CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with omniscient systems purpose-built for today’s realities. Designed and built by top U.S. military veterans and Silicon Valley innovators, CHAOS Industries’ products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. In a world where technological threats move at unprecedented speed, CHAOS Industries delivers advanced sensing and detection solutions that give the ultimate advantage: time.
CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised $1B in total funding from leading investors including 8VC, Accel, and NEA. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com.
Role Overview:
As the S&T Capture Strategist, you will build and lead CHAOS’ R&D-focused business with DoD and U.S. Government labs and innovation organizations. You will identify and shape early-stage opportunities, align CHAOS technical capabilities to customer problem sets, and drive capture execution from initial customer engagement through award.
You will operate upstream of programs of record. You will develop relationships, shape problem framing, and build transition pathways that connect lab-sponsored R&D to operational sponsors and follow-on funding. You will partner closely with CHAOS engineering teams to ensure customer priorities inform internal roadmaps, and coordinate with Service Growth Leads (Army, Air Force, Navy, etc.) where relevant to expand opportunities and accelerate transition.
Responsibilities:
Market and Capture Strategy (DoD Labs / R&D)
- Conduct continuous opportunity monitoring across R&D solicitation channels (e.g., BAAs, CSOs, SBIR/STTR, consortium/OTA ecosystems, lab solicitations, and open-source tools such as SAM.gov).
- Build and maintain a qualified pipeline of future capability opportunities with DoD/UGS laboratories and innovation organizations.
- Perform customer, program, and competitive research to understand emerging priorities, technical direction, and funding pathways.
- Develop capture plans at both the strategic (portfolio/pipeline) and tactical (opportunity-specific) levels, aligned with business priorities and growth targets.
- Participate in engineering planning sessions to ensure product development efforts are aligned to customer needs and near-term capture priorities.
- Attend and lead customer engagements including program manager meetings, lab visits, industry days, demonstrations, and conferences.
Proposal, White Paper, and Content Development
- Serve as lead on win themes for R&D capture content including abstracts, white papers, and full proposals; drive structure and narrative quality.
- Translate technical approaches into clear, concise, and compelling narratives that directly address customer problem sets and evaluation criteria.
- Coordinate internal and external contributors (engineering, business development, partners) to deliver high-quality submissions on time.
Customer Engagement
- Be where the customer needs us: Pentagon, labs, test sites, and field environments. Build trust through high-touch engagements.
- Support early demonstrations and customer touchpoints to validate concepts, gather feedback, and strengthen the transition case.
Physical Location
- Work full-time onsite out of our Washington D.C. office.
- Regular travel required for lab engagements, customer meetings, demonstrations, industry events, and coordination with Los Angeles HQ (roughly 25–50%).
Minimum Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (e.g., Engineering, Business, Communications, Political Science) or equivalent work experience.
- Strong understanding of the U.S. Government acquisition process, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and non-traditional acquisition pathways used for R&D and prototyping.
- Experience supporting Federal R&D proposals/white papers, with demonstrated success capturing complex low TRL awards.
- Experience building trust with technical and operational stakeholders, translating customer needs, and driving aligned internal execution.
- Exceptional communication skills and attention to detail; strong strategic judgment and risk assessment.
- Ability to obtain a Top Secret / Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance.
Preferred Requirements:
- Existing U.S. security clearance (Secret or above).
- Direct experience with DoD / USG labs and innovation organizations (e.g., DARPA, ARL, AFRL, ONR), including their solicitation and evaluation norms.
- Experience with BAAs/CSOs, OTA/consortium pathways, and SBIR/STTR execution and transition.
- Technical background or demonstrated fluency in relevant domains (radar, RF, sensing, communications, autonomy, weapons systems).
- Experience transitioning prototypes/R&D efforts into follow-on programs, operational sponsors, or programs of record.
Why CHAOS?
- Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
- Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
- Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
- Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
- Team Growth: 200 employees and counting across 5 global offices
Salary Range: $140,000 - $180,000
The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.
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