Business Development & Capture Manager

Job Title: Business Development & Capture Manager

Location: Washington, DC, San Antonio, TX, or Boston, MA

Clearance: Elligible for Top Secret

Who We Are:

Rackner is a software consultancy that builds cloud-native solutions for startups, enterprises, and the public sector. We are an energetic, growing consultancy with a passion for solving big problems for both startups and enterprises. Each of us enable digital transformation for large organizations through the newest in distributed technologies as we are laser focused on end-to-end application development, DevSecOps, AI/ML and systems architecture and our methodology focuses on cloud-first and cost-effective innovation. Our customers hail from a diverse, ever-growing list of industries.

Responsibilities:

• Full lifecycle ownership of opportunities: Serve as the single point-of-contact and leader for assigned Air Force and broader DOD contracting opportunities from identification through award. This means you will both identify/qualify the opportunity and drive the capture/proposal effort to secure it​
• Proactively identify and pursue Air Force opportunities by monitoring Air Force budgets, solicitations, and engaging with customers to uncover needs. Once an opportunity is identified, quickly formulate a pursuit plan: perform initial qualification, determine win strategy, and decide on go/no-go in conjunction with leadership​
• Develop and execute capture strategies for opportunities you are pursuing. This includes engaging with the customer early to shape their thinking, analyzing competitors, building a value proposition for the company's solution, and preparing capture plans that outline how the opportunity will be won​
• Build and manage relationships with Air Force clients and also with industry partners (primes, subs). Because you cover BD and capture, you will identify where partnerships are needed early on and reach out to form teaming arrangements. Maintain those partner relationships to strengthen proposal teams.
• Coordinate and lead the proposal process for your opportunities. Act as a de-facto proposal manager if a dedicated proposal manager isn't assigned. Draft the proposal outline, ensure compliance with RFP, gather input from technical teams, and write or edit key sections to reflect win themes. Oversee the submission of a high-quality, compliant proposal.
• Meet or exceed defined growth targets (e.g., contract wins or revenue goals) in the Air Force market. Track outcomes of your pursuits, and after each proposal, gather lessons learned (win or lose) to improve strategies for future opportunities. Provide regular status updates to company leadership on pipeline progress and forecasted wins.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience: 5–8 years in federal contracting business development, capture management, or a hybrid growth role. Must have hands-on experience both in cultivating customer relationships and in managing proposal efforts. For example, someone who started in BD and transitioned to capture (or vice versa) would fit this role well.
• Demonstrated ability to win contracts through personal effort, not just as part of a larger team. This could be evidenced by having led a pursuit from start to finish that resulted in an award of $5M
• Strong knowledge of the Air Force acquisition ecosystem – understanding how requirements are generated, how decisions are made, and familiarity with key Air Force contracting organizations.
• Excellent self-management and organizational skills. This role requires balancing the proactive outreach and networking of BD with the detail-oriented planning of capture. You should be comfortable switching hats and managing your time to cover both sets of tasks.
• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills: able to pitch the company's capabilities to a customer, and also negotiate teaming or partnerships deals with other companies.
• Experience with pipeline management tools and proposal development processes. You should be able to maintain a pipeline, keep metrics, and also know how to run proposal color team reviews or compliance checks.
• Top Secret clearance (or the ability to obtain one)

Preferred Experience:

• Exposure to both business development and capture/proposal tasks. For example, experience in a small GovCon firm or startup where you had to wear multiple hats – helping with marketing outreach as well as putting together proposals – would fit well.
• Successful contract wins with the Air Force or other military branches in relevant domains (DevSecOps, software, AI, cyber), preferrably multi-million dollar awards
• Knowledge of tools and resources used in federal BD, such as CRM software (Monday.com or Deltek GovWin) for pipeline tracking, and basic proficiency in Google Workspace, Canva, or Beautiful.ai for producing proposal and briefing materials.
• Some technical acumen in the company's service areas (DevSecOps, AI, etc.) – you don't need to be an engineer, but you should be comfortable learning the buzzwords and concepts so you can discuss them and identify relevant opportunities.
• Any training or certifications in either sales (e.g., Certified Sales Development Associate) or proposals (e.g., Shipley or APMP Foundation) that show commitment to developing a professional skill set.

Benefits/Additional Info:

Rackner embraces and promotes employee development and training and covers the cost of certifications relevant to a position and the technologies/services provided. Fitness/Gym membership eligibility, weekly pay schedule and employee swag, snacks & events are offered as well!

• 401K with 100% matching up to 6%
• Highly competitive PTO
• Great health insurance with large network of providers
• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Life Insurance, and short- & long-term disability
• Industry-Leading Weekly Pay Schedule
• Home office & equipment plan