Business Development Director (Space & Launch)

About the role

The Director of Business Development, Space & Launch role at Karman Space & Defense is for a self-starter looking to take new products to market and support a wide variety of customers such as NASA, government prime contractors, and commercial space companies. This role involves interfacing with key customers and stakeholders, communicating directly with them, and leading the team to achieve sales growth targets.

Responsibilities

• Interface as primary POC with key customers and stakeholders, understanding customer needs and tailoring solutions to meet those needs while ensuring satisfaction and fostering repeat business.
• Communicate directly with customers and stakeholders on a consistent basis, both in person and remotely, to ensure responsiveness and high-quality engagement.
• Represent Karman at various conferences and industry events.
• Lead team to achieve sales growth targets across spacecraft & satellite markets.
• Develop product and market growth strategies to achieve new opportunities (leads), contacts, proposals, and/or bookings for new programs and customers.
• Develop capture strategy including price-to-win (PWin) assessment, competitive intelligence, risk analysis and mitigation, and technical solution.
• Interface with Karman team members including engineering, business development, and operations to develop long-term product roadmap to support various divisions aligned with satellite and spacecraft market trends.
• Track and monitor sales performance against short and long-term key performance indicators (KPIs) ensuring goals for bookings, revenue, profit margin, and customer satisfaction are exceeded.
• Manage CRM data to track sales process from lead to deal and ensure high conversion rate.
• Present financial forecasting results to leadership to determine satellite and spacecraft market trends, strategy, and customer satisfaction.
• Support negotiations with customers on contract pricing and delivery schedules ensuring profitability while maintaining competitive pricing strategies in line with market conditions and internal costs.

Requirements

• Required Education: Bachelor’s degree, advanced degrees is a plus. 5+ years of experience in aerospace, spacecraft, satellite, and/or defense industry.
• Demonstrated success in business development, sales, program management, and/or engineering for space products and systems.
• Strong interpersonal, communications, and negotiating skills.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in aerospace, spacecraft, satellite, and/or defense industry.
• Experience working with spacecraft prime contractors and government customers including NASA and U.S. DoD.
• Experience with CRM and financial forecasting tools.
• Ability to easily present highly technical information to various audience members and sizes.
• Ability to travel >25%.

Benefits

Equal Opportunity Employer. Karman is committed to equal employment opportunity. We will not discriminate against employees or applicants for employment on any legally recognized basis (“protected class”) including, but not limited to race; color; religion; genetic information; national origin; sex; pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; age; disability; citizenship status; uniform servicemember status; or any other protected class under federal, state, or local law.