Business Development- Technical Bid Writer

Lodestar Space is rewriting the paradigm of national security in orbit. We build autonomous capabilities ahead of the threat and deliver them at the speed of relevance. As space transforms into a contested operational and war-fighting domain, our national security assets and critical infrastructure face unprecedented vulnerabilities. Lodestar addresses this crisis head-on as the architects of Mithril, the world's first fully autonomous, AI-driven intelligence designed to operate independently in space. Mithril autonomously maneuvers, enables complex RPO missions, and conducts the full kill-chain—from detection and classification to intent prediction and response to orbital threats in denied environments. Combining cutting-edge machine vision, onboard edge computing, and pioneering fires and effects architectures, Lodestar provides warfighters and commercial operators with unprecedented situational awareness and space superiority. Backed by elite deep-tech venture capital, international space agencies, and government stakeholders, Lodestar is rapidly expanding its footprint across the U.S. Space Force, the Department of War, and major commercial satellite operators.

About the Role

Our engineering team is building some of the most technically sophisticated autonomous systems in the defense space ecosystem. Your role is to ensure that sophistication translates into winning contracts. This is a hands-on practitioner role where your writing is the work. You will collaborate closely with our technical team, learning what they have built and helping translate it into compliant, compelling, evaluator-ready proposals. As part of a lean and supportive team that moves fast, you will have real ownership over your work and the autonomy to execute it well, with the full backing of the commercial and engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Proposal Writing and Content Development
  • Own the writing of technical, management, and past performance volumes for prime and subcontractor submissions across DoD, DoW, NASA, IC, and other solicitations.
  • Translate complex engineering concepts—orbital mechanics, autonomous systems architecture, machine vision, onboard edge computing, RPO, directed energy—into clear, compliant, evaluator-ready narrative without requiring engineers to draft or heavily redline your work.
  • Write executive summaries, capability descriptions, technical approaches, staffing narratives, and past performance write-ups that are both compliant and compelling.
  • Build and maintain a reusable proposal content library—boilerplate, capability sheets, past performance templates—to reduce per-submission workload over time.
• Solicitation Analysis and Compliance
  • Perform thorough RFP decomposition—Section L, Section M, SOW, CDRLs, and all attachments—and produce compliance matrices and annotated outlines before writing begins.
  • Track and enforce compliance across all volumes, ensuring every requirement is addressed, cross-referenced, and verifiable at submission.
  • Apply working knowledge of FAR and DFARS to ensure submissions meet regulatory requirements without over-engineering the response.
  • Flag solicitation ambiguities, conflicts, or requirement gaps early and raise them before they become submission-day problems.
• Cross-Functional Coordination
  • Work directly with Lodestar's technical team to extract input efficiently through structured interviews, architecture reviews, and targeted written Q&A rather than open-ended drafting requests.
  • Coordinate inputs from Business Development, Finance, Legal, and Mission Operations to assemble complete, cohesive submissions on deadline.
  • Support team reviews and incorporate feedback quickly without losing compliance or narrative coherence.
  • Own proposal schedules, draft cycles, and submission logistics across multiple concurrent opportunities.

Requirements

• 3 to 6 years of hands-on technical proposal writing experience supporting DoD, DoW, NASA, or IC customers. Ability to execute independently from day one.
• Demonstrated experience writing for space systems, satellite technology, autonomous systems, defense software, or adjacent aerospace and defense domains. You must understand the subject matter well enough that engineers trust your first draft.
• Proven ability to decompose complex solicitations independently—Section L/M analysis, compliance matrix development, annotated outlines—before writing narrative.
• Working knowledge of FAR and DFARS sufficient to parse solicitation requirements, identify compliance obligations, and write to them correctly.
• Experience across multiple acquisition vehicles: RFPs, OTAs, CSOs, BAAs, and SBIRs. Non-traditional defense acquisition pathways are a significant part of our pipeline.
• Exceptional written communication skills. Proposals should read like they were written by someone who understands the mission—not assembled from boilerplate.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and self-reliance. You will own the proposal process end-to-end.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Aerospace, Political Science, Business, or a related field required. Master's degree in a related field preferred.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Specific experience writing for U.S. Space Force, AFRL, DIU, Space RCO, SDA, SpaceWERX, or NASA space systems programs.
• Familiarity with USSF and DoW acquisition ecosystems including Space SBIR/STTR programs, STRATFI/TACFI pathways, and Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) OTA vehicles.
• Experience as the primary or sole proposal writer at a defense tech startup or emerging technology company—not one member of a large proposal center.
• Ability to read and interpret system architecture diagrams, orbital mechanics profiles, or hardware block diagrams and write accurate technical prose without an engineer in the room.
• Experience using AI-enabled proposal tools to accelerate drafting, gap analysis, and compliance review.
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance or eligibility and willingness to obtain one.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
• Unlimited PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match