Capture Lead - Federal

What you'll do

Capture strategy & planning

Partner with Federal sales leadership on quarterly and annual capture planning

Partner with GTM, Mission Success, and Engineering on deal structuring, pricing strategy, and negotiation across contract vehicles

Track and prioritize contract vehicle strategy (GSA, OTAs, IDIQs, SBIR pathways, prime/sub relationships)

Pursuit & proposal operations

Identify and track relevant federal solicitations, from initial RFI through final RFP

Build the operational backbone for proposal response: intake, qualification, bid/no-bid decisioning, color team review cadence, and compliance

Manage relationships with proposal and capture partners supporting RFI-to-RFP response on Cognition's behalf

Build and maintain proposal collateral, and maintain the past performance, capabilities, and pricing libraries that compound across pursuits

GTM systems & performance

Define the metrics that matter for a federal GTM motion and build dashboards that surface them

Own solicitation response tracking across active pursuits

Run the red-team/AAR process on wins and losses; turn lessons learned into repeatable best practices

Cross-functional execution

Identify operational bottlenecks and build the systems, processes, and tooling to remove them

What we're looking for

4+ years of experience in federal business operations, capture management, or revenue strategy at a defense tech, federal SaaS, or government services company

Deep fluency in federal procurement: contract vehicles, working knowledge of FAR/DFARS, capture lifecycle, and the rhythm of federal sales cycles

Strong analytical foundation—you can build the model, run the analysis, and tell the story

Track record of working in and building capture programs from scratch in a fast-moving environment

Comfort operating without a playbook, and a low ego about doing the work yourself

Based in Washington, DC, or willing to relocate

Security clearance preferred, or ability to obtain one

What success looks like in the first year

A functioning bid/no-bid and proposal process with clear ownership

Live pipeline visibility and win/loss reporting leadership actually uses

A measurable improvement in win rate or pursuit efficiency

Equal Opportunity

Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any.