Strategic Growth Manager

Icarus · El Segundo · $110,000–$150,000 (stated in the posting)

Role Summary

You will own the execution of Icarus's revenue pipeline. You will find opportunities and carry them through capture, submission, award paperwork, and follow-on contracting — the same person who identifies a solicitation sees it through to signed contract. You will represent Icarus in front of the customers, partners, congressional stakeholders, and investors who fund our mission. This is a high-ownership seat at a fast-moving defense startup, reporting to the Director of Growth and working directly with the Head of Business and CEO.

Core Responsibilities

Opportunity Identification & Pipeline Ownership

You will hunt, identify, and qualify opportunities across SAM.gov, SBIR/STTR topics, Vulcan, ONI, various consortia, BAAs, COCOM/service technical interest items, and various other solicitation means
You will own the opportunity pipeline and tracker: status, deadlines, owners, and win probability for every active pursuit, with a weekly rollup to Growth and Business leadership
You will monitor solicitation amendments, Q&A windows, and submission deadlines — nothing gets missed on your watch

Proposal & Submission Ownership

You will drive proposals end to end: outlines, compliance matrices, volume drafting, coordination of technical inputs from engineering and pricing from finance, final production, and on-time submission
You will draft responses to RFIs, RFPs, white paper calls, and capability requests
You will own submission mechanics across government portals (SAM.gov, DSIP, Vulcan, eBuy, consortium portals) and ensure every submission is compliant and complete
You will carry awards across the finish line: evaluation-phase Q&A, clarifications, pitch and demo logistics, representations and certifications, registrations, and contract execution paperwork
You will support follow-on contracting: modifications, option exercises, and continuation proposals on awarded work

AI-Enabled Process & Automation

You will build the processes and procedures that make the business team faster, using agentic AI as a force multiplier — automated opportunity discovery and solicitation monitoring, AI-assisted proposal drafting and compliance checking, and pipeline workflows that run without manual touch
You are expected to use AI daily in your own work — finding opportunities, drafting responses, and producing collateral — and to turn what works into repeatable playbooks the whole team adopts
The standard: every quarter, something the business team used to do by hand runs automatically because you built it

Customer Engagement & Events

You will represent Icarus at conferences, trade shows, and customer engagements (AUSA, SOF Week, regional and international events), working the booth and the room with government, prime, congressional, and investor stakeholders
You will assist the Director of External Affairs on event strategy: contributing ideas on where we show up, how we stand out, and which engagements matter — External Affairs plans and executes events; you help shape them and you show up strong
You will own event follow-up: every lead, contact, and commitment from an engagement gets captured, actioned, and tracked within 48 hours
You will support VIP engagements — facility visits, demonstration guests, congressional and senior-leader visits, hosted receptions — and serve as a consistent, credible Icarus point of contact between formal engagements

Marketing & Sales Support

You will maintain core BD collateral — capability statements, quad charts, briefing decks, one-pagers — keeping them current with approved company messaging
You will keep CRM and pipeline hygiene tight and capture after-actions from meetings and events so institutional knowledge compounds

What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)

Every qualified solicitation in our lanes is identified, tracked, and dispositioned — zero missed deadlines
Proposal production runs on a repeatable process with compliance matrices and reusable content, reducing leadership hours per submission
At least two captures owned end to end, from identification through award paperwork
Event follow-ups convert: contacts from every conference are actioned within 48 hours and traceable to pipeline
Measurable automation wins: opportunity discovery and pipeline reporting run with agentic AI workflows you built, and the team's per-proposal hours are visibly down
Recognized by repeat customers and partners as a known, trusted Icarus point of contact

Qualifications

2–4 years in business development, capture, account management, or go-to-market roles; defense, aerospace, or govtech exposure strongly preferred
Exceptional written communication: able to turn engineer inputs into compliant, compelling proposal prose on deadline
Demonstrated fluency with AI tools in daily work — prompt-driven drafting, research, and workflow automation — and an instinct to systematize rather than repeat manual tasks
Strong interpersonal presence: comfortable and credible in front of senior military, government, congressional, and investor audiences
Highly organized, deadline-driven, and self-directed; thrives with ownership and ambiguity
Willingness to travel (~20%), including international; ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
U.S. citizenship required

Compensation: $110,000-$150,000 USD

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