Principal Contracts Strategist (Pre-Award)

Overview

This role involves serving as a Principal Contracts Strategist, a foundational senior individual contributor position responsible for complex, high-impact contract strategy and execution, along with building scalable systems that support sales and growth goals.

Reporting to the Head of Contracts, you will work closely with contract administration, partnerships, legal, finance, sales, and customer relations. The position combines hands-on execution with strategic ownership to guide contracting decisions, resolve ambiguity, and align contracts with business and customer needs.

The role has no direct people management responsibilities, but it carries significant ownership, visibility, and influence across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Head of Contracts to shape contract strategy, translate it into clear, sequenced priorities, and support transparent, seamless contract awards.
• Own complex contract analysis, negotiation, risk mitigation, and lifecycle management, aligning acquisition approaches with business goals and customer mission outcomes.
• Build and maintain reliable, scalable preaward workflows, contracting frameworks, playbooks, and decision models.
• Continuously improve processes through automation and operational efficiency.
• Coordinate across contract administration, partnerships, legal, finance, sales, and customer relations to align priorities, identify dependencies, resolve blockers, and mitigate risks.

Requirements

• Deep expertise in federal government contracting (acquisition processes and regulations) and experience supporting software or technology-enabled products, including contracting models that support rapid delivery, enterprise adoption, and long-term mission outcomes.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and at least 10 years of related experience as a contracts professional supporting contract strategy and administration.
• Experience supporting software or technology-enabled products, including contracting models enabling rapid delivery, enterprise adoption, and lasting mission outcomes.
• Experience designing and executing flexible acquisition approaches, such as OTAs, hybrid vehicles, and novel contract structures, while managing risk.
• Experience scaling contracting functions in a high growth environment by building and refining systems and processes, and translating strategy into roadmaps and execution.
• Strong business judgment, analytical and problem-solving skills, and attention to detail.
• Excellent written, verbal, negotiation, interpersonal, and time management skills, including in distributed or primarily asynchronous environments.
• Ability to lead through influence, build trust across functions, and operate independently with integrity and adaptability in a fast-paced environment.
• Willingness to travel as needed.
• Ability to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance.
• U.S. citizenship is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a federal government contracting officer, ideally with at least 8 years in that capacity.
• Experience scaling contract strategy and execution internationally.

Compensation & Benefits

• Not specified.

Location

• Not specified.