Project Lead - TSA Innovation

In this role, you will join a rapidly growing innovation consulting firm, BMNT, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, CA with an east coast office in Arlington, VA. BMNT is unique because of the focus on Mission Acceleration - increasing the speed at which mission-driven organizations solve complex problems at scale. BMNT is not only an established thought leader in innovation but is actively changing how organizations think about and solve problems, as demonstrated by the creation of Hacking for Defense (H4D) ®. Our customers span across the U.S. public sector, and abroad in the United Kingdom and Australia.

About the Role:

BMNT is hiring a Project Lead to support our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Chief Innovation Officer (CInO). This specific role resides on the BMNT TSA Team. BMNT, in support of the CInO team, is striving to build a culture of innovation within TSA that anticipates and rapidly counters the changing landscape across the transportation security system. The TSA CInO team strives to meet this responsibility through innovation and the discovery and development of new, creative ideas that result in effective, game changing technologies and processes to address security challenges. BMNT partnered TSA to help create the TSA innovation Doctrine.

At BMNT, Project Leads play an integral role in our consulting practice. Their goal is to independently lead aspects of the program and achieve the results a customer wants related to specific projects and/or lines of effort. They strategize with, and provide overall support to, Program Managers (PM) on day-to-day customer operations and contract management. The Project Lead will own a single to a few activities and drive many parts of the project lifecycle including planning facilitated workshops, market research reports, prototypes, product development, and customer management.

Location: This is a hybrid position with the expectation of being in the Arlington, VA office two to three days per week. Weeks with in-person engagements may require more time in the office or travel to other sites in the DC area to include TSA Headquarters located in Springfield, VA.

What You Will Be Doing:

Supports the writing of proposals and other documents related to business development and the contract life cycle, and owns the execution of key tasks once contract is let to the existing contract by driving the statement of work for the program. This involves understanding the statement of work for the program and the customer’s desired end state for all BMNT activities outlined in the contract.
Leads and facilitates sprints to address internal TSA challenges in close collaboration with the CInO team. This role involves iterative testing and refining scalable sprint models, while simultaneously coaching and empowering the CInO team to independently apply these methodologies.
Leads portions of an H4X workshop proficiently while adhering to established methodologies.
Acting as the primary point of contact for scheduling industry engagements on behalf of the customer.
Leading and facilitating meetings and calls with the customer as needed.
Completing requirements such as report generation or labor/cost projections.
Manages the workload and delegates tasks across the program team to ensure completion in a timely, thorough manner.
Maintain consistent communication with the program manager to ensure alignment on approach and strategy. Regularly seek feedback on methods and progress and adjust plans as necessary to ensure goals are met effectively and efficiently.
Review team’s work to ensure it’s complete and polished before sending it to the PM.
Provides mentorship and guidance to team members, including providing constructive feedback on job performance and ensuring improvement over time.
Assists in the facilitation of workshops and events.
Maintains a deep and rich understanding of BMNT products and services, and the methodologies upon which they are based.
Articulates how the products and services address customer’s needs.
Makes recommendations to improve them.

Maintains a high level of professional knowledge in an area(s) of expertise through research, networking, and attendance of conferences and events. Expected to quickly acquire new expertise in diverse subject areas in support of unique problem sets.

Experience and Qualifications You’ll Need to Thrive in the Role:

Bachelor's Degree or equivalent work experience.
5+ years of consulting or relevant project management experience or 2+ years of experience at BMNT as a Senior Program Analyst is typically required. (Master’s or related advanced degrees could also be considered as experience).
Familiarity and working experience with innovation methodologies (Lean Startup, DevOps, Design Thinking, Rapid Prototyping, Agile, etc) is expected.
Subject matter expertise in one or more of BMNT’s focus areas, such as military, government, emerging technology, etc.
Proficient at multitasking smoothly while producing high quality work.
Detail oriented. Able to think of and follow through with necessary details.
Problem solving skills - someone that enjoys solving complex, fascinating, oftentimes intractable problems.
Exhibits emotional intelligence by demonstrating good listening skills, welcoming feedback, improving behavior and skills accordingly, and demonstrating thoughtful judgment.
Self-starter with an obsession for outcomes and can run with little guidance to achieve meaningful results.
Flexible and positive mindset - can react to uncertain situations with creativity, determination, and a good attitude.
Demonstrated ability to learn new subject matter quickly.
Humility and a commitment to self-improvement and self-awareness.
Strong communication skills - the ability to provide valuable, succinct, and actionable insights to others in written or verbal form from large amounts of information.
Curiosity and an always-be-learning attitude, including recognizing when help is needed and seeking new ideas or perspectives to accomplish an objective.
The patience and creativity to overcome the barriers to success within large government organizations.
U.S. citizenship.
Other pluses are security clearance and technical degrees.
Last but not least - excitement for BMNT’s mission!

If you are a self-starter with an obsession for outcomes, not activities and a history of achievements, and enjoy working on projects with collaborative and creative teams, this could be the right role for you!

Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

#innovation #dualuse #H4D #TSA #HCD #PM