SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Rainmaker is pioneering a modern precipitation enhancement cloud seeding system to solve water scarcity using radar validation, weather-resistant UAS, and numerical weather modeling. As Director of Science Policy, you will own Rainmaker's engagement with the federal science enterprise—DOE, NOAA, NSF, and the research offices and national laboratories that fund atmospheric science in the United States.
You will identify federal funding programs where Rainmaker's capabilities align with agency priorities, build winning proposals, and cultivate durable Congressional and community relationships that sustain this work. This role bridges Rainmaker's ambition to build the best atmospheric science lab in the world with the agencies and funding mechanisms that support parallel research.
Key responsibilities include:
• Federal Science Agency Engagement: Own relationships across the federal research enterprise. Build durable connections with program managers, division directors, and lab leadership; understand where funding decisions are made.
• Research Funding & Partnerships: Maintain a live pipeline of federal funding opportunities aligned with Rainmaker's capabilities. Partner with the Research Team to build winning proposals. Build collaborations with universities, national laboratories, and research institutions that establish Rainmaker as a credible multi-institution partner.
• Science Policy & Legislative Strategy: Master the statutory and budgetary landscape governing federal atmospheric research, including agency authorization vehicles, appropriations accounts, and interagency coordination structures. Develop legislative proposals and appropriations language that expand opportunities for the research Rainmaker pursues.
• Congressional Engagement: Own relationships with the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee; Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and the Energy and Water and Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations subcommittees. Prepare briefing materials that make the case for atmospheric research investment in terms non-technical staffers can carry.
• Scientific Community & Coalition Building: Represent Rainmaker across the atmospheric science community. Identify positive-sum opportunities where research objectives align and convert them into shared advocacy. Build a network of scientific validators that give Rainmaker standing in the field.
• Research Liaison: Serve as the interface between Rainmaker's Research Team and funding agencies. Translate technical capabilities into terms program managers can act on; translate agency priorities, review feedback, and funding shifts into direction researchers can plan around. Coordinate with Federal Affairs and water, agricultural, and international functions.
• Field Demonstrations & Site Visits: Organize visits for agency program managers, lab leadership, Congressional staff, and academic collaborators.
• Grant Writing & Proposal Leadership: Spearhead development of compelling, scientifically rigorous proposals for major federal grant programs. Drive Rainmaker's grant strategy and secure transformative resources across government agencies.
Requirements:
• 5+ years in science policy, federal research administration, or government relations for a research-driven organization (examples: DOE, NOAA, NSF, federal science agency, national laboratory, university research office, Congressional science or appropriations role, or policy function at a comparable technology company).
• Advanced degree in atmospheric science, physics, engineering, or related field required; PhD preferred.
• Working knowledge of how federal research gets funded: how solicitations are written and reviewed, how merit review works, and how proposals progress from submission to award.
• Genuine scientific fluency: ability to read atmospheric science papers, follow arguments, ask useful methodological questions, and represent research accurately without the Research Team present.
• Track record of building and winning competitive federal research proposals, including familiarity with grants, cooperative agreements, subawards, and cost-share mechanics.
• Command of the science policy landscape, especially authorization and appropriations cycles that drive agency research budgets, interagency coordination bodies, and advisory committee processes that shape agency priorities.
• Current relationships across federal science agencies, Congressional science committees, and the atmospheric or earth science research community.
• Ability to operate as both strategist and 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.
