Capture Lead - Federal

About the Role

Cognition is building its federal business, and capture is the engine that drives it. We're hiring a Capture Lead to partner directly with Federal leadership and own that engine end to end—from identifying the right pursuits to standing up the systems that make winning repeatable. This is a builder's role: you'll create the capture function, not inherit one.

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