Director of Defense Growth & Strategy

Position Summary

The Director of Defense Growth & Strategy drives long-term opportunity development across key DoD stakeholders, with emphasis on identifying and shaping autonomy and robotics programs that align with Neya/ARA’s capabilities.

Operating at the T12 Principal Professional 2 level, this role represents Neya/ARA as a senior technical and strategic partner to government leadership, shaping requirements and acquisition approaches to position the company for sustained growth in autonomy and robotics.

This position requires strong DoD expertise, senior-level relationship skills, and the ability to work independently on complex, high-impact efforts.

Key Responsibilities



* Establish and maintain credible, senior-level engagements with DoD organizations, including PEOs, PMs, requirements officers, S&T leaders, and technical authorities, with a focus on autonomy and robotics mission areas.


* Drive early opportunity shaping by informing requirements, budget trajectories, and acquisition pathways for autonomy and robotics programs long before formal release.


* Drive strategic engagement efforts to identify autonomy- and robotics-related mission requirements, emerging capability needs, and future program trajectories.


* Lead the development of win strategies and competitive discriminators for major autonomy and robotics pursuits, exercising sound judgment in pursue/no-pursue determinations.


* Collaborate with Capture Managers to maintain alignment between pre-RFP shaping work and subsequent capture execution for autonomy and robotics programs.


* Prepare well-substantiated white papers and technical briefs that present Neya/ARA capabilities in autonomy, robotics, modeling and simulation, and AI/ML, and support government program development.


* Lead senior-level briefings that communicate autonomy and robotics technical capabilities to government decision-makers, industry partners, and organizational leadership.


* Engage with engineering leadership to shape internal R&D and product investments based on DoD autonomy and robotics demand signals.

Expectations

Knowledge & Expertise


* Applies advanced technical principles and contributes to the development of new concepts at an organizational scale.


* Recognized authority within the industry, with the ability to influence direction across multiple technical areas.

Direction Received


* Operates with minimal oversight; determines objectives, strategies, and approaches for complex assignments.


* Decisions at this level have major impact on programs, customers, and organizational long-range goals.

Problem Complexity


* Solves highly complex problems requiring creativity, innovation, and strategic insight.


* Ensures solutions support long-term organizational objectives.

Internal & External Impact


* Acts as a prime internal and external representative for technical, business, and strategic matters related to assigned do...