Who We Are:

We are an early-stage, maritime defense technology startup backed by top tier investors. Our team is designing and building autonomous and highly producible ships that can serve multiple missions on the open ocean.

We are looking for a new member of our Business Development team focused on generating proposal & product content for our cutting-edge autonomous ships. You’ll work directly with our Chief Strategy Officer, who leads business development, and serve as a key link between customers, engineers, and leadership. This role is ideal for a strong writer and communicator who thrives in a fast-paced, highly technical environment. If you're obsessed with shaping emerging technology for Naval and Joint warfighters, you'll fit right in.

You will help drive new business by generating compelling proposals, white papers, product narratives, and other external-facing materials through close collaboration with the engineering and business teams. You’ll  support the broader strategy and capture process by tracking opportunities, coordinating inputs across the company, and ensuring the value of our solution is clearly communicated to customers and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• • Craft Winning Content: Author and edit responses to RFIs, RFPs, and white papers; build narratives that explain the technical capabilities and mission value of Blue Water's autonomous ships. 
  • Bridge Customer and Engineering: Collaborate with engineering, product, and business leads to ensure proposals and content are technically accurate, strategically aligned, and compelling to the customer.
  • Work Closely With Leadership: Partner directly with the CSO to support business capture and outreach strategies with high-impact written and visual materials. 
  • Customer-Facing Support: Assist in preparing briefing decks, technical product sheets, and tailored materials for customer engagements across operational, acquisitions, requirements, RDTE, and congressional stakeholders.
  • Develop and Maintain Content Libraries: Organize and curate reusable content, past performance data, graphics, and templates to improve proposal quality and turnaround time. 
  • Support the Proposal Lifecycle: Track upcoming opportunities, lead small proposal efforts, and contribute to larger bids as a writer, editor, and coordinator. 
  • Inform Product Messaging: Translate operational challenges and customer needs into clear product value stories that support business development efforts. 
  • Develop Technical Narrative: Observe, capture, and communicate technical successes via all communications mediums.

Required Qualifications

• • 5+ years of experience
  • Exceptional writing skills with the ability to quickly generate polished, technically sound content.
  • Equally exceptional visual presentation skills in MS Power Point and other mediums.
  • Demonstrated experience working on or supporting government proposals (e.g., RFIs, RFPs, white papers).
  • Demonstrated expertise in evolving military concepts of operation and naval technology.
  • Ability to synthesize complex technical inputs into concise, engaging, and persuasive documents.
  • Comfortable interfacing with engineering teams, senior executives, and military.
  • Highly organized and detail-oriented, with strong project coordination instincts.
  • Ability to maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance (Top Secret preferred)

Preferred Qualifications

• • Experience in consulting, finance, proposal writing, business development support, technical writing, or capture.
  • Familiarity with DoD acquisition processes and defense technology sectors, especially Navy or autonomous systems.
  • Experience with customer engagement or BD strategy in a government or defense tech setting.
  • Background in surface warfare, ship systems, shipbuilding, or unmanned vehicle operations is a plus.
  • Active TS/SCI clearance or prior experience with classified programs is a plus.
  • Recent experience integrating new technology into military or quasi-military organizations a plus.

Application Note

When applying for the role, you will be asked to provide a cover letter. Please use this as an opportunity to best convey your written communication style. If it's a traditional cover letter, great, but we are also open to seeing a sample of previous work as an alternative (please include date and any relevant background information if you go this route).