Director, Permitting

Reflect Orbital; Hawthorne (NJ); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision coverage

HSA, FSA, and 401K

Unlimited PTO

Healthy lunches provided

Job summary

Reflect Orbital seeks a hands-on Director of Permitting to build and lead the company’s permitting function from the ground up. You will secure site rights, approvals, and relationships across FAA, FCC, and local authorities while coordinating with legal and engineering teams to align permits with tomorrow's satellite program.

Your background should include leading new regulatory functions in fast-moving environments, exceptional stakeholder relations, and a willingness to travel to establish

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in permitting, regulatory affairs, or related field.
• Track record of building a process or function from scratch in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.
• Comfortable asking regulators questions they’ve never been asked before.
• Strong relationship-building with regulators, landowners, and officials.
• Hands-on, travel-ready, and able to push permits forward one conversation at a time.
• Excellent judgment navigating ambiguity, politics, and competing stakeholder interests.
• Strong written and verbal communication to represent the company credibly.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end permitting and site-operating approvals for every location.
• Build the permitting playbook from the ground up.
• Identify and engage federal, state, and local regulatory bodies and determine permit requirements.
• Build relationships with landowners, utilities, and local officials near target sites.
• Navigate international space law and orbital/spectrum considerations as needed.
• Address light-pollution and environmental concerns raised by regulators and communities.
• Translate regulatory requirements into satellite and mission design constraints.
• Track and manage a live pipeline of site permits as Reflect scales.

Skills

Regulatory affairs

Stakeholder engagement

Policy analysis

Communication

Project management

Travel readiness

Ambiguity navigation

Education

Bachelor's degree in regulatory policy, engineering, or related field

Tools

Regulatory tracking software

Job description

At Reflect, you will be expected to move fast, have a lot of ownership and, most importantly, be able to effect change. If this excites you, we are interested in hearing about your best work and accomplishments across any domain and from any points in your life.

About The Role

We’re looking for a hands-on, action-biased Director of Permitting to build Reflect Orbital’s permitting function from scratch. No one has ever needed permission to reflect sunlight onto a specific plot of land before; there’s no existing playbook, no established regulatory pathway, and no precedent to lean on. You’ll be the person who invents it: securing the rights, approvals, and relationships needed for us to operate over specific customer sites, working across the FAA, FCC, state and local authorities, landowners, and international space law as we scale from our first demonstration satellite to a constellation of thousands.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end permitting and site-operating approvals for every location where Reflect Orbital redirects sunlight, from our first customer site through nationwide scale
• Build the permitting playbook from the ground up; there isn’t one, so you’ll be defining precedent as you go
• Identify and engage the relevant regulatory bodies at the federal, state, and local level (FAA, FCC, state energy and land-use agencies, municipalities) and determine what “permission to operate” actually requires for a first-of-its-kind technology
• Build direct relationships with landowners, utilities, and local officials near target customer sites to secure operating rights and community buy-in
• Navigate emerging international space law and orbital/spectrum considerations as they intersect with ground-based light delivery
• Anticipate and address light-pollution, dark-sky, and environmental concerns raised by regulators, astronomers, and communities
• Partner closely with legal, government affairs, and engineering to translate regulatory requirements into satellite and mission design constraints
• Track and manage a live pipeline of site permits as the company scales toward thousands of satellites and target sites
• Represent Reflect Orbital in front of regulators, legislators, and community stakeholders
• Get on planes, show up in person, and do whatever it takes to move a permit forward; this is not a desk job

Ideal Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in permitting, regulatory affairs, government relations, or a related field: energy, aerospace, telecom, or infrastructure background strongly preferred
• Track record of building a process or function from scratch in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
• Comfortable being the first person to ask a regulator a question they’ve never been asked before
• Strong relationship-builder who can earn trust with regulators, landowners, and local officials alike
• Hands-on and action-biased; willing to travel, show up in person, and push permits forward one conversation at a time
• Excellent judgment navigating ambiguity, politics, and competing stakeholder interests
• Strong written and verbal communicator, able to represent the company credibly to regulators and the public
• Genuinely excited about building the regulatory foundation for an entirely new industry

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.

We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.

Benefits

• Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy
• Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K
• Unlimited paid time off, two-weeks per year encouraged
• Healthy lunches provided daily

Equal Opportunity Reflect Orbital is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Reflect Orbital is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

More About Reflect Orbital

Learn more about our team here.