Director of Science Policy

Job description

Rainmaker is pioneering a modern precipitation enhancement cloud seeding system to solve water scarcity. We develop and incorporate radar validation, weather-resistant UAS, and numerical weather modeling to make water abundant. As Rainmaker’s Director of Science Policy, you will own our engagement with the federal science enterprise, such as DOE, NOAA, NSF, and the research offices and national laboratories that fund atmospheric science in the United States. You will find the programs where our work and their priorities meet, build the proposals that win them, and own the Congressional and community relationships that make that work durable. Rainmaker is building the best atmospheric science lab in the world. This role connects that ambition to the agencies funding the parallel research. This position is based in Washington, DC. ### What You'll Do - **Federal Science Agency Engagement:** Own Rainmaker’s relationships across the federal research enterprise. Build durable relationships with program managers, division directors, and lab leadership, and understand where funding decisions actually get made. - **Research Funding & Partnerships:** Maintain a live pipeline of the federal funding opportunities that fit our capabilities, and partner with Rainmaker’s Research Team to build the proposals that win them. Build the collaborations with universities, national laboratories, and other research institutions that make us a credible partner on multi-institution awards. - **Science Policy & Legislative Strategy:** Maintain command of the statutory and budgetary landscape governing federal atmospheric research, including agency authorization vehicles, the appropriations accounts that fund research directorates, and the interagency coordination structures. Develop legislative proposals and appropriations language that expand the space for the research we want to do. - **Congressional Engagement:** Own relationships with the House Science, Space, and Technology and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees, and with the Energy and Water and Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations subcommittees that fund DOE, NOAA, and NSF. Prepare briefing materials that make the case for atmospheric research investment in terms a non-technical staffer can carry. - **Scientific Community & Coalition Building:** Represent Rainmaker across the atmospheric science community. Identify the positive-sum opportunities where our research objectives and theirs align, and convert them into shared advocacy. Build the network of scientific validators who give Rainmaker standing in the field. - **Research Liaison:** Serve as the interface between Rainmaker’s Research Team and the agencies that fund them. Translate our technical capabilities into terms a program manager can act on, and translate agency priorities, review feedback, and funding shifts into direction our researchers can plan around. Coordinate closely with Federal Affairs and the water, agricultural, and international functions so the verticals reinforce one another. - **Field Demonstrations & Site Visits:** Organize visits for agency program managers, lab leadership, Congressional staff, and academic collaborators. - **Grant Writing & Proposal Leadership:** Spearhead the development of compelling, scientifically rigorous proposals for major federal grant programs, driving Rainmaker’s grant strategy and securing transformative resources across government agencies. ### Qualifications - 5+ years in science policy, federal research administration, or government relations for a research-driven organization. Examples include time at DOE, NOAA, NSF, or another federal science agency, a national laboratory or university research office, a Congressional science or appropriations role, or the policy function of a comparable technology company. - Advanced degree in atmospheric science, physics, engineering, or a related field required with a preference to someone with a PhD. - Working knowledge of how federal research gets funded: how solicitations are written and reviewed, how merit review actually works, and where a proposal lives between submission and award. - Genuine scientific fluency. You should be able to read a paper in atmospheric science, follow the argument, ask a useful question about the methods, and represent our research accurately in a room where no one from the Research Team is present. - Track record of building and winning competitive federal research proposals, including familiarity with the mechanics of grants, cooperative agreements, subawards, and cost-share. - Command of the science policy landscape, especially the authorization and appropriations cycles that drive agency research budgets, the interagency coordination bodies, and the advisory committee processes that shape agency priorities. - Current relationships across the federal science agencies, the Congressional science committees, and the atmospheric or earth science research community. - Ability to operate as both a strategist and a hands-on operator in a fast-paced startup environment, comfortable building a function from the ground up. - Must be based in DC with willingness and ability to travel domestically for Hill engagement, agency and lab visits, scientific conferences, coalition work, and field site demonstrations.