Director Corporate Cost & Price Strategy

Cherokee Federal • McLean, VA

5d • $157,000 - $220,000

About The Position

The Director, Corporate Cost & Price Strategy is a senior strategic leadership role responsible for developing and driving integrated cost and price strategies for the company’s most significant competitive pursuits. Reporting to the Vice President of Corporate Capture, the Director serves as an independent strategic advisor across Capture, Program Execution, Pricing, Contracts, and senior leadership. This role connects customer and competitive intelligence with technical solutions, program execution, cost, risk, and business objectives to answer the fundamental question: What solution, execution approach, cost structure, and price position give us the best probability of winning while preserving an executable and acceptable business outcome? The successful candidate will bring significant firsthand experience from technical/engineering environments and program execution, combined with strong cost/pricing and competitive strategy capabilities.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressively responsible experience in complex technical, program execution, cost/pricing, capture, or related environments.
• Significant demonstrated experience in program execution and technical/engineering environments, with direct responsibility for developing, delivering, or leading complex technical programs, products, or systems.
• Demonstrated understanding of how technical and programmatic decisions create cost—not simply how those costs are estimated.
• Experience developing and/or evaluating technical architectures, engineering scope, development strategies, integration approaches, schedules, staffing plans, and program risks.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical, cost, schedule, and risk tradeoffs and translate those tradeoffs into actionable business recommendations.
• Strong understanding of cost development, cost estimating, pricing strategy, competitive pricing, price-to-win concepts, scenario analysis, and cost/price risk.
• Demonstrated ability to operate across Engineering, Program Management, Capture, Pricing, Finance, Contracts, and executive leadership.
• Ability to synthesize complex technical, programmatic, competitive, and financial information into clear strategic outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and constructively challenge senior leaders without relying on direct organizational authority.
• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills.
• Government contracting and applicable FAR/DFARS cost and pricing requirements.
• Must pass pre-employment qualifications of Cherokee Federal.

Nice To Haves

• Strong preference will be given to candidates who have held formal engineering, technical leadership, program management, and/or program leadership positions with accountability for post-award execution outcomes.
• Leadership of major development, integration, production, or sustainment programs.
• Experience transitioning programs from proposal through award and into execution.
• Experience developing competitive cost and price strategies for complex pursuits.
• Price-to-win and competitive assessment experience.
• Experience with multiple contract types and associated risk allocation.
• Understanding of indirect cost structures, escalation, fee, subcontractor pricing, and program economics.
• Experience with cost realism and cost/price analysis.
• Experience presenting major pursuit or program recommendations to executive leadership.
• Experience in 8a, HUB Zone, and related small business strategies.
• Execution credibility. Has personally experienced the consequences of technical, programmatic, schedule, staffing, and cost assumptions after award.
• Technical curiosity and credibility. Can engage engineers at sufficient depth to understand why a solution costs what it costs and identify meaningful technical trade space.
• Strategic cost thinking. Understands how cost is created, how it can be changed, and how cost structure translates into competitive price.
• Independent judgment. Develops a fact-based point of view and is willing to challenge Capture, Engineering, Program Management, Pricing, or business leadership when necessary.
• Enterprise orientation. Optimizes for the company’s overall competitive and business outcome rather than the objectives of a single function.
• Executive influence. Converts complex analysis into clear choices, consequences, and recommendations that enable leadership decisions.

Responsibilities

• Develop integrated cost and price strategies for top tier competitive pursuits beginning at opportunity qualification and evolving through proposal submission.
• Articulate the nuances of a bid strategy and an execution strategy, and the risks/rewards within.
• Establish an independent assessment of each pursuit’s competitive cost and price position, including price-to-win ranges, uncertainty, assumptions, sensitivities, and key risks.
• Translate competitive price objectives into actionable targets and trade spaces for Engineering, Program Management, Capture, and executive leadership.
• Identify the requirements, technical features, architectures, management approaches, schedules, staffing models, make/buy decisions, supply chain strategies, and other factors driving program cost.
• Work with the Solutions Team and Program Management to develop and evaluate alternative technical and execution approaches that improve affordability while preserving customer value, mission performance, and execution credibility.
• Assess whether the proposed bid strategy is supported by a credible execution strategy and clearly identify areas of disconnect.
• Distinguish between competitive bid assumptions, executable program assumptions, and unsupported assumptions that may transfer unresolved technical, cost, or schedule risk into post-award execution.
• Conduct scenario, sensitivity, and trade-space analyses to determine how technical, programmatic, contractual, financial, and competitive decisions affect cost and price position.
• Evaluate staffing levels, skill mix, productivity assumptions, schedules, development and integration strategies, risk-retirement approaches, and other fundamental execution assumptions.
• Challenge historical approaches and organizational assumptions when they result in a cost structure that is not competitive.
• Equally challenge aggressive pursuit assumptions when they create execution strategies that are not technically, programmatically, or financially credible.
• Evaluate opportunities involving technical architecture, requirements, scope, schedule, staffing, productivity, make/buy decisions, supply chain, contract structure, fee, risk, and other significant cost drivers.
• Develop clear recommendations for executive decision points, articulating tradeoffs among probability of win, customer value, technical performance, execution risk, cost, price, and business outcomes.
• Partner closely with Pricing while maintaining organizational independence.
• Pricing retains responsibility for formal pricing processes, model development and validation, compliance, and the submitted pricing product.
• Partner closely with Capture while maintaining sufficient independence to objectively evaluate the affordability and executability of the pursuit strategy.
• Use lessons learned and actual program performance to improve future cost assumptions, estimating relationships, competitive assessments, and pursuit strategies.
• Present independent findings and recommendations to senior and executive leadership.
• Performs other duties as may be assigned.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus prescription drug coverage
• Basic life and AD&D insurance, with supplemental life options
• Short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Paid holidays
• Up to a 6% 401(k) company match to help you build long-term financial security
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) options
• Professional development, training, and certification support
• Voluntary benefits including accident, critical illness, and identity theft protection

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed