---
title: 'Technical Proposal Writer at Lodestar'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/technical-proposal-writer-lodestar-los-angeles-8m9d888rr3ft'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Technical Proposal Writer at Lodestar

- **Company:** Lodestar
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-08-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace/jobs/4953813101

## Job description

## About Lodestar

Lodestar Space is rewriting the paradigm of national security in orbit. We don't wait for a decade-long government requirements cycle; we build autonomous capabilities ahead of the threat and deliver them at the speed of relevance.

As space transforms into a contested operational and war-fighting domain, our national security assets and critical infrastructure that underpins our modern way of life faces unprecedented vulnerabilities. Lodestar addresses this crisis head-on. We are the architects of Mithril, the world's first fully autonomous, AI-driven intelligence designed to operate independently in space. We're building Mithril to autonomously maneuver and enable complex RPO missions, while simultaneously conducting the length of the kill-chain from detection, classification and intent prediction, to responding to orbital threats in denied environments. Combining cutting-edge machine vision, onboard edge computing, and pioneering fires and effects architectures, Lodestar gives warfighters and commercial operators unprecedented situational awareness and space superiority in the final frontier.

Backed by elite deep-tech venture capital, international space agencies and government stakeholders, Lodestar is rapidly expanding its footprint across the U.S. Space Force, the Department of War, and major commercial satellite operators. We are a lean, high-autonomy team of engineers and operators building the space defense infrastructure of tomorrow. Join us.

## About the Job

Our engineering team is building some of the most technically sophisticated autonomous systems in the defense space ecosystem. Your job is to make sure that sophistication is translated into winning contracts.

This is a hands-on practitioner role where your writing is the work. You will collaborate closely with our technical team, learning what they have built and helping translate it into compliant, compelling, evaluator-ready proposals that resonate with government evaluators. We are a lean and supportive team that moves fast — you will have real ownership over your work and the autonomy to do it well, with the full backing of the commercial and engineering team behind you.

You will work across RFIs, RFPs, OTAs, CSOs, BAAs, SBIRs, etc. primarily targeting U.S. Space Force, AFRL, DIU, Space RCO, SDA, NASA, and Intelligence Community customers.

## What You’ll Do

1. Proposal Writing and Content Development

- Own the writing of technical, management, and past performance volumes for prime and subcontractor submissions across DoD, DoW, NASA, IC, etc. solicitations.
- Translate complex engineering concepts — orbital mechanics, autonomous systems architecture, machine vision, onboard edge computing, RPO, directed energy, etc. — into clear, compliant, evaluator-ready narrative without requiring engineers to draft or heavily redline your work.
- Write executive summaries, capability descriptions, technical approaches, staffing narratives, and past performance write-ups that are both compliant and compelling.
- Build and maintain a reusable proposal content library — boilerplate, capability sheets, past performance templates — that reduces per-submission workload over time.

1. Solicitation Analysis and Compliance

- Perform thorough RFP decomposition — Section L, Section M, SOW, CDRLs, and all attachments — and produce compliance matrices and annotated outlines before writing begins.
- Track and enforce compliance across all volumes, ensuring every requirement is addressed, cross-referenced, and verifiable at submission.
- Apply working knowledge of FAR and DFARS to ensure submissions meet regulatory requirements without over-engineering the response.
- Flag solicitation ambiguities, conflicts, or requirement gaps early and raise them before they become submission-day problems.

1. Cross-Functional Coordination

- Work directly with Lodestar's technical team to extract input efficiently — structured interviews, architecture reviews, and targeted written Q&A rather than open-ended drafting requests.
- Coordinate inputs from Business Development, Finance, Legal, and Mission Operations to assemble complete, cohesive submissions on deadline.
- Support team reviews and incorporate feedback quickly without losing compliance or narrative coherence.
- Own proposal schedules, draft cycles, and submission logistics across multiple concurrent opportunities.

## Qualifications

- 3 to 6 years of hands-on technical proposal writing experience supporting DoD, DoW, NASA, or IC customers. We need someone who can execute independently on day one.
- Demonstrated experience writing for space systems, satellite technology, autonomous systems, defense software, or adjacent aerospace and defense domains. You need to understand what you are writing about well enough that engineers trust your first draft.
- Proven ability to decompose complex solicitations independently — Section L/M analysis, compliance matrix development, annotated outlines — before a single word of narrative is written.
- Working knowledge of FAR and DFARS sufficient to parse solicitation requirements, identify compliance obligations, and write to them correctly. You do not need to be a contracting officer — you need to be dangerous enough to catch the issues that matter.
- Experience across multiple acquisition vehicles: RFPs, OTAs, CSOs, BAAs, and SBIRs. Non-traditional defense acquisition pathways are a significant part of our pipeline.
- Exceptional written communication skills. Your proposals should read like they were written by someone who understands the mission — not assembled from a library of boilerplate.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and self-reliance. There is no proposal center here. You own it end to end.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Aerospace, Political Science, Business, or a related field required. Master’s degree in a related field preferred.

## Preferred Skills & Experience

- Specific experience writing for U.S. Space Force, AFRL, DIU, Space RCO, SDA, SpaceWERX, or NASA space systems programs.
- Familiarity with USSF and DoW acquisition ecosystems including Space SBIR/STTR programs, STRATFI/TACFI pathways, and Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) OTA vehicles.
- Experience as the primary or sole proposal writer at a defense tech startup or emerging technology company — not one member of a large proposal center.
- Ability to read and interpret system architecture diagrams, orbital mechanics profiles, or hardware block diagrams and write accurate technical prose from them without an engineer in the room.
- Experience using AI-enabled proposal tools to accelerate drafting, gap analysis, and compliance review.
- Active Secret or Top Secret clearance or eligibility and willingness to obtain one.

-

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR [here](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

## Compensation & Benefits

- Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
- Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
- Unlimited PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
- Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Lodestar is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Lodestar

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing
- **Target Customers**: Government and allied defense agencies (B2G); specifically US and allied space asset operators
- **Mission**: To deter conflict in space by providing credible, sovereign orbital defense capabilities through autonomous AI software and satellite platforms.

## Products & Services
- **Mithril AI (Autonomous AI Fighter-Pilot)**: Software that runs on orbital bodyguard satellites, enabling real-time space situational awareness, threat detection, classification, and autonomous response. Designed for on-orbit SDA, inspection, and effect delivery.
- **Orbital Defence as a Service**: End-to-end protection stack for high-value satellites, from detection and intelligence to active response, delivered via a fleet of bodyguard satellites.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of approximately $3.55M (as of early 2026), comprising a $2.5M Pre-Seed round led by Lunar Ventures and Inflection, plus grants from the UK Space Agency ($1M) and European Space Agency.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lunar Ventures, Inflection, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Charlie Songhurst, Zehan Wang
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 14 employees with 8 active job postings (indicating rapid scaling)
  - First satellite payload scheduled for launch in early 2027
  - Government contracts and briefings with Pentagon and UK defense stakeholders
  - Growing European defense budgets (e.g., Germany’s €30-35B by 2030)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-built for defense**: Unlike competitors that repurpose commercial tech, Lodestar designs from the ground up for resilience, responsiveness, and sovereignty in contested orbits.
- **End-to-end protection stack**: The only company offering a unified system from detection to autonomous response, rather than point solutions.
- **AI-first approach**: The core asset is the AI model, not the satellite hardware, allowing rapid adaptation to evolving threats without long hardware cycles.
- **Government trust**: Early backing from UK Space Agency and ESA, plus direct engagement with Pentagon-level customers.

## Strategic Focus
- Launch first on-orbit payload to gather proximity data and validate AI models in space
- Expand partnerships with allied defense agencies and prime contractors
- Scale the team (especially engineering and avionics) to accelerate product development
- Win additional government contracts for operational bodyguard satellite systems

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Work on one of the most pressing national security challenges – space defense – with a clear, unapologetic mission to deter conflict.
- **Cutting-edge technology**: Tackle hard problems in AI, computer vision, on-board autonomy, and spacecraft systems.
- **Small team, big impact**: 14-person team with flat structure; engineers have direct ownership of critical systems.
- **Growth opportunity**: Rapidly scaling with 8 open roles; chance to shape the company’s technical direction.
- **Locations**: Offices in Los Angeles (HQ) and London, UK; hybrid/remote flexibility likely (based on speculative applications accepted from US and UK).
- **Notable perks**: Work with former engineers from MBDA, Orbex, Airbus Defence & Space, and Imperial College London rocketry teams.

## Sources
1. [Lodestar Space Website](https://www.lodestar.space/)
2. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lodestarspace)
3. [CB Insights Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/lodestar-3)
4. [UKspace Member Profile](https://www.ukspace.org/start-up-member/lodestar-space/)
5. [Resilience Media Interview](https://resiliencemedia.co/lodestar-is-building-satellite-bodyguards/)
6. [Greenhouse Careers Page](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace)

## Other roles at Lodestar

- [Software Engineer I or II: State Estimation & Prediction](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-or-ii-state-estimation-prediction-lodestar-los-angeles-x94pk8tr5jsg) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Software Engineer I,II,III: Simulations](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-ii-iii-simulations-lodestar-los-angeles-nqya82tma539) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Software Engineer I: Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-perception-lodestar-los-angeles-86nt051a9fsr) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Director of Capture and Proposal Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-capture-and-proposal-operations-lodestar-los-angeles-81ha6p7n0ymq) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Avionics Hardware Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-hardware-engineer-lodestar-london-v88vfnycw44z) — London, United Kingdom
- [Avionics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-software-engineer-lodestar-london-tnxkbb7w530b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Software Engineer II: On-board Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ii-on-board-autonomy-lodestar-los-angeles-ps92yzwddgz3) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Technical Proposal Writer](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-proposal-writer-aquia-united-states-d7gsqvkkkjm9) — United States