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About the Role

Helios is seeking a Government Capture and Business Development Lead to identify, shape, and advance high-priority government contracting opportunities. This senior, hands-on role involves managing the full pursuit lifecycle, from identifying customer needs to proposal submission and award, across various government agencies and mission areas. The ideal candidate combines deep DoD acquisition and federal business development experience with strong project management skills.

Responsibilities

Identify relevant federal, defense, state, and local government contracting opportunities through various channels.
Build and maintain a pipeline of opportunities across multiple agencies and acquisition pathways.
Evaluate potential pursuits based on mission fit, funding, competitive position, and probability of success.
Conduct research into agencies, programs, budgets, and decision-makers.
Distinguish actionable opportunities and make clear recommendations for investment.
Maintain accurate records of active opportunities, including status, value, and next actions.
Build relationships with government contracting officers, program managers, and other decision-makers.
Lead or support customer discovery to understand mission needs and procurement requirements.
Prepare company leaders and technical teams for government meetings and briefings.
Translate government feedback into concrete pursuit actions and technical requirements.
Identify key offices, programs, and potential champions for priority capabilities.
Maintain disciplined follow-up after government interactions.
Represent Helios with credibility and discretion, adhering to procurement integrity and ethics.
Develop and manage capture plans for priority government opportunities.
Map decision-makers, influencers, funding sources, competitors, and procurement milestones.
Shape opportunities by connecting government requirements with company capabilities.
Develop customer-specific value propositions, win themes, teaming strategies, and pursuit plans.
Identify potential prime contractors, subcontractors, and other teaming relationships.
Recommend effective acquisition pathways for opportunities.
Establish bid and no-bid criteria and facilitate disciplined pursuit decisions.
Surface and mitigate risks related to competition, compliance, contracting, technical, and schedule.
Own or coordinate the end-to-end proposal process for government pursuits.
Analyze solicitations and create compliance matrices, submission calendars, and work plans.
Coordinate inputs from various internal and external stakeholders for proposals.
Draft and edit various proposal components, including technical volumes and past-performance materials.
Ensure submissions are responsive, persuasive, compliant, accurate, and delivered on time.
Manage internal reviews and drive resolution of open questions and approvals.
Support oral presentations, demonstrations, clarification responses, and negotiations.
Track pursuits through evaluation, selection, award, and debriefs.
Manage multiple concurrent pursuits with different customers and deadlines.
Adapt quickly across industries, technology categories, and government mission areas.
Translate complex acquisition processes into clear decisions and next steps for stakeholders.
Provide practical guidance on positioning capabilities, engaging agencies, and navigating the procurement process.
Work closely with technical and commercial teams to translate mission needs into viable approaches.
Prepare concise, decision-ready updates on opportunity status, risks, and milestones.
Maintain a high standard of responsiveness and ensure follow-ups are completed.
Establish a consistent operating cadence for pipeline reviews, capture decisions, and updates.
Maintain organized, current records across CRM systems and shared materials.
Build reusable capture infrastructure, including templates and proposal content.
Track action items, dependencies, and deadlines across every active pursuit.
Identify process gaps and build lightweight systems to improve visibility and accountability.

Requirements

Significant experience in DoD acquisition, federal business development, capture management, government contracting, or a combination thereof.
Directly managed government pursuits from identification through award.
Understand how requirements, budgets, acquisition strategies, contract vehicles, and evaluation criteria shape government buying decisions.
Strong working knowledge of the FAR, DFARS, and the practical realities of selling technology or professional services to government.
Ability to communicate credibly with contracting officers, program managers, senior government officials, technical stakeholders, military personnel, and private-sector partners.
Exceptional project management skills to coordinate complex pursuits with multiple contributors and deadlines.
Highly organized with the ability to maintain accurate opportunity records, action items, and deadlines.
Take personal responsibility for closing loops and ensuring follow-through.
Ability to move between strategic capture planning and detailed execution.
Clear and persuasive writing skills to create compelling government-facing materials.
Excellent judgment with procurement-sensitive, competitive, customer, and company information.
Comfortable operating independently in a fast-moving startup with limited infrastructure and shifting priorities.
Ability to move opportunities forward with minimal oversight while keeping stakeholders informed.
Previous service as a military or civilian contracting officer, acquisition officer, program manager, or acquisition professional.
Experience working within or directly supporting a military service, combatant command, defense agency, program executive office, or civilian agency.
Demonstrated record of winning government contracts, pilots, prototype agreements, subcontracts, or other funded work.
Experience with software, artificial intelligence, data platforms, cybersecurity, defense technology, or other emerging technologies.
Familiarity with federal, state, and local procurement processes and contracting pathways.
Experience developing teaming relationships with defense primes, systems integrators, government contractors, and specialized small businesses.
Familiarity with government proposal pricing, cost volumes, representations and certifications, compliance requirements, and contract negotiations.
An active security clearance or the ability to obtain one if required for future work.
An established network across relevant government acquisition and contracting communities.

Skills

Government Capture
Business Development
DoD Acquisition
Federal Business Development
Capture Management
Government Contracting
Project Management
Opportunity Identification
Pipeline Management
Customer Relationship Management
Proposal Development
Capture Strategy Development
Teaming Strategy
Acquisition Pathway Recommendation
Risk Mitigation
Proposal Writing
Stakeholder Management
CRM Systems
Procurement Integrity
Ethics
FAR
DFARS
Software
Artificial Intelligence
Data Platforms
Cybersecurity
Defense Technology

Location

Washington, D.C. preferred

Work Type

Part-time contractor
Potential to convert to full-time
Occasional travel may be required

Experience Level

Senior

Salary/Compensations

$6,000 to $10,000 per month (part-time contract)

Benefits

Competitive salary (for full-time conversion)
Meaningful equity (for full-time conversion)
Company benefits (for full-time conversion)

About the Company

Helios is building a new kind of company to solve America’s hardest problems, starting with the government interaction layer.
Our core platform, Proxi, gives organizations the intelligence they need to understand what government is doing, why it matters, and what to do next.
We design and deploy secure, mission-specific systems for government agencies, enterprises, and institutions operating in complex and highly regulated environments.
We bring together frontier AI, deep public-sector expertise, and forward-deployed execution.
Our team includes leaders and builders from the White House, U.S. Department of State, Datadog, and Microsoft.
We are backed by leading institutional investors and trusted by organizations working on high-stakes problems across government and industry.

Equal Opportunity

Helios is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates based on their abilities, experience, and potential to contribute to our mission. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.