysis, visualizations, briefing materials, and evidence-based messaging.
• Prepare executives and business development leaders for customer meetings, conferences, demonstrations, and pitch sessions.
• Create and maintain an approved library of reusable proposal content, technical claims, graphics, resumes, corporate qualifications, evidence, and customer-facing materials.
• Inform the company’s capture process, including opportunity qualification, bid/no-bid decisions, capture planning, and solution development.
• Manage and lead capture and proposal development processes and cross-functional proposal teams, including writing, internal review, submission, debrief, and lessons learned.
• Develop capture plans, win themes, compliance matrices, proposal outlines, schedules, assignments, review plans, and content-development workflows; coordinate inputs and maintain accountability for deadlines and quality.
• Provide business developers with CRM and opportunity pipeline management support.
• Establish scalable templates, dashboards, calendars, operating procedures, metrics, and governance mechanisms for capture, proposals, and growth planning.
• Develop and maintain capture metrics covering pipeline quality, probability of win, proposal throughput, resource demands, and lessons learned.
• Support development and negotiation of prime and subcontracts, teaming agreements, NDAs, subawards, service agreements, and other government and commercial agreements.
• Develop and coordinate statements of work, deliverables, milestones, acceptance criteria, schedules, assumptions, technical exhibits, and commercial terms.
• Coordinate intellectual property, data-rights positions, licenses, markings, assertions, and contractual flow-downs with legal/contracts, technical, and program stakeholders.
• Support pricing and negotiation by integrating business-case assumptions, technical inputs, cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, risk positions, and expected value with finance and technical teams.
• Manage the crosswalk and formal handoff of signed contracts and agreements to program management teams for project execution.
• Track amendments, modifications, and customer-directed changes and ensure updates are reflected in CRM, agreement records, financial models, and program baselines.
• Coordinate contract and agreement reviews across business development, finance, legal/contracts, technical, compliance, and program stakeholders.

Benefits

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision benefits; the company pays 100% of premiums.
• 10 paid holidays and a company-wide December holiday break.
• Generous paid vacation and sick time.
• Small, tight-knit team with low barriers to action.
• Exposure to a wide variety of problems for hands-on professional growth.
• Weekly employer-provided team meals, a well-stocked kitchen, and employee events on and off-site.
• Opportunity for equity.

What This Job Offers

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