Senior Contracts Manager

Contracts Manager

We are an Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in Gardena, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and top-tier Silicon Valley rms. We're assembling a high urgency team committed to moving fast, solving hard problems, and defending what matters most. With a world-class business development & leadership team already in place, we are well positioned to capitalize on already overwhelming demand.

Role Overview: The Contracts Manager owns contract formation, negotiation support, contractual risk management, and post-award contract administration across domestic and international defense opportunities. This role enables the company to move quickly while ensuring that contractual commitments, customer flowdowns, intellectual-property positions, payment structures, and compliance obligations are understood before the company commits.

The Contracts Manager owns the contractual relationship and obligations. The role does not own proposal production, pricing-model development, bookkeeping, or routine financial-system administration.

Core Responsibilities

• Review, negotiate, administer, and maintain customer contracts, subcontracts, NDAs, teaming agreements, purchase terms, and related contractual instruments.
• Lead review of contract type, terms and conditions, representations, warranties, indemnities, limitations of liability, termination provisions, delivery requirements, acceptance criteria, and payment terms.
• Evaluate FAR/DFARS clauses, customer flowdowns, data rights, intellectual property provisions, export-sensitive provisions, and subcontract requirements.
• Support BD and Proposal teams during solicitations by identifying contractual requirements, exceptions, risks, and required representations.
• Coordinate with Pricing and Finance on contract structures that affect margin, billing triggers, milestone payments, funded value, cash timing, working capital, and financial exposure.
• Coordinate with Security and Compliance on CUI, CMMC, DD254s, export controls, facility-clearance requirements, and customer-specific compliance obligations.
• Maintain executed agreements, modifications, contractual deliverables, notice requirements, option dates, funding limits, periods of performance, and other contractual obligations.
• Support contract modifications, change orders, claims, equitable-adjustment requests, closeout, and other post-award actions as applicable.
• Establish scalable contract-review, approval, delegation-of-authority, and records-management processes.
• Escalate material contractual, financial, IP, delivery, compliance, or operational risks before commitments are made.

Ideal Background

• 7–12 years in defense contracts, government contracting, program contracts, legal operations, subcontract administration, or related work.
• Strong working knowledge of FAR/DFARS, OTAs, CSOs, fixed-price and cost-type structures, data rights, flowdowns, and government-contract administration.
• Experience negotiating and administering contracts involving hardware, manufacturing, R&D, prototypes, or defense technology strongly preferred.
• Experience working directly with BD, Finance, Programs, Legal, Engineering, and Supply Chain.
• Strong commercial judgment and ability to distinguish material contractual risk from issues that can be resolved pragmatically.
• JD or legal background helpful but not required.

Compensation: Salary: $125000- $185000 + Equity + Benefits (Healthcare, Vision, Dental, 401k, and Lunch)