Program Manager Defense Jobs in Columbus, OH (NOW HIRING)

Overview

BlastOne is a business that is growing fast globally and looking for top talent to join our dynamic fast paced family!

What makes us great is phenomenal staff who fit our fantastic culture! We believe in paying well and offering great benefits in order to attract the best talent.

What we do: BlastOne is a leading global supplier in the Industrial Corrosion Control Industry!

Hiring fantastic people is our key to growth. We hire top talent who shares our values!

The Role

This role is focused on converting qualified pipeline into awarded business. It is not primarily a top-of-funnel lead generation role. The Strategic Capture Manager will work on high-value opportunities that are already identified, emerging, or strategically targeted, and will be responsible for helping move those opportunities through the capture process toward signed contracts.

The role will focus heavily on major infrastructure, shipyard, defense-prime, and industrial manufacturing programs where the sales cycle is long, the stakeholder environment is complex, and the commercial stakes are high.

The Strategic Capture Manager will work directly with the VP of Client Partnerships and cross-functional leaders across engineering, technical project management, project delivery, operations, contracts, finance, and executive leadership to shape pursuits, strengthen customer engagement, improve win probability, and convert strategic opportunities into profitable bookings.

Capture and Deal Conversion

• Own capture management activity for assigned strategic pursuits from qualification through proposal, negotiation, award, and transition to execution.
• Drive qualified opportunities forward with clear next steps, pursuit cadence, action tracking, and internal accountability.
• Help convert strategic pipeline into awarded contracts by improving deal strategy, customer engagement, and proposal quality.
• Maintain pursuit plans for assigned major opportunities, including customer objectives, decision criteria, stakeholder maps, competitor positioning, risks, and action plans.
• Support the VP of Client Partnerships in managing large, complex opportunities with defense primes, shipyards, and major industrial customers.
• Identify obstacles that could prevent a deal from closing and develop practical action plans to overcome them.
• Keep opportunities from stalling by maintaining consistent customer follow-up and internal momentum.

Customer Engagement

• Build and maintain relationships with key customer stakeholders involved in major pursuits, including operations, engineering, facilities, procurement, program management, production leadership, and executive sponsors.
• Lead customer meetings, support site visits, discovery sessions, facility walkdowns, technical workshops, and proposal presentations.
• Help identify customer pain points, decision drivers, funding realities, procurement timelines, operational risks, and success criteria.
• Position BlastOne as a Strategic Infrastructure and Production-Systems partner, not simply an equipment supplier.
• Support early customer shaping where possible, while recognizing that the role's primary focus is converting qualified opportunities rather than broad lead generation.
• Strengthen customer confidence in BlastOne's ability to deliver complex, mission-critical projects.

Win Strategy and Competitive Positioning

• Develop opportunity-specific win strategies that clearly define why BlastOne should win, what matters most to the customer, and how the company should position itself.
• Identify customer hot buttons, competitive threats, discriminators, pricing posture, teaming needs, and commercial risks.
• Translate BlastOne's technical, operational, and project delivery strengths into customer-specific value propositions.
• Help shape proposal messaging around customer outcomes, production impact, risk reduction, schedule confidence, and long-term value.
• Maintain an honest assessment of win probability, deal quality, customer sentiment, and competitive position.
• Recommend bid / no-bid or continue / stop decisions when pursuit conditions do not support a strong win probability or acceptable commercial outcome.

Proposal and Pursuit Execution

• Coordinate proposal strategy and execution for assigned major pursuits.
• Lead or support proposal kickoff meetings, pursuit reviews, content development, review cycles, executive summaries, customer presentations, and final submission readiness.
• Work with engineering, estimating, contracts, delivery, and executive leadership to ensure proposals are compelling, compliant, commercially sound, and aligned with the approved win strategy.
• Help develop proposal narratives, technical differentiators, assumptions, exclusions, scope clarifications, risk language, and executive-level messaging.
• Ensure proposals are written around the customer's business problem and operating objectives, not simply around BlastOne's products or equipment.
• Support post-proposal follow-up, clarifications, negotiations, and customer decision support.

Internal Leadership and Coordination

• Lead cross-functional pursuit activity across sales, engineering, estimating, operations, project delivery, contracts, finance, supply chain, and executive leadership.
• Create clarity around who owns each pursuit action, when it is due, and what decision or customer outcome it supports.
• Prepare internal pursuit updates for leadership, including deal status, risks, next steps, customer feedback, and required executive involvement.
• Escalate technical, commercial, legal, schedule, or relationship risks before they become deal blockers.
• Help ensure proposed solutions are not only winnable, but executable and profitable.
• Support a smooth transition from capture to execution after award, including documentation of commitments, assumptions, risks, scope decisions, and customer expectations.

Pipeline and Forecast Discipline

• Maintain accurate CRM records for assigned opportunities, including stage, value, probability, next step, customer decision timeline, stakeholders, risks, and pursuit status.
• Improve forecast reliability for large, long-cycle opportunities.
• Support pipeline reviews, opportunity reviews, and strategic account planning.
• Track pursuit milestones, customer commitments, proposal deadlines, and internal deliverables.
• Help leadership understand which opportunities are real, which are at risk, and what is required to win.
• Contribute to a more disciplined and predictable strategic sales process.

Required Skills:
15+ years of experience in capture management, strategic sales, business development, complex project sales, program development, or major account management.
Demonstrated experience helping win large, complex opportunities with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders.
Experience working with defense primes, shipyards, federal contractors, heavy industrial customers, engineering firms, or major capital project owners.
Strong understanding of opportunity qualification, pursuit strategy, proposal development, customer engagement, and deal progression.
Ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct authority.
Strong commercial judgment, including the ability to understand scope, risk, pricing, contract terms, customer expectations, and execution constraints.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to brief executives, lead customer-facing discussions, and summarize complex issues into clear decisions and next steps.
Strong organizational discipline and ability to manage multiple complex pursuits at the same time.
Willingness to travel frequently for customer meetings, site visits, industry events, and internal pursuit sessions.

Preferred Skills:
Experience with Shipley, Miller Heiman, Challenger, MEDDICC, or similar structured sales or capture methodologies.
Experience supporting Department of Defense, Navy, shipbuilding, ship repair, maritime, aerospace, or defense manufacturing programs.
Familiarity with FAR / DFARS environments, prime contractor procurement processes, IDIQs, OTAs, sole-source justifications, or major capital program acquisition cycles.
Experience with engineered systems, design-build, EPC, industrial construction, production facilities, automation, sustainment, or lifecycle services.
Ability to understand technical requirements, drawings, specifications, RFPs, RFQs, statements of work, and proposal evaluation criteria.
Existing relationships within defense primes, naval shipyards, shipbuilders, engineering firms, or industrial infrastructure markets.
Experience using Salesforce or similar CRM systems to manage complex opportunity pipelines.