Manager, Starshield Account Management

Spacex; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Manager of the Starshield Account Management team to lead a high‑impact group responsible for customer success, contract execution, and expansion of Starshield adoption. The role combines strategic customer leadership with hands‑on team management, cross‑functional collaboration, and accountable revenue ownership across a portfolio of key accounts.

The ideal candidate will build scalable processes, hire top talent, and drive metrics to demonstrate success while maintaining

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree
• 6+ years of experience with commercial customers or vendors to support a technical product/service
• 2+ years of experience leading people

Responsibilities

• Grow and build the Starshield Account Management function with a focus on adoption rates; hire and lead a team; build tools and capabilities to manage accounts scalably; develop goals and metrics to measure success
• Manage all aspects of project management for customer verticals; finalize contracts; ensure on-time deliverables; forecast revenue
• Own the customer interface from contract signature onwards; onboard, manage retention and growth; build relationships and collect feedback to influence product development
• Own a small portfolio of key customer accounts; lead by example to improve tooling, processes, and communications

Skills

Team leadership

Customer success

Contract management

Cross-functional collaboration

Negotiation

Clear communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

MANAGER, STARSHIELD ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Starshield, SpaceX's national defense vertical, delivers unparalleled global communications and situational awareness to the warfighter. As Manager of the Starshield User Products Account Management Team, you will lead a team responsible for customer success. This includes ensuring contracts are executed and expanded, customers receive and can operate delivered equipment, support systems remain best-in-class, and communications with customers stay constant and clear. You will partner with leadership across the Starshield organization and collaborate with other SpaceX entities to drive mission success. In this role, you will split your time between managing key customers and leading team members.

The Starshield Account Management team serves as the primary point of contact for customers from contract signature through successful activation. The team ensures all contract terms are fulfilled while identifying opportunities to accelerate and expand Starshield adoption. Prior to contract signature, the team plays a critical role in ensuring that the commitments we make are ones we can successfully deliver.

Over the past year, the Starshield User Products team has rapidly grown its user base and the number of customer organizations under contract. Starshield has also developed specialized tools tailored for defense customers. The product is designed for self‑service, and we must similarly evolve our team and systems so defense enterprise customers can manage Starshield independently, minimizing human intervention.

Our ideal candidate is a self‑starter that has a passion for making customers successful, building excellent teams, and managing complex cross‑functional projects.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Grow and build the Starshield Account Management function with a focus on growing user adoption rates while ensuring customers are put in the best position possible
  • Hire and lead an exceptional team
  • Identify and build necessary tools and capabilities to manage accounts in a scalable way, working closely with the application software and finance teams to automate as much as possible
  • Develop internal goals and metrics/visualizations to measure and communicate success
• Manage all aspects of project management for your customer vertical(s)
  • Work with internal and external stakeholders to finalize customer contracts, serving as a final check before contract signature to ensure we are poised for success and any risks are captured/communicated internally
  • Ensure that contract deliverables are delivered on time and meeting contract requirements
  • Take an extreme ownership approach to realizing forecasted revenue on or ahead of schedule
  • Identify and broadly/loudly communicate readiness levels, requirements, schedules, and risks
• Own the customer interface from contract signature onwards including onboarding, ongoing account management, and long‑term retention/growth of the relationship and revenue
  • Build relationships with customer points of contact to identify requirements and manage expectations, driving product adoption by removing roadblocks
  • Collect, communicating and championing customer feedback internally to influence and steer programmatic and technical development required to maintain and grow customer adoption
  • Responsibly grow customer accounts with a heavy emphasis on customer success
• Own a small portfolio of key customer accounts as an individual contributor
  • Lead by example and leverage that experience to improve both internal and customer‑facing tooling, processes, communications, and the overall product experience

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree
• 6+ years of experience working with commercial customers or vendors to support a technical product/service
• 2+ years of experience leading people

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 8+ years of experience working with commercial customers or strategic vendors
• Demonstrated ability to quickly and successfully develop an excellent team, including ability to develop and coach team members and ability to scale non‑linearly
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast‑paced, autonomously driven, and demanding start‑up atmosphere
• Demonstrated ability to champion and lead significant projects and business initiatives, including ability to manage in an environment with competing priorities
• Exceptional customer interface skills, including excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to tailor communications appropriately to level (working‑level to executive‑level)
• Excellent negotiation and conflict resolution skills
• Familiarity with existing Starshield products, services and customer support systems/processes

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed to support critical milestones or operations shifts
• Must be willing to travel to other SpaceX offices and customer locations as needed

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay Range: $140,000.00 - $205,000.00

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case‑by‑case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job‑related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long‑term incentives, in the form of company stock or long‑term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long‑term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

Those with an active clearance will receive a 10% differential, up to an additional $20,000 annually, once officially briefed into a classified program.

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. Learn more about the ITAR here.

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX 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.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX's Affidavit Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out [e-mail].