Engagement Manager, Marine Corps

Engagement Manager, Marine Corps

Company: Defense-technology company (name shared under NDA)
Reports To: Engagement Management leadership
Function: Growth – Engagement Management
Location: Tysons, VA preferred; San Francisco Metro
Travel: Regular travel to customer sites
Compensation: $160K–$210K base + equity

Confidential Search · Defense Technology

Confidential search. The hiring company's identity and full role details are shared with candidates under NDA.

About the Role

This is a fast-growing defense-technology company building autonomous aerial systems and counter-UAS and air defense capabilities for US government customers. The Growth organization sells and executes contracts across both product lines and runs the capability showcases, demonstrations, and training that go with them.

If business development are the hunters, engagement managers are the farmers. This is program management with the customer relationship attached: once a contract is signed, you see it operationally through to completion. Training scheduled and delivered, equipment moved, invoicing worked, and problems found and solved before they ever reach the customer. Think of it as the non-technical customer success function during execution.

Because you own the relationship through delivery, this seat is also a genuine source of follow-on business. A customer who is served well comes back for another training package or another tranche of units.

This role covers the US Marine Corps as a customer. Engagement management is the company's most built-out team, so you step into an existing structure rather than inventing one. That said, the expectation is that you are executing by week two : week one is orientation, and after that the programs are yours.

Responsibilities

• Own execution of signed contracts end to end, from award through completion.
• Serve as the customer's primary point of contact during delivery.
• Coordinate across supply chain, finance, and engineering to move the contract, without authority over any of them.
• Make sure training and capability delivery are scheduled and executed on time.
• Own invoicing and the commercial administration of the contract.
• Identify gaps and obstacles before they become the customer's problem, and close them quietly.
• Surface and land follow-on business inside the accounts you run: additional training, additional units, expanded scope.

Requirements

Must-Haves

• Five to twelve years of experience. The team is deliberately being kept balanced rather than top heavy, so this is not a senior-executive seat.
• Operational Marine Corps background. Has served in an operational Marine Corps role and understands how a piece of equipment clears the gate and reaches the Marine who uses it: acquisition and fielding processes, new equipment training, property accountability, and the paperwork chain behind all of it.
• A proactive cross-functional operator who moves supply chain, finance, and engineering without authority over any of them.
• Identifies gaps before they surface and exercises sound judgment without being told what to prioritize.
• An excellent communicator, credible with engineers, finance, and the customer in the same week.

Nice-to-Haves

• Marine Corps logistics, sustainment, or acquisition background, including fielding and new equipment training teams.
• Program or product operations at a defense-technology company.
• Consulting experience with federal or defense-technology delivery work, including real client management under pressure.
• Experience in a growth-stage company where process had to be built or adapted.

Process

• This is a confidential search. An NDA is required before the company's identity and full role details are shared. We screen for interest at a high level first, then read candidates in once an NDA is in place.
• Any clearance requirement is confirmed with candidates during screening.
• Candidates are submitted and tracked through the company's applicant tracking system.