Director, Business Development (Hypersonics & Strategic Missile)

Karman Space & Defense; Mukilteo (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Karman Space & Defense in Mukilteo, WA, seeks a Director of Business Development, Hypersonic & Strategic Missile Defense, to drive growth across defense markets by bringing new and existing technologies to customers and shaping solution strategies.

You will partner with engineering, program management, and operations to maximize win probability, develop market expansion plans, and present strategic insights to senior leadership while ensuring profitable, schedule-aligned outcomes.

Job description

Summary

Karman Space & Defense is a long‑standing leader in the space and defense industry, supporting advanced programs for over 50 years. The Director of Business Development, Hypersonic & Strategic Missile Defense drives growth across defense markets by bringing new and existing Karman technologies to customers and advancing their application across the industry. This role partners closely with customers, engineering, program management, and operations to shape solution strategies, maximize PWin, and support mission‑critical defense programs. The Director also leads market expansion efforts, supports senior leadership through strategic insights and presentations, and helps position Karman at the forefront of evolving defense technologies. A strong candidate could have experience in the USG, DoW, or MDA or a complimentary engineering degree to push Karman Space & Defense into new or advanced markets that may include grouping technologies across the enterprise.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Interface with key customers and stakeholders, understand customer needs and tailor solutions to meet those needs, ensuring satisfaction across Karman product lines.
• Strong communications skills across all mediums to communicate directly with customers and stakeholders on a consistent basis both in person and remotely to ensure responsiveness and high‑quality engagement.
• Represent the Karman portfolio at various conferences and industry events.
• Support product area teams to achieve sales growth targets across hypersonic and strategic missile defense through a well thought out and executed bid and proposal strategy. This may include strategic roadmaps to each product area and shaping customer engagements.
• 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 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 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.
• Produce and manage CRM data to track sales process from lead to deal and ensure high conversion rate.
• Support and present financial forecast to leadership to articulate defense 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.

Education And Experience

Required Experience

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

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in aerospace, spacecraft, satellite, and/or defense industry.
• Experience working with prime contractors and government customers.
• Experience with CRM and financial forecasting tools.Ability to easily present highly technical information to various audience members and sizes.
• Ability to travel 25–50 %.
• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Must have a SECRET clearance.

ITAR Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

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. Our management is dedicated to ensuring the fulfillment of this policy with respect to hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, recruitment advertising, pay, and other forms of compensation, training, and general treatment during employment.