Contracts Senior Principal

SAIC has an opening for a cleared Contracts Senior Principal. This position is being offered onsite in either Colorado Springs, CO or El Segundo, CA.

About SAIC's Business Management Organization:
SAIC's Business Management function encompasses the full acquisition value chain — from customer engagement and strategy development on the sell side, to program execution, strategic alliances, supply chain management, and subcontractor development on the buy side, to internal finance. Our team of dynamic acquisition professionals provides critical support across key business areas, including Mission IT, Integration, Engineering Services, SETA, and Professional Services, serving both external and internal customers.

Role Overview:
SAIC's Business Management organization is seeking an experienced and highly adaptable Contracts Senior Principal to manage contracts and proposals within the Air Force, Space and Intelligence Business Group, specifically supporting the Defense and Civil Space Market. The successful candidate will serve as a strategic partner to key stakeholders throughout the capture, proposal, and contract execution phases, bringing a high level of federal government contracting expertise and a proactive, solutions-oriented mindset.
The ideal candidate demonstrates exceptional autonomy. They will proactively identifying challenges and opportunities without prompting. They are confident, organized, detail-oriented, and skilled at building collaborative relationships while managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
 

Key Responsibilities:

At the Senior Principal level, certain professional standards are assumed, including exceptional written and oral communication, the ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders, cross-organizational coordination, independent problem solving, and a continuous commitment to industry awareness and professional development. What follows reflects the depth, complexity, and strategic impact we expect from the right individual that are in supplement to base level skills.

• Serve as the primary strategic interface with customer contacts, including Contracting Officers and acquisition specialists; cultivate and maintain strong, trust-based relationships at all levels of the customer organization, including fostering the kind of accessible, responsive engagement that senior customer leadership values and expects; demonstrate interpersonal agility across a wide range of customer personalities and communication styles; lead negotiations with a flexible, solutions-oriented mindset — recognizing that some positions must be held firmly while others present opportunities to create mutually beneficial outcomes; consistently pursue resolutions that protect SAIC's interests while leaving the customer assured they have been heard, are respected, and are being well-served.
• Demonstrate sophisticated, hands-on proficiency with innovative and alternative acquisition mechanisms, including Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs), Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs), Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs), and prototype project proposals; serve as a trusted advisor to business and program leadership, providing clear, experience-based counsel on the real-world trade-offs of each vehicle across intellectual property rights, data rights, competitive positioning, cost and pricing considerations, organizational conflict of interest implications, and long-term program implications.
• Possess a sophisticated understanding of the non-traditional defense contractor (NTDC) landscape, including the ability to structure and negotiate effective teaming and partnership arrangements with NTDCs while strategically positioning SAIC's scale, past performance, and enterprise capabilities to compete and win in OTA and other innovation-focused acquisition environments.
• Demonstrate experience with consortium-based OTA models, including familiarity with leading consortium managers such as NSTXL, SOSSEC, and similar organizations; understand how to effectively navigate consortium membership, project call responses, and agreement structures to position SAIC competitively within these vehicles.
• Apply a sophisticated and hands-on understanding of Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) identification, assessment, and mitigation; serve as the primary author of OCI mitigation plans, including proactively drafting initial plans, developing mitigation strategies, and authoring updates in response to emergent concerns or evolving program circumstances. Demonstrate the initiative and expertise to drive OCI mitigation strategy forward, taking clear ownership of plan authorship as a core contracts function responsibility, consistently delivering complete, well-reasoned, and actionable mitigation strategies to program leadership for review and approval, ensuring plans remain current, accurate, and defensible throughout the program lifecycle.
• Demonstrate the ability to review, analyze, and interpret contractual documents with a depth of understanding that goes beyond procedural compliance; assess adherence to company policy, government specifications, and master agreement requirements while recognizing the practical, real-world legal implications of contractual language and obligations; advise business and program leadership on contractual rights, obligations, and terms and conditions with confidence and clarity, while exercising the professional judgment to recognize when an issue warrants escalation to SAIC's in-house legal counsel.
• Educate internal and external partners on contracting strategies, marketplace dynamics, and competitive approaches; share insights that elevate team thinking and clearly communicate trade-off considerations.
• Apply a strategic mindset focused on driving innovation and adapting to an evolving business and regulatory landscape.
   

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or a related discipline with 15 years of relevant experience, or Master's degree in Business Administration or a related discipline with 13 years of relevant experience
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Active Top Secret/SCI with SAP clearance is required.
   

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Extensive cost proposal experience.
• Thorough understanding and broad application of contract administration principles, concepts, practices, and standards.
• In-depth knowledge of relevant laws, regulations, and policies governing assigned contracts, including the FAR as well as the RFO, Truthful Cost or Pricing Data, and GAAP.
• Strong knowledge of industry practices in federal government contracting.
• Proven experience in contract risk management and negotiation.
• Demonstrated experience with Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements, including prototype OTAs, follow-on production transactions, and consortium-based OTA models; working knowledge of the statutory and regulatory framework governing OTA use and limitations.
• Strong proposal writing skills, including the ability to develop, structure, and review technically and contractually compliant proposals across a variety of contract types and acquisition vehicles, including OTA white papers, prototype project proposals, and other short-form submissions where concise, high-impact writing is essential; demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical and contractual concepts with precision and economy within strict page limitations; experience with both FAR-based and non-FAR-based proposal environments preferred.
• Ability to synthesize complex legal and contractual topics and communicate them clearly to collaborators across diverse backgrounds and disciplines.
• Effective critical thinking skills with the ability to quickly assimilate and act on new information.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage a fluctuating workload and competing priorities.
• Reliable, structured, risk-aware, agile, and creative — consistently delivering on commitments.