Trade Compliance Manager

The posting, as Vatn Systems wrote it

About Vatn Systems

Vatn is an innovative startup pioneering the design and manufacturing of attritable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Our mission is undersea superiority through mission-focused innovation, delivered at scale. We are revolutionizing underwater security through advanced technology, engineering excellence, and collaboration with industry leaders, research institutions, and government agencies. We develop highly adaptable AUVs optimized for complex environments - driving innovation, reliability, and performance in every system we deploy.

Position Overview

The Trade Compliance Manager serves as Vatn’s day-to-day owner of the company's global trade compliance program, administering compliance with the ITAR, the EAR, and associated U.S. sanctions and customs requirements. The successful candidate will have practical experience safeguarding controlled technical data and hardware in an operating environment, along with a strong grasp of the defense industry landscape, including contractor obligations and associated risk frameworks.

The position owns jurisdiction and classification determinations, license and agreement preparation, and the tracking of provisos, conditions, and reporting obligations through the life of each authorization. The individual in this role will manage a wide range of compliance matters, including restricted party screening, technology control plans and deemed export controls for foreign person access, recordkeeping, supply chain and contract flow-downs, export classification of shipments and AES filings, internal audits, training, and voluntary disclosures, while providing practical guidance to leadership, program teams, and engineers. They will ensure that program activity, international engagement, and hiring are structured to support operational needs and meet technical and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate is a proactive, detail-oriented compliance professional with experience in the defense ecosystem and comfort working in a fast-paced engineering and manufacturing environment, able to translate regulatory requirements into decisions engineers and program managers can act on. This is Vatn's first dedicated trade compliance role, and the successful candidate will be as comfortable building procedures, tooling, and training from a limited existing baseline as administering an established program. This role is critical to helping Vatn operate compliantly, protect controlled technology, and scale rapidly across product lines, programs, and international customer engagements.

Key Responsibilities

Program Ownership & Governance

• Maintain and administer Vatn's Global Trade Compliance Program, covering the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR), U.S. economic sanctions, anti-boycott rules, and the Foreign Trade Regulations.
• Develop and maintain trade compliance policies, procedures, work instructions, training, and audit mechani

[…]
ience with export licensing processes (DSP-5/73, TAA/MLA, EAR license exceptions), including hands-on filing and management of authorizations in DDTC's Defense Export Control and Compliance System (DECCS)

• Must be a U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62) due to routine exposure to export-controlled systems, technical data, and facilities
• Eligibility and willingness to be designated as an Empowered Official under 22 CFR 120.67 following an initial onboarding period
• Strong written and verbal communication skills - this role translates regulatory requirements for non-compliance audiences (contracts, engineering, program management) daily
• Ability to pass a background check appropriate to a defense contractor environment

Preferred

• Experience supporting maritime, naval, or unmanned systems programs
• Experience reviewing or supporting U.S. government contracts, including Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) to foreign government end users
• Export compliance certification (e.g., Export Compliance Professional (ECoP)) or contracts-related certification (e.g., NCMA CFCM/CPCM)
• Experience with AES (Automated Export System) filing
• Experience with U.S. import and customs compliance, including HTS classification, CBP entry, and temporary import procedures
• Dangerous goods certification (49 CFR HMR, IATA DGR, and/or IMDG), particularly for lithium battery shipments
• Experience developing or administering Technology Control Plans and foreign national access programs
• Working knowledge of FAR/DFARS, sufficient to identify and address export control implications in government contract clauses and flow-down requirements
• Prior experience in a CMMC/NIST SP 800-171 environment
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
• Bachelor's degree in a related field (business, international affairs, engineering, or paralegal/legal studies), or equivalent hands-on experience

Vatn is an equal opportunity employer.