Director of Contracts & Acquisition

Careers | Director of Contracts & Acquisition

Organization: Creative Defense Foundation (CDF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Title: Director of Contracts & Acquisition
Reports to: Executive Director, Consortium Operations
Works alongside: Program Manager
Authority: Signs prototype and production awards, and agreement modifications, on behalf of CDF
Type: Full-time, salaried, exempt
Compensation: $195,000 – $250,000, commensurate with experience, plus benefits
Location: Remote eligible; Washington, D.C. metropolitan area preferred
Travel: Up to 20%
Clearance: U.S. citizenship required; must be eligible for a Secret or Top Secret clearance

ABOUT THE CREATIVE DEFENSE FOUNDATION

The Creative Defense Foundation is a mission-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating at the intersection of national security, innovation, and entrepreneurship. CDF serves as the Consortium Manager for the National Security Prototype to Production Consortium, a multibillion-dollar Other Transaction consortium operating under 10 U.S.C. § 4022 prototype authority on behalf of a Government sponsor.

The consortium exists to build a composable warfighting alliance across the defense industrial base — primes, new entrants, commercial vendors, allied partners, and research institutions that commit to plug-and-play composability and produce capability that can be composed, recomposed, and fielded at the pace of operational need. CDF competes Government-defined challenges among member companies, issues the resulting awards, and administers them through delivery.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director of Contracts & Acquisition leads CDF’s contracts function. This role owns the agreements CDF issues to consortium member companies — negotiating, awarding, modifying, and closing them out — and serves as CDF’s principal contracting point of contact with the Government’s Agreements Officer. The Director holds signature authority for CDF on those agreements.

The consortium is operating and award volume is growing. The Director will build and supervise a team of contracting officers and contract specialists, and establish the standards and procedures the function runs on. This is a hands-on leadership role in a small organization: the Director sets direction and also carries the most complex negotiations personally.

Responsibility divides with the Program Manager as follows. The Director of Contracts & Acquisition owns the agreement instrument, including its terms, its modifications, and the relationship with the Government’s Agreements Officer. The Program Manager owns delivery under those agreements, including technical scope and schedule, and the relationship with the Government’s technical representative and program manager. Matters that change an agreement are the responsibility of this role; matters that change technical scope or schedule are the responsibility of the Program Manager.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Agreement execution and administration

• Negotiate and sign prototype and production awards to consortium member companies following Government selection and funding — terms and conditions, payment structure, data rights, and compliance obligations — incorporating the scope, milestone, and deliverable content supplied by the Program Manager.
• Administer the agreement through performance, including modifications, payment authorization, terminations, and closeout.
• Authorize payment against the agreement upon the Program Manager’s certification that a milestone has been met and Government acceptance received.
• Issue cure notices and execute termination and settlement actions, supported by the performance record the Program Manager maintains.
• Ensure required terms and conditions flow down into every award and lower-tier agreement.
• Maintain complete, audit-ready agreement files and records consistent with the consortium management agreement.

Government interface

• Serve as CDF’s primary contracting point of contact with the Government’s Agreements Officer on agreement matters, modifications, and compliance obligations.
• Negotiate modifications to CDF’s consortium management agreement, including funding actions and changes in scope.
• Coordinate with the Government’s administrative agreements office on payment processing, property administration, and agreement closeout.

Solicitation and award support

• Work with the Government to finalize solicitations — terms, data rights provisions, eligibility, award type, and evaluation mechanics — and issue them to consortium members.
• Manage submission intake, compliance review, and transmittal to the Government, flagging submissions that were incomplete or improperly formatted.
• Support the Government’s evaluation and selection process, including assessments of proposal completeness and cost reasonableness as requested.
• Guide member companies through participation terms, award terms, intellectual property provisions, and compliance obligations.

Compliance and risk

• Own statutory compliance under 10 U.S.C. § 4022, including cost-share and nontraditional defense contractor participation determinations at award.
• Own the data rights and intellectual property framework across awards — assertions, license terms, marking standards, and invention reporting — and advise on how those terms affect the Government’s downstream use of delivered technology.
• Identify and mitigate organizational conflicts of interest, and safeguard CDF’s neutrality as Consortium Manager, including the prohibition on CDF competing for or holding an interest in any funded project.
• Maintain the membership agreement framework and member onboarding standards.
• Elevate agreement and acquisition risk to the Executive Director, Consortium Operations with recommended mitigations; coordinate outside counsel on complex matters.

Leadership and team building

• Build and supervise a team of contracting officers and contract specialists — hiring, training, assigning work, and developing the bench as volume grows.
• Establish and maintain the procedures, templates, and controls the contracts function runs on.
• Serve as CDF’s internal subject matter expert on Other Transaction and other non-FAR instruments; train staff and member companies.
• Partner with the Program Manager on the seams between the agreement and its execution — award content, modification triggers, milestone certification, and closeout — and with the Operations Manager on financial tracking and reporting.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required qualifications

• Eight or more years of contracting or agreements experience, including several years with ownership of complex agreements from negotiation through closeout.
• Demonstrated expertise in non-FAR based contracting, and direct, hands-on experience negotiating, awarding, or administering Other Transactions under 10 U.S.C. § 4022 or its predecessor authority. Government, consortium, and industry experience all qualify.
• Demonstrated full-lifecycle experience: solicitation support, negotiation, award, modification, payment administration, and closeout.
• Working knowledge of government data rights and intellectual property terms, including how rights are asserted, marked, and enforced.
• Experience supervising or leading contracting professionals.
• Experience working alongside a program management function, with a clear sense of where contracting authority ends.
• Track record of building procedures, templates, or controls — not only operating within ones someone else built.
• Strong writing and sound independent judgment; comfort operating in a small, fast-moving organization.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a Secret or Top Secret clearance.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with a consortium-based Other Transaction vehicle, as the consortium manager, a member company, or the Government sponsor.
• Current or prior warranted Contracting Officer or Agreements Officer appointment.
• Familiarity with Navy, DARPA, DIU, AFRL, or another Other Transaction-issuing activity.
• Hands-on experience with WAWF/PIEE and SAM.gov.
• Demonstrated depth in rights in technical data and computer software.
• Experience in a nonprofit or early-stage organization.
• DAWIA Contracting certification, CPCM, or equivalent credential.