Staff Site Development Program Manager

LeoLabs, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 164,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in space technology seeks a Staff Site Development Program Manager to oversee development of ground-based radar sites globally. This role requires strong project management capabilities and excellent communication skills. The successful candidate will engage with internal and external stakeholders to facilitate efficient and compliant site development.

Qualifications

• Experience in international construction project management.
• Strong recordkeeping and attention to quality.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the progression of radar site development.
• Manage relationships with global stakeholders.
• Ensure project compliance and coordination across departments.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Time management

Education

10+ years in business development or project management

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

About Us

LeoLabs enables military space commands, civil government agencies, and commercial operators to confidently detect, track, characterize, and respond to threats in space. Our proliferated, multi-mission radar network, real-time orbital data catalog, and AI-powered analytics support secure, safe, and dynamic space operations.

At LeoLabs, our core values of Innovation, Integrity, and Impact guide everything we do. We foster an environment where bold ideas are encouraged, doing the right thing is fundamental, and our work makes a meaningful difference in safeguarding space and our way of life on Earth. As part of our team, you’ll contribute to building the world’s most comprehensive living map of orbital activity, designed to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our era. Together, we are preserving the U.S. and Allied advantage in space, driving the growth of the global economy, and enabling the future of space exploration and innovation.

The Opportunity

In this role you will be the Staff Site Development Program Manager, responsible for overseeing and undertaking all activities related to progressing LeoLabs’ ground-based radar sites from the very preliminary feasibility stages through construction and site acceptance testing.

Whilst this role has a strong project management aspect to the work, it is integral your priorities are invested in improving and maintaining the radar site selection and construction documentation that we provide external contractors and consultants.

You will be responsible for all stages of international development for a subset of future radar sites across different continents. Travel is not a regular component to this role, but for the right candidate overseas travel may be available as the role progresses should the position holder be interested. This role can be done remotely but requires a dedicated, hard-working person to make it successful.

Your contribution will directly help mature LeoLabs' space domain awareness and space traffic management service offerings as we scale our proliferated global radar and sensor network.

This role requires very strong written and verbal communications skills. You will be heavily engaged with internal and external stakeholders. You will be expected to represent LeoLabs well, engaging with many third parties and diverse cultures globally, at the forefront of LeoLabs’ preparation for expanding our proliferated radar network.

Your end goal is to support the team and strengthen the process to get to groundbreaking and through construction in each greenfield location and expanding our portfolio of options to potential build and operate our systems on partner organizations’ developed land, thus, helping to expand the footprint of our growing constellation of facilities.

The ideal candidate will have experience working in a fast-paced environment and be comfortable with consistent change. This position will report to the Director of Global Infrastructure.

You will be responsible for:

• Building relationships with a global network of stakeholders

• Task creation and management, coordinating work done by different contractors and consultants. Efficiently planning the stages of work to be done to ensure future LeoLabs sites are progressed quickly and efficiently

• Taking ownership of ensuring projects are running on schedule and to budget

• Understanding and documenting the risks involved in each different country radar site and creating solutions to mitigate these risks

• Updating and improving Leolabs' radar site selection and construction documentation

• Ensuring existing radar sites are compliant with local requirements

• Working cross-functionally with LeoLabs’ other Radar departments, as well as Go to Market, Legal, Accounting, and Corporate Affairs teams to best coordinate and accomplish effective international development

• Reporting to management and advising on process improvements

• Managing our on-the-ground consultants during the site selection, feasibility, due diligence, contracting and construction phases

• Engaging with contacts in new countries to qualify whether this person or location would benefit LeoLabs’ overall deployment strategy

• Understanding Leolabs technical requirements to advance the due diligence activities of the site selection

• Provide weekly reports to the Global Infrastructure Director, the Radar team Vice President, and other key stakeholders on status of each of the developments

Qualifications

• 10+ years in business development or project management in the construction trade

• Working knowledge of construction, permitting, site feasibility, leases, technical surveys

• Excellent verbal and communications skills

• Great computer skills with Microsoft Office suite including Word, Excel, Projects

• Excellent organizational and time management skills

• It is imperative that you are a strong recordkeeper and have an excellent understanding of what quality work is and why it is important

• Desire to learn about components that make up our radar systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Overseen international construction site selection and permitting processes – possibly learned through experience managing international ground station deployments for satellite infrastructure

• Understanding of radar systems or other industrial electrical infrastructure

• Experience working in a small team startup environment

• 5+ years in business development or project management in the construction trade

• Experience working in a fast-paced environment, comfortable with consistent change

• Willingness and capability to travel internationally 10% time

Within 1 months, you’ll:

• Complete our onboarding program designed to get you up to speed on our business, vision and team

• Gain an understanding about how your role fits into Leo Labs broader organization

• Come up to speed with the current status of Leolabs' radar site development efforts

• Have begun engagement with new contacts in new countries

Within 3 months, you’ll:

• Develop and streamline our feasibility and site selection process

• Be proactively engaged with consultants in a dozen locales

• Develop a plan to grow a small team of regional contacts to rapidly expand our search footprint

• Take over daily engagement with our active contacts in the different feasibility stages

• Take ownership of our documentation library, engaging with third parties to properly file all communications, documents, and specifications pertaining to new sites

• Continue developing our feasibility process and documentation for the progress of our radar site builds

• Streamline the project flow process for managing a radar site through the construction stage

• Be heavily involved in the day-to-day engagement with our active contacts in the different radar site build locations

Within 6 months, you’ll:

• Manage contractors in due diligence process in up to a dozen international locations

• Develop a thorough understanding of overarching goals and have made necessary changes to help achieve radar build deadlines

• Be a critical source of support for other cross-functional teams

Within 12 months, you’ll:

• Have grown a hub of regional consultants to be capable of supporting all of LeoLabs’ near-term deployment goals

• Have found 15+ additional site locations and are working them through later stages of due diligence

• Own key components of the radar deployment process

• Have actively contributed to progressing multiple sites through the groundbreaking phases

• Have fully documented and developed our process for new site acquisition

Salary offers are based on a combination of factors, including, but not limited to, experience, skills, and location. The base salary range for this position $164,000 - 180,000

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

We do not work with outside staffing agencies

ITAR REQUIREMENTS

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. More information regarding ITAR can be found at DDTC’s website