Vice President, Special Programs

Vice President, Special Programs

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world's first commercial space station when it launches into low-Earth orbit in 2026. It is part of our stepping stone approach to continuous human presence in LEO. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.

Vast is looking for a Vice President of Special Programs, reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.

This person will lead all national security focused business development for Haven-1 and future Vast systems. This role will lead customer engagement, opportunity development, capture strategy, and partnership efforts that advance Vast's initiatives to operate the world's leading in-space infrastructure in support of national security objectives.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Washington D.C. location.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership:
  • Develop and execute a comprehensive national security market strategy aligned with Vast's revenue and mission objectives.
  • Collaborate with Leadership, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Communications, and other internal teams to ensure alignment between national security customer needs and station development priorities.
  • Coordinate the preparation and delivery of space-relevant national security threat briefings to support strategic planning and defense engagement activities.
  • Lead internal planning for national security opportunity prioritization, capture strategy, and pipeline development.
• Business Development and Capture Execution:
  • Lead customer engagement across opportunity identification, mission scoping, capability briefings, and early concept development.
  • Identify, shape, and advance opportunities for national security use of Vast systems across crewed missions, experimentation, training, test and evaluation, and payload hosting.
  • Lead proposal development and coordinate cross functional contributions from engineering, program management, legal, and operations teams.
  • Manage pipeline development, forecasting, and reporting across all national security accounts.
  • Negotiate and close contracts for national security missions and associated services.
• External Representation:
  • Represent Vast at national security, aerospace, and space industry events where defense and government stakeholders are present.
  • Deliver presentations, participate in panels, and provide senior-level briefings that communicate the capabilities and value of Vast stations.
  • Support Communications and Marketing in the development and delivery of defense-related public materials, messaging, and engagement strategies.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, aerospace, business, or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience including substantial work in Department of Defense business development, capture management, special programs, or defense contracting.
• Deep understanding of DoD procurement and contract structures, including IDIQ, OTA, FFP, CPFF, Programs of Record, and SBIR Phase III.
• Demonstrated experience leading efforts that secured Programs of Record, including strategy, teaming, and proposal.
• Excellent communication, analytical, collaboration, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong technical understanding and ability to communicate complex systems to defense audiences.
• Ability to operate independently, prioritize effectively, and manage multiple efforts simultaneously in a fast paced environment.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Master's degree in engineering, science, business, or a national security discipline.
• Experience working with the U.S. Space Force, Space Development Agency, Defense Innovation Unit, DARPA, Air Force, or similar organizations.
• Strong understanding of the flexible acquisition approaches DoD uses to explore new technologies, support research and experimentation, and rapidly evaluate emerging commercial capabilities.
• Ability to work in classified environments.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 30% of the time.
• TS/SCI with CI Polygraph.