Engagement Manager, SOCOM
Company: Defense-technology company (name shared under NDA)
Reports To: Engagement Management leadership
Function: Growth – Engagement Management
Location: Tampa, FL strongly preferred given proximity to the command; Tysons, VA, North Carolina, Texas, or Colorado also possible
Travel: Regular travel to customer sites
Compensation: $160K–$210K base + equity
Confidential Search · Defense Technology
Confidential search. The hiring company's identity and full role details are shared with candidates under NDA.
About the Role
This is a fast-growing defense-technology company building autonomous aerial systems and counter-UAS and air defense capabilities for US government customers. The Growth organization sells and executes contracts across both product lines and runs the capability showcases, demonstrations, and training that go with them.
If business development are the hunters, engagement managers are the farmers. This is program management with the customer relationship attached: once a contract is signed, you see it operationally through to completion. Training scheduled and delivered, equipment moved, invoicing worked, and problems found and solved before they ever reach the customer. Think of it as the non-technical customer success function during execution.
Because you own the relationship through delivery, this seat is also a genuine source of follow-on business. A customer who is served well comes back for another training package or another tranche of units.
This role covers Special Operations Command, where the acquisition path, the operating pace, and the end users all differ from the conventional force. Engagement management is the company's most built-out team, so you step into an existing structure rather than inventing one. That said, the expectation is that you are executing by week two: week one is orientation, and after that the programs are yours.
Responsibilities
- Own execution of signed contracts end to end, from award through completion.
- Serve as the customer's primary point of contact during delivery.
- Coordinate across supply chain, finance, and engineering to move the contract, without authority over any of them.
- Make sure training and capability delivery are scheduled and executed on time.
- Own invoicing and the commercial administration of the contract.
- Identify gaps and obstacles before they become the customer's problem, and close them quietly.
- Surface and land follow-on business inside the accounts you run: additional training, additional units, expanded scope.
Requirements
Must-Haves
- Five to twelve years of experience. The team is deliberately being kept balanced rather than top heavy, so this is not a senior-executive seat.
- SOCOM intake and logistics fluency. Understands how materiel reaches a special operations end user: rapid acquisition authorities, differences across component commands, fielding and sustainment, and property accountability.
- A proactive cross-functional operator who moves supply chain, finance, and engineering without authority over any of them.
- Identifies gaps before they surface and exercises sound judgment without being told what to prioritize.
- An excellent communicator, credible with engineers, finance, and the customer in the same week.
Nice-to-Haves
- Special operations acquisition or program management experience, including component command logistics and rapid acquisition work.
- Credibility with the special operations customer. A special operations background is valuable but not required; delivery experience into the command counts.
- Program or product operations at a defense-technology company.
- Consulting experience with federal or defense-technology delivery work, including real client management under pressure.
- Experience in a growth-stage company where process had to be built or adapted.
Not a Fit
- Strategy or diligence backgrounds with no delivery accountability. Candidates who frame a problem and treat the fix as someone else's job are not a fit for this seat.
- Candidates seeking a purely internal program management role with no customer exposure.
Process
- This is a confidential search. An NDA is required before the company's identity and full role details are shared. We screen for interest at a high level first, then read candidates in once an NDA is in place.
- Any clearance requirement is confirmed with candidates during screening.
- Candidates are submitted and tracked through the company's applicant tracking system.