Portfolio Manager, Government Partnerships (DARPA & ARPA-H)

The role

You will own a public sector portfolio end-to-end, serving as the link between Lila's scientific roadmap and government institutions. You will translate autonomous-science capabilities into engagements to unlock funding and mission-critical pilots, focusing initially on DARPA and ARPA-H.

What you will do

• Own relationships across assigned portfolio of agencies, program offices, and international counterparts
• Build and maintain a structured pipeline of RFIs, RFPs, BAAs, FOAs, NOFOs, and other mechanisms
• Lead opportunities from identification through award and execution handoff
• Translate scientific thesis and autonomous-science workflows into federal and international narratives
• Develop sustained agency relationships with program managers and office directors
• Contribute to and refine the public-sector capture engine

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in federal or international government capture, business development, or partnerships
• Demonstrated track record of winning major awards or programs (FOAs, BAAs, NOFOs, CRADAs, etc.)
• Working fluency in at least one major public-science ecosystem
• Ability to translate the complexity of the ecosystem to the rest of the Lila team
• Demonstrated ability to manage end-to-end capture
• Experience translating complex science and AI into clear narratives for non-technical, senior, and policy-facing government audiences
• Strong cross-functional leadership
• Excellent written communication
• Comfort operating with ambiguity in a founding-team environment
• Willingness to travel regularly

Nice to have

• PhD or scientific background in chemistry, materials science, life sciences, physics, or a related domain
• Prior employment at a National Lab, DOE program office, ARPA-*, NIH/NSF, or an international science-funding body
• Service as a DARPA or ARPA-H program manager, SETA, or technical advisor
• Direct experience negotiating CRADAs or standing up user-facility access pathways
• Experience standing up a federal capture function from scratch
• Familiarity with the Genesis Mission, NAIRR, or analogous national AI-for-science initiatives
• Active U.S. security clearance

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Employer-paid life and disability insurance
• Flexible time off with generous company wide holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Educational assistance program
• Commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees
• Company subsidized lunch program

About the company

Lila Sciences is the world's first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. The company builds systems that can learn for themselves to accelerate discovery across medicine, materials, and energy.