Owns contract formation, negotiation support, risk management, and post-award administration for domestic and international defense contracts. Reviews FAR/DFARS clauses, flowdowns, intellectual-property provisions, payment terms, compliance obligations, and subcontract requirements. Partners with business development, finance, security, legal, engineering, programs, and supply chain teams. Maintains agreements and obligations while supporting modifications, claims, change orders, closeout, and scalable contract-review processes.
About the Company:
We are an Aerospace & Defense startup headquartered in Gardena, CA. Our founding team hails from SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin, and we are backed by Joint Staff-level military leadership and top-tier Silicon Valley rms. We're assembling a high urgency team committed to moving fast, solving hard problems, and defending what matters most. With a world-class business development & leadership team already in place, we are well positioned to capitalize on already overwhelming demand.
Role Overview:
The Contracts Manager owns contract formation, negotiation support, contractual risk management, and post-award contract administration across domestic and international defense opportunities. This role enables the company to move quickly while ensuring that contractual commitments, customer flowdowns, intellectual-property positions, payment structures, and compliance obligations are understood before the company commits.
The Contracts Manager owns the contractual relationship and obligations. The role does not own proposal production, pricing-model development, bookkeeping, or routine financial-system administration.
Core Responsibilities
- Review, negotiate, administer, and maintain customer contracts, subcontracts, NDAs, teaming agreements, purchase terms, and related contractual instruments.
- Lead review of contract type, terms and conditions, representations, warranties, indemnities, limitations of liability, termination provisions, delivery requirements, acceptance criteria, and payment terms.
- Evaluate FAR/DFARS clauses, customer flowdowns, data rights, intellectual property provisions, export-sensitive provisions, and subcontract requirements.
- Support BD and Proposal teams during solicitations by identifying contractual requirements, exceptions, risks, and required representations.
- Coordinate with Pricing and Finance on contract structures that affect margin, billing triggers, milestone payments, funded value, cash timing, working capital, and financial exposure.
- Coordinate with Security and Compliance on CUI, CMMC, DD254s, export controls, facility-clearance requirements, and customer-specific compliance obligations.
- Maintain executed agreements, modifications, contractual deliverables, notice requirements, option dates, funding limits, periods of performance, and other contractual obligations.
- Support contract modifications, change orders, claims, equitable-adjustment requests, closeout, and other post-award actions as applicable.
- Establish scalable contract-review, approval, delegation-of-authority, and records-management processes.
- Escalate material contractual, financial, IP, delivery, compliance, or operational risks before commitments are made.
Ideal Background
- 7–12 years in defense contracts, government contracting, program contracts, legal operations, subcontract administration, or related work.
- Strong working knowledge of FAR/DFARS, OTAs, CSOs, fixed-price and cost-type structures, data rights, flowdowns, and government-contract administration.
- Experience negotiating and administering contracts involving hardware, manufacturing, R&D, prototypes, or defense technology strongly preferred.
- Experience working directly with BD, Finance, Programs, Legal, Engineering, and Supply Chain.
- Strong commercial judgment and ability to distinguish material contractual risk from issues that can be resolved pragmatically.
- JD or legal background helpful but not required.
Compensation:
Salary: $125000- $185000 + Equity + Benefits ( Healthcare, Vision, Dental, 401k, and Lunch)
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