Export Controls & Trade Compliance Manager

About this role

Export Controls & Trade Compliance Manager

Location: Austin, TX or Washington, D.C. (Hybrid on-site, with up to 5% travel)

Clearance Requirement: U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain a security clearance

About NODA

NODA is a Veteran-owned, venture-backed technology company that is transforming how unmanned systems collaborate in complex, mission-critical environments. We are developing next-generation solutions that enable the autonomous orchestration of heterogeneous unmanned systems across air, sea, land, and space with vital applications in the defense, intelligence, and commercial sectors.

Our Operations team plays a critical role in ensuring NODA can move quickly, responsibly, and compliantly in a highly regulated defense technology environment. As our products, partnerships, programs, and international activities scale, trade compliance is central to how we develop technology, collaborate with customers and partners, protect controlled information, and execute across the business.

Joining NODA means working on meaningful technology that pushes the boundaries of autonomy alongside a team that thrives on innovation, rapid iteration, and collaboration.

The Role

We are seeking an Export Controls & Trade Compliance Manager to serve as the day-to-day operational owner for NODA AI's export controls and trade compliance activities. You will be responsible for the mechanics that keep our program running: import and export compliance, restricted party screening, licensing administration, jurisdiction and classification, government submissions, training, foreign person and visitor controls, audits, and recordkeeping.

You will work closely with outside export compliance counsel on matters requiring specialized legal or regulatory interpretation and translate that guidance into practical action. You will also partner across Engineering, Business Development, Contracts, the Information System Security Manager (ISSM), Facility Security Officer (FSO), People Operations, and Finance to embed trade compliance into how NODA AI operates rather than treating it as an after-the-fact review.

This role is for someone comfortable operating at the intersection of technology, national security, regulation, and execution. You can move quickly without sacrificing rigor, understand enough about complex technical products to ask the right questions, and bring structure to an environment where requirements and priorities evolve quickly. You know when to independently execute established processes and when a question requires escalation to outside counsel. Most importantly, you are an operator who keeps licenses moving, records audit-ready, employees trained, controlled information protected, and compliance requirements from becoming barriers to execution.

Key Responsibilities

- Serve as NODA AI's internal subject matter expert and operational owner for export controls and trade compliance, driving program execution, policy implementation, regulatory change management, and cross-functional compliance efforts while partnering with outside counsel on complex legal and regulatory matters.

- Own and manage DDTC registration and regulatory compliance obligations, including registrations, renewals, required government filings, certifications, reporting activities, and correspondence with the U.S. Department of State, DDTC, BIS, and other applicable government agencies.

- Prepare, submit, administer, and track export licenses, agreements, authorizations, and classification requests through U.S. Government systems, including DECCS and SNAP-R, covering DSP-5 licenses, TAAs, MLAs, commodity jurisdiction and classification requests, and other applicable export authorizations.

- Perform, document, and maintain written jurisdiction and classification determinations for software, source code, technical data, hardware, and integrated systems under the USML and CCL/ECCN frameworks, partnering with Engineering and Product to understand functionality, technical characteristics, end use, and changes that may affect existing determinations.

- Perform and document restricted and denied party screening for customers, partners, vendors, visitors, and foreign persons, and administer foreign person and visitor compliance requirements, including screening, access reviews, DDTC notifications, certifications, deemed export considerations, and supporting documentation.

- Administer applicable ITAR exemptions, EAR license exceptions, Technology Control Plans, and Technology Transfer Plans, maintaining accurate records of licenses, agreements, classifications, provisos, exceptions, exemptions, expiration dates, reporting requirements, and continuing obligations.

- Partner with the ISSM, FSO, IT, Security, Engineering, and other stakeholders to control and document access to export-controlled information across company systems, development environments, repositories, facilities, and restricted environments, including reviews of software and technical data releases and technology transfers.

- Support import and cross-border compliance activities, including tariff classification, country-of-origin and customs documentation, international shipments, demonstrations and deployments, and coordination with customs brokers and freight forwarders.

- Deliver new-hire, role-specific, and recurring export-control training; conduct internal audits and self-assessments; support internal compliance investigations and potential violation reviews; document findings; track corrective actions through closure; support government inquiries and compliance reviews; and maintain complete, organized, and audit-ready trade compliance records.

- Maintain and continuously improve NODA AI's Export Management and Compliance Program (EMCP), partnering cross-functionally to address licensing, export restrictions, end-use and end-user requirements, sanctions, foreign person reviews, and other trade compliance obligations.

Required…