Capture & Close Manager

About Us Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. Location: Washington, DC preferred    National Security / Federal   Role Overview   Red Cell Partners is seeking a Capture & Close Manager  to turn qualified federal opportunities into winnable bids and executable contracts across our national security portfolio. This role sits at the intersection of  capture strategy, pricing, proposal governance, and contract execution . You will partner closely with growth leaders, solution strategists, engineering, finance, legal, and proposal resources to improve win probability and get complex opportunities across the finish line.    What  You’ll  Do   Lead Capture Strategy   Develop and execute capture plans for priority opportunities across the  Do W  and broader federal market.   Partner with customer-facing teams and growth leaders to gather customer insight, shape requirements, and refine opportunity strategy before solicitation.    Build win themes, discriminators, competitor analysis, and teaming strategies that improve probability of win.    Support bid/no-bid decisions, stage-gate reviews, and  pursuit of  governance for the highest-priority deals.   Own Pricing, Commercial Structure, and Deal Close   Partner with finance ,   legal , and  engineering  to shape pricing strategy, cost narratives, and contract structures that are competitive, compliant, and executable.    Lead the transition from capture to award by ensuring alignment across customer  need , solution approach, pricing,  realistic timelines,  and contractual path.   Support negotiations and contract finalization in partnership with legal, finance, and executive stakeholders.   Bring discipline to vehicle strategy and closing pathways, including familiarity with FAR-based contracts, OTAs, SBIR/STTR, IDIQs, and other federal acquisition mechanisms.   Govern Proposal Execution —  Don’t  Be the Proposal Department   Partner with proposal management and writing support to ensure proposals are compliant, persuasive, and tightly aligned to win strategy.   Provide strategic direction on proposal themes, discriminators, pricing logic, and evaluator-facing narratives, while relying on proposal resources for day-to-day writing, assembly, and submission management.   Participate in storyboarding, color team governance, and major review cycles to ensure each submission reflects the right strategy and commercial posture.   Build a Repeatable Capture & Close Engine   Create and refine repeatable capture, pricing, and close processes that can scale across multiple portfolio companies .   Establish consistent artifacts, cadences, and reporting for  pursuit of  reviews, risk tracking, gate decisions, and award readiness.   Help Red Cell improve win probability by making opportunity conversion more disciplined, more commercially grounded, and more scalable across the portfolio.   How This Role Works with the Team   This role is designed to complement—not duplicate—the other federal hires. The  Head of Growth   is responsible for  finding and qualifying opportunities and shaping where Red Cell plays. The  Solution Strategy & Deployment Director  translates customer needs into integrated solution concepts and deployment paths.  The Capture & Close Manager works with the contract specialist and proposal writer to  convert shaped opportunities into winnable bids and executable contracts.   What Success Looks Like   Qualified opportunities move into disciplined capture plans with clear win themes, pricing logic, teaming strategy, and contract  pathway .   Red Cell  submits  proposals that are not only compliant, but strategically sharp and commercially credible because capture, pricing, and proposal execution are tightly aligned.   More opportunities progress from shaping to award because Red Cell is better at converting opportunity into executable business.   Red Cell builds a repeatable capture-and-close operating model that lowers the lift on incubation teams and improves portfolio-wide government win rates.   Who You Are   A senior capture leader who knows how to move complex federal opportunities from qualification to award. Public and internal capture-role materials consistently frame this as the core value of the function.   Strong in strategy and execution: able to shape requirements, develop win themes, structure teaming, and coordinate pricing and contract close.   Comfortable working across technical, customer-facing, legal, finance, and proposal teams to drive outcomes in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.   Detail-oriented and operationally  disciplined but  focused on improving win probability and getting deals closed—not just managing document production.   Qualifications   8+ years of experience in  capture  management, contracts, proposal strategy, or business development within defense, aerospace, or national security markets.  Internal and adjacent role drafts typically describe this experience band for federal growth/capture roles.   Proven experience leading or materially shaping full-lifecycle federal pursuits from capture through award.   Strong understanding of DoD and federal acquisition pathways, including FAR/DFARS; familiarity with OTAs, SBIR/STTR, IDIQs, and related vehicles strongly preferred.   Experience building win themes, competitor analysis, teaming strategies, pricing approaches, and governance.   Ability to translate complex technical capabilities into compelling pursuit strategy and evaluator-facing value propositions.