Senior Staff NATO Portfolio Manager

Bluestaq US External • Colorado Springs, CO

2h • $185,000 - $245,000 • Onsite

About The Position

This is an ownership role, not a coordination role. You will be responsible for managing the NATO portfolio from Colorado Springs, collaborating closely with Bluestaq's partners in the UK and Europe to ensure successful on-the-ground delivery. You will oversee how Bluestaq serves its NATO customers, including managing the schedule, risk posture, financials, and customer relationships. You act as the vital link between the commitments made in contracts and their implementation in the field. When the program is on track, you are the reason for its success. If it starts to diverge from the plan, you will be the first to identify the issue and present a solution. Your role involves ensuring that the right commitments are in place at the outset and confirming that what is built aligns with what was promised. Success will be measured by the value delivered and the impact on the customer, rather than by the completion of tasks or the number of hours logged.

NATO represents Bluestaq’s entry into one of the most complex and consequential international defense ecosystems in the world. Getting this right matters beyond the initial engagement, how we execute here shapes how we expand across allied and coalition partner programs. This Portfolio Manager is not just running programs. They are building Bluestaq’s credibility and commercial model in a market where trust takes years to earn and minutes to lose.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience delivering complex software programs in a defense or international government environment
• Proven ability to manage complex stakeholder relationships across customer organizations, from engineers to executives
• Track record of building teams and processes from early stage to scale
• Strong business acumen: budget management, resource planning, contract performance
• Technical fluency, comfortable in engineering discussions; able to learn new technical concepts quickly and apply them to program decisions
• Judgment and composure in high-pressure, ambiguous situations; builds structure where none exists
• Meticulous attention to detail; holds a high-quality bar and doesn’t lower it under schedule pressure
• Ability to hold ground with customers and internal leadership alike, clear, confident, and credible
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical complexity for non-technical audiences
• Experience collaborating in matrixed, multinational organizations including partnering with international subsidiaries
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Active or eligible security clearance; NATO-level or equivalent preferred
• Valid U.S. passport; eligibility for EU/Schengen travel authorizations
• Based in or willing to relocate to Colorado Springs, CO
• Willingness to travel approximately 25%, primarily to Europe

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with NATO structures: NCIA, HQ Brussels, Allied Commands, procurement processes including NSIP and tenders
• Experience with NATO, EU defense, US DoD/Federal, or similar international government accounts
• Background in defense software domains: C4ISR, cloud, cybersecurity
• Experience with export control compliance in multinational defense programs

Responsibilities

• Customer Relationships & Stakeholder Engagement: Build with customers and stakeholders, not just for them. Long-term relationships matter more than short-term wins. Serve as the primary point of contact for NATO customers, own the relationship, the status, and the escalation path. Build trusted advisor relationships with customer leadership, technical teams, and program offices, from engineers to senior military and civilian executives. Understand customer mission objectives and translate them into delivery plans. Proactively identify customer needs, risks, and expansion opportunities before they surface as problems or requests. Build and sustain executive-level relationships across key NATO stakeholders — HQ Brussels, NCIA Mons, Allied Commands, and national delegations. Champion customer needs internally; bring end-user operational requirements into product and engineering conversations before they become formal requirements. Represent Bluestaq externally in program reviews, industry forums, NATO summits, and defense expos in ways that build long-term credibility.
• Program Delivery — Full Ownership: You own the program end-to-end. Not adjacent to it. Not supporting it. Accountable for it. Own cost, schedule, risk, and performance across the NATO portfolio from planning through sustainment and closeout. Drive cross-functional execution across engineering, product, and operations to ensure contract fidelity and mission success. Manage cross-functional dependencies, internal handoffs, and subcontractor coordination. Navigate NATO-specific procurement processes, funding mechanisms, security requirements, and export controls; ensure full compliance. Partner closely with the Bluestaq UK subsidiary on joint opportunity development, local market access, compliance navigation, and delivery coordination. Own deployment readiness — coordinate with Engineering and Program Operations to ensure every deployment is on-spec, on-schedule, and operationally ready. Act as the primary escalation point and single point of accountability for assigned customers; drive resolution, not just awareness.
• Technical Engagement: Engage in technical discussion as a credible participant, not a translator. Understand the system well enough to ask the right questions and recognize when answers don’t add up. Bring customer and contract intelligence into product decisions; surface what customers need before it becomes a formal requirement. Coordinate deployment of product updates to managed customer environments. Champion AI adoption across the program team, identify where AI tools sharpen reporting, surface risk faster, and reduce manual overhead; model the behavior yourself.
• Executive Reporting: Maintain a clear, current understanding of program state that can be communicated with precision to any audience, technical, operational, or executive. Track account health, forecast revenue, report KPIs, and surface lessons learned to refine future approaches. Ensure internal leadership has no surprises about status, risk, or financial performance.
• Growth & Expansion: Partner with BD and the Growth Team on capture efforts; you know the customer, the contract landscape, and what Bluestaq can realistically deliver; that knowledge is valuable before the proposal, not just after award. Shape and influence requirements for expansions or new programs; prepare technical and commercial proposals, demos, proofs-of-concept, and value propositions tailored to customer needs. Identify follow-on opportunities: capability expansions, new use cases, adjacent programs, and new customers within the NATO ecosystem. Ensure growth opportunities are grounded in delivery reality, accurate scope, and estimates before commitments are made.

Benefits

• The program delivers consistently, not heroically
• NATO customers trust Bluestaq more after each program cycle, not just satisfied, but confident in the partnership
• Risks surface early; crises are rare
• Internal leadership has no surprises about status, risk, or financial performance
• Growth opportunities are accurately scoped and handed to BD with a clear view of what’s achievable
• Bluestaq’s credibility in the NATO ecosystem grows with each engagement

What This Job Offers

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