Business Development Executive - DOD

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced Business Development Executive (BDE) to expand our business across the Department of War.

This is a senior, hands-on business development role focused on building customer relationships, identifying and shaping opportunities, developing qualified pipeline, and winning new business. The BDE will work closely with Sector leadership, operating executives, capture, technical teams, pricing, and contracts.

The successful candidate will bring strong, current relationships within the Department of War and a demonstrated ability to turn customer access and market knowledge into new business. The initial account portfolio will be aligned with the candidate's relationships, experience, our capabilities, and the areas where the company has the strongest opportunity to grow.

This is a business development role, not an internal growth-operations position. The successful candidate should expect to spend the majority of his or her time with customers, partners, and the market.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute business development strategies across assigned Department of War accounts.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with program executives, program managers, mission and requirements owners, CIO and technology organizations, acquisition officials, and industry partners.
• Identify customer priorities, requirements, funding, and acquisition activity before formal solicitations are released.
• Develop a qualified pipeline of opportunities aligned with the company's capabilities and growth objectives.
• Build account plans and customer engagement strategies for assigned organizations.
• Shape opportunities through customer engagement, capability briefings, RFIs, sources-sought responses, white papers, demonstrations, industry events, and other pre-solicitation activities.
• Identify opportunities to introduce the company capabilities into existing relationships and expand into adjacent organizations and missions.
• Help customers understand acquisition pathways available through the company, including tribal 8(a) direct awards, competitive set-asides, joint ventures, GWACs, IDIQs, strategic teaming, and full-and-open competition.
• Develop relationships with large primes, technology companies, small businesses, and other partners that improve the company's position on priority opportunities.
• Lead through the full-lifecycle of an opportunity, from identification to proposal submission working with the proposal team and Innovation Lab.
• Remain engaged throughout proposal development as the primary source of customer, market, and competitive intelligence.
• Lead or participate in capture reviews, competitive assessments, solution development, teaming discussions, and proposal strategy for priority pursuits.
• Maintain accurate and current account and opportunity information in CRM tool and participate in pipeline and opportunity reviews.
• Represent the company at customer meetings, industry events, conferences, and partner engagements.
• Work across our network to bring the strongest available capabilities, past performance, contract vehicles, partners, and acquisition strategies to each opportunity.

Department of War Account Focus

The BDE will support growth across the Department of War, with an account portfolio established around the candidate's customer relationships, experience, and growth priorities.

Potential areas of responsibility may include the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, OSD and Defense Agencies, Combatant Commands, and other Department organizations.

The successful candidate is expected to bring meaningful customer access and market knowledge within one or more of these areas and to expand from that base into adjacent customers and missions over time.

Within the first 90 days, the BDE and leadership will establish an account plan identifying priority customers, relationships, programs, opportunities, and near-term business development actions.

How Success Will Be Measured

This position will be measured primarily on business development results, including:

• Development of qualified pipeline.
• Access to and engagement with priority customers.
• Identification and shaping of opportunities before solicitation.
• Advancement of opportunities through pipeline stages.
• Quality and accuracy of account and opportunity information.
• Development of effective teaming and partner relationships.
• Contract awards and bookings generated from assigned accounts.
• Expansion into adjacent customers and organizations over time.
• Contribution to overall Sector growth objectives.

Annual pipeline and bookings goals will be established as part of the growth planning process and will form a significant component of incentive compensation.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of federal business development, account management, capture, industry, or relevant government experience involving Department of War customers.
• Strong, current relationships within one or more significant Department of War customer organizations.
• Demonstrated record of personally identifying, shaping, pursuing, and winning federal business.
• Ability to explain how previous customer relationships translated into specific opportunities and contract awards.
• Experience selling technology, professional services, cybersecurity, IT modernization, digital transformation, mission support, or related capabilities to DoW organizations.
• Strong understanding of Department missions, acquisition processes, budgets, contracting organizations, and the federal business development lifecycle.
• Working knowledge of federal contract vehicles, IDIQs, task-order competitions, set-asides, teaming arrangements, and full-and-open procurements.
• Experience developing account plans, customer engagement strategies, opportunity strategies, and teaming approaches.
• Ability to engage credibly with senior government customers, program and acquisition officials, technical leaders, and industry executives.
• Ability to work independently, drive account plans while operating within a disciplined growth and proposal process.
• Strong executive communication, judgment, business acumen, and follow-through.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain required federal security clearances.

Preferred Qualifications

• Established relationships across multiple Department of War organizations.
• Demonstrated success winning significant federal technology or professional-services work.
• Experience working for a small-to-mid-sized federal contractor where business developers are expected to personally create markets and opportunities.
• Experience with tribal 8(a) direct awards, competitive set-asides, mentor-protégé joint ventures, and other small-business acquisition strategies.
• Experience pursuing both small-business and unrestricted opportunities.
• Experience taking relationships developed at a large federal contractor and successfully applying them in a smaller, more entrepreneurial environment.
• Prior military or civilian government experience in acquisition, program management, requirements, technology, or mission operations, particularly when followed by demonstrated industry business development success.
• Experience with OSD, the military departments, Defense Agencies, Combatant Commands, or the Huntsville defense market.
• Active Secret or higher-level security clearance.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a business developer who understands the defense market, has customer relationships that can create opportunities for the company, and knows how to convert those relationships into business.

The strongest candidate will know where requirements and funding are developing, who influences those requirements, which partners matter, and how to get the company involved early enough to improve our position.

We are not looking simply for someone with a large network or a long list of government contacts. We want someone who has demonstrated that he or she can use customer access and market knowledge to identify requirements, shape opportunities, build a competitive position, and ultimately produce contract awards.

The person should thrive in positions where they have autonomy and can set the direction. They should also be comfortable operating in a smaller and more entrepreneurial federal contractor. That means being willing to make the customer call, write the white paper, develop the account strategy, find the partner, work with capture, and stay involved until the opportunity is won or lost.

EEO Compliance:

Ryde is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Ryde will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law.