Capture Manager

About Us:
Middle River Aerostructure Systems is a world-leading manufacturer of thrust reversers (the braking system on a jet engine), engine nacelle components and specialized aerostructures. It supplies and supports these products for engine makers, airplane manufacturers and aircraft operators. Located on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, MRAS has a 1.7-million sq. ft. facility situated on 180 acres – where the company and its predecessors have designed, built and equipped civil and military aircraft for over 90 years. In 2019, MRAS was acquired by ST Engineering North America, the U.S. affiliate of Singapore-based ST Engineering – becoming a part of its global network of aerospace facilities and offices. With the ownership change, the company was renamed Middle River Aerostructure Systems.

Role Summary/Purpose:

The Capture Manager is responsible and accountable for the strategy, leadership and execution of capture-related activities across aerospace and defense.

• Duties include strategic capture campaign identification, management and execution in line with Business Development and Annual Operating Plan roadmap, goals, milestones and strategy.
• Leads business development capture activities and teams to secure new contracts.
• Develops the capture strategy including business solutions for pursuit of opportunities; identifies potential customers, competitive assessments, teaming suppliers, and prices-to-win; participates in bid and proposal activities and maintains on-going interaction with marketing and government relations entities.
• Responsibilities include: cost, schedule, and performance of a specific capture activity within all assigned capture and proposal activities. Work is reviewed for adequacy in meeting business development and capture pipeline objectives.
• Ensures that all capture and proposal teams adhere to sound capture management and processes in accordance with company policies and quality standards.
• Coordinates capture and proposal activities across functional teams.

The Capture Manager reports to the Director of Business Development.

Essential Responsibilities

• Act as primary customer contact for proposal activities.
• Collect relevant business and market intelligence pertinent to the assigned capture project.
• Lead customer and competitive assessments, discriminators and key win themes, price-to-win and overall win strategy.
• Lead a cross-functional team through a gated capture process to agreed budget and schedule commitments. Secure support from internal and corporate stakeholders.
• Lead proposal efforts and reviews including company responses to requests for information (RFI) and requests for proposal (RFP). Ensure effective integration of discriminators and win strategy into proposal responses.
• Develop and communicate innovative and compelling solutions that are easily understood by both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Identify and manage assigned project risks and opportunities.
• Conduct after-action reviews to document lessons learned and improve capture management and related business development processes.
• Support Business Development team in building mutually beneficial relationships with Partners and Customers.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) or Business Management discipline with 5 years of experience with Business Development or Capture Management execution and management. This includes leading capture and proposal teams.
• Knowledge of Commercial and USG contracts as well as related acquisition processes
• Experience in competitive pricing strategies and associated cost proposals
• Ability to support on-site and travel (travel < 40%)
• US Citizenship with ability to obtain USG Security Clearance.

Desired Characteristics

• Master’s degree in STEM or Business Administration/Management
• Exceptional critical thinking, leadership, communication (written, oral, presentation), negotiation, and influencing skills with balanced technical, financial, and business acumen
• Domain expertise in Aerostructures and/or structural components of Airframes and Space Systems
• Proven experience with leading pursuits/captures and/or business development programs (> $50M) with a track record of success
• Experience with DoD customers
• Strong aerospace industry professional network.

MRAS is an equal opportunity employer and service provider and does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation or belief, or any other protected class. We are committed to the principles of Equal Opportunity Employment and are dedicated to making employment decisions based on merit and value.

PM19