Capture & Proposal Lead

Company:

Avalanche Energy is a Seattle-based advanced energy company developing compact fusion power systems, neutron generators, and related technologies that will enable resilient power and multi-domain mobility from the deep sea to the lunar surface and beyond.

Role Summary:

We are seeking a Capture & Proposal Lead to build the pursuit strategies, communications, and operating discipline required to convert qualified opportunities into funded government and commercial programs. This role owns the capture and proposal process from opportunity qualification and pursuit planning through white papers, proposals, negotiation support, award, and transition to program execution, with particular emphasis on technically complex R&D, prototype, demonstration, production, and strategic partnership opportunities.

You will report to the Director of Strategy and work closely with business development, government relations, science & engineering, finance, legal/contracts, compliance, and program management to develop differentiated win strategies, shape customer engagements, lead cross-functional proposal teams, and produce compelling, compliant, and technically credible submissions and strategic communications. You will also strengthen the systems behind growth by managing capture and proposal workflows, CRM and pipeline governance, reusable content, IP and data-rights coordination, and the formal handoff of awards to program teams. The role requires both a hands-on writer and operator and a process owner who can make Avalanche's pursuit organization increasingly rigorous, repeatable, and scalable as the company grows.

Key Responsibilities:

Growth Communications and Strategic Engagements

• Develop presentations, white papers, concept papers, capability briefs, technical marketing materials, proposals, applications, RFI responses, and other communications that advance customer discovery, capture, and strategic partnerships.
• Translate complex fusion, nuclear, engineering, market, and financial information into accurate, compelling narratives for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Support customer, partner, Departmental, policy, and Congressional engagements with targeted research, market and technical data analysis, visualizations, briefing materials, and evidence-based messaging for priority pursuits and strategic engagements.
• Prepare executives and business development leaders for customer meetings, conferences, demonstrations, and pitch sessions, and maintain an approved library of reusable content, claims, evidence, graphics, and past performance.
• Own and continuously improve a library of reusable proposal content, technical claims, graphics, resumes, corporate qualifications, and approved customer-facing materials.

Capture, Proposals, and Growth Operations

• Inform the company's capture process from opportunity qualification and bid/no-bid through capture planning and solution development.
• Manage and lead the capture and proposal development processes and cross-functional proposal teams, including writing, internal review, submission, debrief, and lessons learned.
• Develop capture plans, win themes, compliance matrices, proposal outlines, schedules, assignments, review plans, and content-development workflows; coordinate cross-functional inputs and maintain accountability for deadlines and quality.
• Provide business developers with CRM and opportunity pipeline management support.
• Establish scalable templates, dashboards, calendars, operating procedures, metrics, and governance mechanisms for capture, proposals, and growth planning.
• Develop and maintain capture metrics that illuminate pipeline quality, probability of win, proposal throughput, resource demands, and lessons learned.

Commercial Structuring, Agreements, and Award Transition

• Support the development and negotiation of prime and subcontracts, teaming agreements, NDAs, subawards, service agreements, and other government and commercial agreements.
• Develop and coordinate statements of work, deliverables, milestones, acceptance criteria, schedules, assumptions, technical exhibits, and commercial terms.
• Coordinate intellectual property, data rights positions, licenses, markings, assertions, and contractual flow-downs with legal/contracts, technical, and program stakeholders.
• Support pricing and negotiation activities by integrating business-case assumptions, technical inputs, cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, risk positions, and expected value with finance and technical teams.
• Manage the crosswalk and formal handoff of signed contracts and agreements to program management teams for project execution.
• Track amendments, modifications, and customer-directed changes, and ensure updates are reflected in the CRM, agreement records, financial models, and program baselines.
• Coordinate contract and agreement reviews across business development, finance, legal/contracts, technical, compliance, and program stakeholders.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in defense, space, or energy capture/proposal management, technical business development, or a related role in a complex technology sector.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, economics, finance, business, or a related field.
• Experience leading RDT&E proposals, BAAs, OTAs, SBIR/STTR transitions, prime-subcontract pursuits, or similar complex efforts within the DoW ecosystem.
• Exceptional experience managing cross-functional capture and proposal efforts to win DoW opportunities, with referenceable success winning awards.
• Strong command of structured capture and proposal practices, including qualification, win strategy, compliance, reviews, executive approvals, and debriefs.
• Exceptional writing, presentation, storytelling, and visual-communication skills, with experience developing executive briefings, white papers, proposals, RFI/RFP responses, and customer-facing technical materials.
• Working knowledge of federal acquisition and contracting, including non-traditional contracting and FAR/DFARS concepts, solicitations, prime/subcontract relationships, grants, cooperative agreements, SBIR/STTR, BAAs, OTAs, and government data rights concepts.
• Experience administering a CRM, maintaining an opportunity pipeline, and producing decision-useful analyses, dashboards, forecasts, and executive reviews.
• Startup “builder” mindset: comfortable moving between strategy and execution, creating new processes, working through ambiguity, and managing multiple high-priority workstreams.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI clearance.

Preferred / Bonus:

• MBA, advanced technical degree, or equivalent experience.
• Direct experience with fusion, nuclear, isotopes, radiation systems, high-voltage tech, semiconductors, aerospace, defense tech, or an adjacent deep-technology sector.
• Experience building capture and proposal infrastructure inside a startup or non-traditional contractor.
• Experience developing or negotiating teaming agreements, subawards, subcontracts, service agreements, licensing arrangements, and IP, or technical-data-rights positions.
• Experience developing cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, pricing strategies, and price-to-win analyses for proposals.
• Experience working with or proposing to DOE, NNSA, NASA, the Intelligence Community, national laboratories, or regulated commercial customers.
• Knowledge of DCAA/DCMA readiness, government accounting, indirect rates, contract audit, export controls, and/or CMCC/NIST compliance.
• Working knowledge of nuclear or fusion regulatory frameworks.
• Experience with CRM software, business-intelligence, and data-visualization tools.
• Active DoW security clearance.

Perks:

• Excellent medical, dental and vision benefits.
• 10 paid holidays and company-wide December holiday break.
• Generous paid vacation and sick time.
• Small, tight-knit team with low barriers to action.
• Exposure to a wide variety of problems for unparalleled, hands-on professional growth.
• Meaningful equity in the form of stock options.

We value people of all backgrounds. We are an equal opportunity employer, and you do not need to match every listed qualification to apply. If you like being hands-on, all over the system, and making difficult hardware work in the real world, we encourage you to apply.

This position may require access to export-controlled information. In order to comply with U.S. export control laws, applicants must be a “U.S. person” as defined by U.S. trade control laws (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual).