The Vice President (VP), Advanced Systems (AS) is responsible for leading the Advanced Systems function within Infleqtion's Quantum Sensing Solutions (QSS) Business Unit. The primary focus of this role is to drive business capture excellence in partnership with QSS Business Area (BA) VPs, QSS Program Managers (PMs), Proposal Operations, and Contracts Management. Business capture ownership initiates from a defined point of opportunity qualification and extends through proposal submission, customer negotiation, and contract award. Success in this role requires building a high functioning AS capture team, ensuring that QSS pursuits are strategically aligned to business objectives, competitive positioning of offers to maximize probability of win (Pwin), implementing and following capture best practices for offer development and strategic teaming, appropriately resourcing pursuits and proposals, and strong collaboration within QSS to ensure program success after award.
The AS VP will provide functional leadership of the Advanced Systems Manager (ASM) team, own the QSS capture operating model and associated budgets, lead the gated capture process, own the pursuit and capture pipeline forecast around future bookings and opportunity portfolio, and ensures effective transition from Business Development through Capture to program execution handoff. While the QSS BA VPs retain responsibility for bookings and growth within their respective portfolios, the AS VP owns ensuring excellence in the capture process and management/oversight of the ASM staff. The AS VP will need to directly lead and support captures for highly strategic pursuits or to increase capacity in this opportunity rich environment. This position is an extremely high impact leadership role that directly impacts QSS and Infleqtion growth of the quantum sensing business across national security, civil, and select commercial markets.
Own and drive business captures, capture excellence and governance.
- Establish a high-performing organization capable of growing a portfolio of leading edge quantum sensing opportunities.
- Define, mature, and enforce the capture operating model, including roles, responsibilities, gate criteria, capture artifacts, approval authorities, and handoff expectations across the business lifecycle.
- Lead or oversee capture strategy development for significant opportunities, including win themes, discriminators, customer engagement strategy, customer value, competitive assessment, technical and program solution shaping, pricing posture, teaming strategy, and execution-risk posture.
- Support bid/no-bid, ROM, proposal, and investment decisions for QSS opportunities, consistent within delegated authority and company approval processes.
- Ensure awarded programs enter execution with documented technical, cost, schedule, contractual, staffing, supplier, and customer baselines and/or assumptions.
- Work with Business Area VPs and staff to shape opportunity priorities, capture strategy, customer engagement, teaming approach, and major subcontractor strategies.
- Ensure proposal technical, management, schedule, pricing, and cost elements are aligned with the approved capture strategy and execution-risk posture.
- Support customer negotiations, clarifications, BAFO activities, and final proposal revisions as required through contract award.
- Primary business growth and program development leadership interface within QSS
- Serve as the senior leadership interface for capture priorities, business opportunity health, gate-review outcomes, and capture-phase forecast content.
- Partner with Business Area Vice Presidents to deliver bookings consistent with the QSS Operating Plan.
- Partner with the VP Program Execution, Business Area VPs, Program Managers, Engineering, Finance, Contracts, Legal, Supply Chain, and Quality to ensure proposal assumptions, customer commitments, risk posture, and program baselines are understood and executable.
- Drive capture lessons learned and feedback loops into BD, capture, proposal, and program execution processes.
- Establish and maintain a highly collaborative interface with the centralized enterprise Business Development function under the Chief Revenue Officer, ensuring efficient and highly effective transition from opportunity identification, maturation, and qualification into the QSS capture phase.
- Lead executive-level proposal reviews for strategic or high-value opportunities, ensuring compliance, clarity, competitiveness, realism, and alignment with QSS strategy.
- Represent QSS capture posture in internal executive reviews, corporate growth discussions, and selected external engagements.
Acquire, cultivate, lead and manage Advanced Systems Manager (ASM) capture management talent.
- Lead the staffing, process definition, training, performance management, and functional management.
- Assign ASMs to qualified opportunities based on strategic importance, customer alignment, technical complexity, competitive landscape, resource availability, and execution risk.
Lead and drive capture portfolio operations
- Manage and maintain the QSS business opportunity database for capture-phase opportunities.
- Develop and maintain the monthly QSS capture-phase opportunity forecast in partnership with Business Area VPs, Finance/FP&A, Business Development, and Program Execution.
- Define forecast data structures, reporting cadence, data quality expectations, and integration points with BD-phase and execution-phase portfolio data.
- Provide capture-phase inputs to the QSS Annual Operating Plan, monthly reforecasts, business reviews, and Board-level reporting as required.
- Track capture budget allocations and cost, schedule, resources, risks, win probability, proposal readiness, customer milestones, and key decision points across the QSS capture portfolio.
Requirements- Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, business, or a related technical or business discipline; advanced degree preferred.
- 15+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, intelligence, national security, advanced technology, or related markets, with significant experience in capture leadership, program development, business growth, or program execution.
- Demonstrated success leading or overseeing complex captures that resulted in contract awards, preferably involving advanced technologies, government customers, and cross-functional proposal teams.
- Experience managing capture or business-development professionals, program managers, technical teams, or cross-functional pursuit organizations.
- Strong understanding of U.S. government acquisition processes, contracting vehicles, proposal development, customer engagement, and competitive capture best practices.
- Demonstrated ability to work across Business Development, Engineering, Program Execution, Finance, Contracts, Legal, Supply Chain, Proposal Operations, and executive leadership.
- Experience balancing capture competitiveness with execution realism, including cost, schedule, technical, contractual, and resource risk.
- Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders, customers, partners, and Board-level stakeholders.
- Experience operating in fast-paced, resource-constrained environments where process discipline, judgment, and hands-on leadership are required.
- U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in quantum sensing, photonics, RF systems, precision navigation and timing, inertial sensing, ISR, space systems, or other deep-tech national security, civil, and/or commercial markets.
- Existing customer, partner, or industry relationships across DoD, IC, NASA, aerospace primes, defense primes, or relevant commercial technology markets.
- Direct experience with OTA, SBIR/STTR, CRADA, BAAs, FAR/DFARS contracts, cost-share arrangements, and other traditional and non-traditional acquisition mechanisms.
- Experience building or scaling capture organizations, gated capture processes, opportunity databases, business operating rhythms, and portfolio forecasting systems.
- Experience in small or mid-sized defense, aerospace, or deep-tech companies transitioning from bespoke R&D programs toward larger recurring programs, production, or standard-product portfolios.
- Familiarity with AS9100, government contracting compliance, export control, security requirements, and program execution governance.
- Active security clearance.
Success Metrics
- Quality, consistency, and discipline of capture execution across QSS qualified opportunities.
- Achievement of QSS bookings and capture-phase objectives consistent with the QSS Operating Plan.
- Improved capture win rate, proposal quality, and strategic alignment of awarded work.
- Effectiveness of Advanced Systems Manager staffing, development, training, assignments, and performance.
- Timeliness and quality of capture gate reviews, executive decision materials, and approval packages.
- Accuracy and operational value of the QSS capture-phase opportunity database and monthly capture forecast.
- Effectiveness of BD-to-capture and capture-to-execution transitions.
- Demonstrated improvement in the balance of competitive positioning, business attractiveness, and execution-risk acceptability.
- Quality of collaboration with Business Area VPs, Program Execution, Engineering, Proposal Operations, Finance, Contracts, Legal, Supply Chain, and corporate Business Development organizations and personnel.
Benefits- 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, short/long-term disability
- Employer-funded Health Savings Account
- Unlimited PTO
- 401(k) match
- Company-paid Life and AD&D Insurance
- Flexible Savings Account
- Paid FMLA, Maternity/Paternity Leave
- Employee Assistance Program
- Student Loan Repayment
- Equity Program
