Business Development Director (Space & Launch)

Karman Space & Defense; Mukilteo (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Karman Space & Defense seeks a Director of Business Development, Space & Launch, to drive growth with NASA, DoD, and commercial customers. You will work with engineering, program management, and operations to maximize win probability on RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs, and report to the Senior Director of Business Development, Space & Launch.

The role requires a strong track record in aerospace business development, deep customer relationships, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree; advanced degrees a plus.
• 5+ years in aerospace/space/defense business development.
• Proven success in business development, sales, program management, and/or engineering for space products.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and negotiation skills.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary contact with key customers and stakeholders to understand needs and tailor solutions.
• Communicate with customers regularly to ensure responsiveness and high-quality engagement.
• Represent Karman at conferences and industry events.
• Lead the team to achieve sales growth across spacecraft and satellite markets.
• Develop product and market growth strategies to capture opportunities and bookings.
• Develop capture strategy including price-to-win assessment and competitive intelligence.
• Coordinate with engineering, BD, and operations to align product roadmaps with market trends.
• Track sales performance against bookings, revenue, and margins.
• Produce and manage CRM data to monitor the sales process and improve conversion.
• Present forecasting results to leadership on market trends and customer satisfaction.
• Support negotiations on contract pricing and delivery schedules.

Skills

Negotiation

Communication

Relationship building

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Advanced degree a plus

Tools

CRM tools

Forecasting tools

Job description

Director of Business Development, Space & Launch

Karman Space & Defense is a leader in the space and defense industry with over 50 years of experience supporting various critical missions such as NASA Artemis. The Business Development team works closely with new and existing customers to solve the most pressing challenges to meet humanity’s most critical missions – including sending humans to the moon and beyond. We are seeking a Director of Business Development, Space & Launch, who will be responsible for growth in the space and launch market. This role is for a self‑starter looking to take new products to market and supporting a wide variety of customers such as NASA, government prime contractors, and commercial space companies.

In this role, you will be the primary point of contact to various space customers to increase growth while maintaining customer satisfaction. You will interface closely with Engineering, Program Management, and Operations to determine the highest PWin response to RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs. This role will be reporting to the Senior Director of Business Development, Space & Launch and will support deliverables for senior leadership.

About Us

Karman Space & Defense provides concept‑to‑production solutions for mission‑critical systems on spacecraft, launch vehicles, missiles, hypersonics, and integrated defense systems. We believe that solving the industry’s most complex and mission‑critical challenges requires relentless determination and a willingness to push the boundaries of possibility. Karman Space & Defense brings to bear unparalleled production capabilities, unmatched engineering expertise, and unflinching analysis to render the impossible, possible.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary point of contact with key customers and stakeholders, understanding customer needs and tailoring solutions to meet those needs, 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 the team to achieve sales growth targets across spacecraft and satellite markets.
• Develop product and market growth strategies to capture 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, mitigation, and technical solution.
• Interface with Karman team members—including engineering, business development, and operations—to develop a long‑term product roadmap aligned with satellite and spacecraft market trends.
• Track and monitor sales performance against short and long‑term key performance indicators, ensuring goals for bookings, revenue, profit margin, and customer satisfaction are exceeded.
• Produce and manage CRM data to track the sales process from lead to deal and ensure a 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.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (advanced degrees are a plus).
• 5+ years of experience in the 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, communication, and negotiation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in the 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 audiences and in various sizes.
• Ability to travel more than 25% of the time.
• Must be a U.S. citizen.

ITAR Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, certain positions may require applicants to be a U.S. citizen or national, a U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), a refugee, an asylum seeker, or to be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Physical Requirements

As a federal contractor, Karman Space & Defense is committed to compliance with all federal employment eligibility requirements. We participate in E‑Verify, a web‑based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. As an E‑Verify employer, federal compliance mandates that we require documentation to verify identity and employment authorization upon hire.

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 in response to a formal complaint or charge, in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action (including an investigation conducted by the employer), or 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.