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

Your Impact at Lila

Lila Sciences is the world's first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by applying AI to every aspect of the scientific method — to solve humankind's greatest challenges in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before.

Government partners — from federal agencies and the National Labs to international science-funding bodies — will play a defining role in advancing this mission. As a Portfolio Manager within Government Partnerships, you will own one of Lila's public sector portfolios end-to-end, serving as the connective tissue between Lila's scientific roadmap and the institutions whose missions depend on a new model of science. Reporting to the Segment Lead, Government Partnerships, you will translate Lila's autonomous-science capabilities into compelling, executable engagements that unlock recurring funding, durable relationships, and mission-critical pilots. Your starting focus will be DARPA and ARPA-H, two agencies where Lila is actively building presence and where program managers are looking for exactly the kind of revolutionary, AI-driven science capabilities Lila offers.

What You'll Be Building

• A trusted agency posture: You will own Lila's relationships across your assigned portfolio of agencies, program offices, and/or international counterparts — starting with DARPA and ARPA-H — building a clear, credible, technically grounded presence reflected in every external interaction.
• A qualified, prioritized pipeline: You will build and maintain a structured pipeline of RFIs, RFPs, BAAs, FOAs, NOFOs, and other equivalent mechanisms, making sharp pursue/no-pursue calls based on strategic fit, readiness, and impact.
• High-impact engagements: You will lead opportunities from identification through award and execution handoff, partnering with Product Managers, Principal Investigators, and the proposal execution team to convert meetings into pilots, CRADAs, user-facility access, and major procurements.
• A unified external narrative: You will translate Lila's scientific thesis and autonomous-science workflows into compelling federal/international narratives, partnering with communications, policy, and technical teams to maintain one voice across the portfolio — tuned to DARPA's appetite for revolutionary capability bets and ARPA-H's mission-driven biomedical breakthroughs.
• Durable sponsor relationships: You will develop the kind of sustained agency relationships — particularly with DARPA and ARPA-H program managers and office directors — that lead to recurring funding pathways and large procurements tailored to Lila's unique capabilities, not one-off awards.
• A reusable capture playbook: You will contribute to and refine Lila's public-sector capture engine — qualification rubrics, narrative kits, capability libraries, and operating rhythms — that scale across the Government Partnerships team.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• 10+ years of experience in federal or international government capture, business development, or partnerships, with a demonstrated track record of winning major awards or programs (FOAs, BAAs, NOFOs, CRADAs, etc.).
• Working fluency in at least one major public-science ecosystem, with strong preference for DARPA and/or ARPA-H (other ARPA-*, DOE, NIH, NSF, NIST experience is highly valued). Ability to translate the complexity of this ecosystem to the rest of the Lila team.
• Demonstrated ability to manage end-to-end capture — from opportunity identification through qualification, shaping, proposal, award, and execution handoff.
• Experience translating complex science and AI into clear, credible narratives for non-technical, senior, and policy-facing government audiences.
• Strong cross-functional leadership: comfort partnering with scientists, product managers, communications, policy, and legal to drive aligned outcomes under tight timelines.
• Excellent written communication; comfort operating with ambiguity in a founding-team environment.
• Willingness to travel regularly to build the relationships required for Lila to succeed.

Bonus Points For

• 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 — including 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.