Sr. Director, Corporate Development

We are seeking a high-velocity, full-lifecycle Corporate Development executive to lead enterprise-wide strategy and execution across:

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Strategic Ventures & Business Investments
• Intellectual Property Commercialization & Monetization

This leader will architect, source, structure, negotiate, and integrate transactions that accelerate technology differentiation, market expansion, and long-term enterprise value creation.  The ideal candidate is energized by frontier technologies, thrives in ambiguity, and can translate innovation into accretive growth. The ideal candidate is a strategic, analytically strong, and hands on mission and execution-oriented leader to drive the company’s inorganic growth strategy and shape the future of our GovCon portfolio. This strategic builder-operator role will lead efforts across M&A, strategic ventures, and inorganic growth-focused partnerships, while ensuring that research and development investments translate into differentiated, mission-aligned‑ solutions.

Reporting to the CEO and working closely with the executive team, this leader will identify, evaluate, and execute opportunities that accelerate scale, expand capabilities, and strengthen our competitive position. This role is accountable for identifying, shaping, and executing transactions that accelerate scale, deepen technology differentiation, expand market access, and strengthen long-term enterprise value.  For M&A and Ventures, the role spans the full lifecycle—from proactive target sourcing and technology ecosystem scanning, through rigorous diligence, valuation, structuring, and negotiation, to transaction execution and as needed, early integration planning with M&A. The ideal candidate brings deep familiarity with the GovCon and broader technology ecosystem, a passion for national missions, and the ability to operate in a fastmoving, highly collaborative executive environment.

To accelerate revenue realization, strengthen win probability, and ensure capital deployment decisions directly support sustainable, mission-aligned growth, this role must operate in tight partnership with the CEO responsible for corporate strategy along with the VP of Business Development.  This partnership mutually reinforces inorganic and organic growth strategies. This role works with the CEO and CTO to identify capability gaps, technology adjacencies, and market expansion vectors.  Business Development (BD) translates those capabilities into pipeline, revenue capture, and customer intimacy.  BD informs acquisition and ventures theses with real-time customer demand signals and competitive intelligence, while Corporate Development equips BD with differentiated assets, new venture partnerships and capabilities, and expanded addressable markets.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Growth & Market Intelligence

• Lead and operationalize the company’s inorganic growth strategy, with primary accountability for M&A execution and strategic venture investing.
• Maintain Noblis’ prioritized acquisition and investment thesis aligned to capability expansion, market adjacency, and long-term enterprise value creation.
• Proactively source and screen targets aligned to corporate strategy, capability expansion, customer adjacency, and longterm vision including managing a dynamic, staged-gate pipeline of acquisition targets and venture opportunities.
• Conduct market landscaping, competitive analysis, and whitespace assessments across priority GovCon segments and deep tech priorities focused on inorganic growth.
• Maintain a robust pipeline of prospective targets across services, technology, software, and mission‑focused platforms.
• Build and sustain relationships with investment banks, brokers, private equity sponsors, and industry executives to ensure early and frequent access to high-quality opportunities.
• Using approved AI tools, establish repeatable sourcing mechanisms and deal-flow channels across both GovCon and tech ecosystem.
  
  

IP Commercialization

• Ensure technical defensibility and competitive moat through architecture and IP strategy including the establishment of governance and performance metrics for IP value creation and technology/ventures ROI.
• In collaboration with legal, finance and the technology office, assess and rationalize the enterprise IP portfolio (patents, data assets, proprietary platforms, trade secrets).
• Develop clear commercialization pathways (licensing, partnerships, spinouts, productization).
• Rigorously evaluate internal R&D investments against strategic enterprise growth priorities, quantify market demand, and determine clear, executable pathways to scalable commercialization and revenue generation.
• Structure monetization models and partnership agreements in collaboration with legal and finance.
• Use approved AI tools to analyze large patent and technical corpora to identify high value patents within a portfolio, detect underutilized or dormant IP, map patent clusters to markets, and conduct benchmarking and risk identification.

Target Evaluation & Strategic Fit

• Perform preliminary assessments of targets, including strategic alignment, customer concentration, contract vehicles, backlog quality, and competitive positioning.
• Evaluate GovCon specific attributes such as contract types (CPFF, T&M, FFP), recompete exposure, IDIQ positioning, and agency alignment.
• Prepare executive level investment briefs and recommendations for the CEO and CFO.
• Develop AI-enabled M&A workflow architecture.
  
  

Due Diligence & Transaction Execution

• Lead and coordinate cross functional diligence efforts across Finance, HR, IT, Business Operations, and Growth.
• Partner with internal and external advisors to assess quality of earnings, revenue durability, margin sustainability, and risk.  Work closely with legal counsel to confirm transaction approach and evaluation.
• Support valuation modeling, deal structuring, synergy analysis, and negotiation preparation.
• Manage data rooms, diligence trackers, and issue resolution through signing and close.
• Utilize approved AI platforms to accelerate diligence cycles.
  
  

Value Creation, Cross-Functional Engagement, and Integration

Partner with the CEO, CFO, BD, and operating leaders to ensure acquisition and venture theses are informed by customer demand signals, capability gaps, and long-term platform strategy — translating market intelligence into disciplined capital deployment decisions.

• Collaborate with Noblis R&D, engineering, scientific teams and product/solution leadership to assess technical diligence, integration complexity, IP defensibility, and post-transaction value realization for acquisition and investment targets.
• Serve as the internal transaction lead, ensuring timelines, deliverables, and decision gates are met and support post-close integration planning in partnership with Growth, Finance, HR, IT, and Operations.
• Lead cross-functional diligence processes spanning finance, legal, contracts, security, compliance, HR, and IT to ensure comprehensive risk assessment and clean transaction execution.
• In collaboration with the executive team and transition team, implement integration governance frameworks to capture synergies, mitigate disruption, and accelerate value realization post-close.

Maintain strict confidentiality throughout sourcing, negotiation, and execution phases, ensuring full adherence to governance standards and GovCon regulatory requirements, including novations, OCI mitigation, security clearance considerations, FOCI (Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence) risk assessment, and coordination with national security and investment review processes where foreign investment or capital participation is implicated.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Economics, Engineering, or related field (MBA or equivalent preferred).
• 15+ years of progressive responsibility with 5–10 years of experience in M&A, corporate development, investment banking, private equity, or transaction advisory, with demonstrated GovCon exposure.
• Strong understanding of government contracting business models, contract structures, and regulatory environment.
• Proven experience managing multiple workstreams across complex transactions.
• Advanced financial modeling, valuation, and analytical skills.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with executive presence.
• Strong proficiency in GenAI to accomplish inorganic growth objectives and build a scalable inorganic growth engine.
• US citizenship.

• Direct experience supporting acquisitions of GovCon services, software, or defense/mission-tech companies.
• Familiarity with DoD, IC, Civilian, or Space sector customers.
• Active or prior security clearance (or eligibility to obtain one).

Overview

Noblis and our wholly owned subsidiaries, Noblis ESI and Noblis MSD, take on some of the nation’s toughest challenges, delivering advanced solutions to our customers’ most critical missions. We bring together leading scientific, engineering, and management expertise in a culture grounded in objectivity and collaboration, ensuring our work creates lasting impact across federal missions.

We work with a broad range of government agencies in the defense, intelligence, and federal civilian sectors. Learn more and find opportunities at careers.noblis.org

Why Work at Noblis

At Noblis, we share a passion for excellence and innovation, and we create an environment where people can do meaningful work while maintaining the balance that keeps them energized and fulfilled. We seek out individuals with a natural curiosity and desire to collaborate and learn. We believe our people are our greatest strength, and we consistently seek exceptionally skilled, mission‑driven professionals who care deeply about doing work that enriches lives and makes our nation safer.

Noblis has earned numerous workplace awardsfor our culture, our commitment to employee well‑being, and our dedication to meaningful, impactful work. We also maintain a drug‑free workplace.

Remote/hybrid status is subject to change based on Noblis and/or government requirements.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, sex, age, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, pregnancy/childbirth and related medical conditions, veteran or military status, or any other characteristics protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact us.

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At Noblis we recognize and reward your contributions, provide you with growth opportunities, and support your total well-being. Our offerings include health, life, disability, financial, and retirement benefits, as well as paid leave, professional development, tuition assistance, and work-life programs. Our award programs acknowledge employees for exceptional performance and superior demonstration of our service standards. Full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in our benefit programs. Other offerings may be provided for employees not within this category. We encourage you to learn more about our total benefits by visiting the Benefits page on our Careers site.

Compensation at Noblis is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the combination of education, certifications, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, internal and external equity, location, clearance level, as well as contract-specific affordability, organizational requirements and applicable employment laws. The projected compensation range for this position is based on full time status. For part time or on-call staff, compensation is proportionately adjusted based on hours worked. While monetary compensation is important, it's just one component of Noblis’ total compensation package.