Contract Specialist

What You'll Work On 

Contract Administration & Lifecycle Management 

• Serve as the primary point of contact for Contracting Officers, Contracting Officer's Representatives, and prime contractor counterparts across the portfolio.
• Draft, review, and administer the full range of agreements: prime contracts, subcontracts, NDAs, teaming agreements, CRADAs, Other Transaction Agreements and OT follow-on production agreements, consulting agreements, and IP and data rights terms.
• Manage contract vehicles and award types end to end — FFP, T&M, CPFF, CPIF, IDIQ and task order, BPA, GSA MAS, NASA SEWP, OTA consortium awards, SBIR/STTR Phase I–III, and Commercial Solutions Openings.
• Lead negotiation of terms and conditions, flowdowns, and modifications; identify and mitigate risk in indemnification, limitation of liability, termination, warranty, and intellectual property clauses.
• Protect company IP and data rights — assert and defend SBIR data rights, limited rights in technical data, and restricted rights in noncommercial software, and prevent inadvertent grants of unlimited rights.
• Maintain the contracts repository, obligation and funding trackers, CDRL schedules, option exercise calendars, and the closeout pipeline so nothing lapses, overruns, or goes unbilled.

Pricing & Cost Strategy 

• Develop and maintain the company's provisional and forward pricing rate structure — fringe, overhead, G&A, and where applicable material handling — in partnership with Finance.
• Participate price-to-win analysis and competitive pricing strategy; model trade-offs between price, scope, risk posture, and margin, and give leadership a clear recommendation rather than a spreadsheet.
• Review certified cost or pricing data submissions and support Truthful Cost or Pricing Data (TINA) compliance, commercial product and commercial service determinations, and price reasonableness justifications.

Capture & Proposal Support 

• Own all contractual and administrative volumes — representations and certifications, past performance, small business subcontracting plans, OCI mitigation plans, and any exceptions taken to terms.
• Support teaming strategy: evaluate prime versus subcontractor positioning, negotiate work share and exclusivity, and paper the relationships early enough to matter.
• Participate in bid/no-bid point of view. You should be comfortable advising the team when a pursuit is not worth the capture dollars.

Compliance & Government Accounting 

• Track FAR, DFARS, and agency supplement compliance across the portfolio, and translate regulatory requirements into workflows that engineers and program managers will actually follow.
• Serve as the primary interface for DCAA and DCMA on incurred cost submissions, provisional billing rate proposals, floor checks, and business system reviews.
• Advise on Cost Accounting Standards applicability and disclosure statement requirements, and on allowability, allocability, and reasonableness determinations under FAR Part 31.
• Track compliance with CMMC and DFARS 252.204-7012 safeguarding requirements, export controls (ITAR and EAR), organizational conflict of interest rules, Procurement Integrity Act obligations, and small business and socioeconomic program requirements.

What You Bring 

Required 

• 7+ years in government contracts, including at least 3 years at a management level owning a portfolio or a function.
• Deep working command of the FAR and DFARS — not reference-level familiarity, but the ability to negotiate from them under time pressure.
• Demonstrated experience across the full lifecycle: pre-award capture support, pricing and proposal development, negotiation, post-award administration, and closeout.
• Experience with both traditional FAR-based procurement and non-traditional pathways such as OTAs, CSOs, SBIR Phase III, and consortium awards.
• Active Secret clearance at minimum, with eligibility and willingness to upgrade to TS/SCI.
• Based in, or willing to relocate to, the Washington, DC metro area, with hybrid on-site presence expected. We are looking for someone who can work in our Tysons Corneroffice at least 2 days per week. 

Strongly Preferred 

• Experience at a defense technology company, whether a prime or a startup.
• Experience on an early-stage team, such as a new vertical within a company or at a startup.
• Experience with DoD, Intelligence Community, DHS, or federal law enforcement customers, and familiarity with classified contracting and DD Form 254 requirements.
• Software, AI/ML, autonomy, or hardware-intensive product contracting experience, including commercial product determinations and software data rights strategy.

Location & Travel 

• Washington, DC metro area preferred with the ability to be in office 2x per week.
• Minimal travel required for customer engagement, partner coordination, and cross-functional work. 

Salary Range: $110,000-$150,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.