Government Contracts & Compliance Manager

PH-014 | Founding Staff | Boston, MA | Onsite | $140K – $200K base + equity

About Prahelika

Prahelika is building the domestic integration layer: 3D systems in which III-V semiconductors, state-of-the-art silicon, and novel interposers are stacked into one device, each doing what it does best. We co-design the signal path, the power tier, the thermal path, and the manufacturing process, so dies from any foundry become a system that silicon alone cannot deliver. Our first 3D systems serve defense radar and low-Earth-orbit satellite communications; the same platform extends to power electronics, data-center compute, and photonics. Backed by top-tier investors and built by engineers who demonstrated every tier of the stack as measured hardware before the company existed, Prahelika owns the layer between the transistor and the machine. Ultimate electronics through integration.

The role

Whoever owns a design here sees it through fabrication, packaging, measurement, shipping, and the next revision, and the same applies to a contract. We begin with defense customers and government programs because they pay for a process before it exists and audit it harder than anyone. That means export control, contract administration, and audit readiness are not overhead; they are what lets the engineers build the product at all.

You will own it. As our first contracts and compliance hire, you register the company for export control, write and run the technology control plan that our dual-use hiring depends on, administer government awards and defense NRE contracts, and get us audit-ready for the customers who will ask. You work directly with the founders and outside counsel and are the reason a diligence question has an answer before it is asked.

Required qualifications

• 6+ years in government contracts, export compliance, or both, at a defense contractor, a government-funded startup, or a university research office.

• Working command of ITAR and EAR: registration, jurisdiction and classification, technology control plans, deemed exports, licenses and TAAs.

• Experience administering federal awards and contracts: FAR/DFARS, cost-type and fixed-price NRE, SBIR/STTR or OTA vehicles, reporting and closeout.

• Hands-on experience in at least two of the following:

  • Standing up compliance from zero at a small company: policies, training, recordkeeping, and the first audit.

  • Cybersecurity and data compliance for defense work: NIST 800-171, CMMC readiness, CUI handling.

  • Proposal and award management for government programs, including budgets, subcontracts, and university or partner flow-downs.

  • Quality and audit systems for defense customers: supplier surveys, AS9100 or ISO 9001 readiness, program-of-record documentation.

• This role involves work that may be subject to U.S. export-control laws. Prahelika assesses access requirements for the specific work and, where needed, evaluates available government authorization options before granting access to controlled technology. Program assignments are subject to applicable legal requirements.

Preferred qualifications

• Prior work with state incentive or public-private manufacturing programs.

• Experience supporting CFIUS or foreign-investment review.

Responsibilities

• Register the company for export control and write, implement, and run the technology control plan, including program access for non-U.S. staff.

• Administer government awards and defense NRE contracts from proposal through closeout, with the reporting and audit trail each requires.

• Build CUI handling, NIST 800-171 alignment, and CMMC readiness before a customer or program requires it.

• Maintain the compliance and contracts data room so investor and customer diligence is answered from existing records.

• Work with outside counsel, the founders, and the facility director so the pilot line is designed as an export-compliant site from the start.

How we work

• Appetite for the full picture. You will be expected to understand what the engineers are building well enough to classify it correctly and to tell them, early, what a contract or a regulation will require of the design.

• AI is a cornerstone of how we engineer. You will build your own workflows with tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Codex, compatible with Prahelika's AI ecosystem, with physically grounded checks on what they produce.

• No one is asked to cut a corner they would be ashamed to defend. If a deadline can only be met by skipping a reliability test, the deadline moves, and the engineer who refuses to sign off on something unsound is protected, not punished.

• Credit and authorship follow contribution, not seniority. If your name belongs on the work, it is there.

• Excellence of mind and body is a working condition, not a reward for finishing. Tired decisions end up in hardware; we expect you to sleep, train, and step away, and we do not mistake hours logged for work delivered.

Compensation and benefits

• $140K – $200K base salary plus founding-team equity. Final compensation depends on experience and skills.

• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage with HSA; 401(k) with 4% company match; daily meals.

How to apply

Apply using the form for this role. If available, please include a brief description of one project that best represents your work on this kind of problem; we read that more closely than a cover letter.

Prahelika is an equal opportunity employer. We hire on demonstrated ability, without regard to any protected characteristic.