Director of Business Development - Government - US
Kepler Communications
Day-to-day Activities:
- Engage with customers to understand architectures, requirements, acquisition plans, budgets, and key stakeholders
- Develop and execute US Government capture strategies targeting departments and agencies within the DoD and intelligence community
- Identify, qualify, pursue, and close new business opportunities within the US Government and related US commercial space sectors
- Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders including commanders, directors, program managers, contracting officers, and prime contractors
- Collaborate with Kepler internal teams to shape solutions that meet customer requirements
Product & Operations:
- Maintain an accurate sales forecast and pipeline in Salesforce in collaboration with other capture managers
- Support Kepler’s long-term forecasts and planning
- Guide strategic product road maps and internal research & development to achieve product market fit
- Support budget reviews and planning for forthcoming bid and proposal efforts
Capture & Proposal Management:
- Navigate government procurement cycles, including FAR-based contracts, SBIRs, BAAs, OTAs, and sole-source opportunities
- Lead efforts on competitive cost-plus and firm-fixed-priced bids for space systems and relay services
- Provide capture management leadership in addition to writing, evaluating, and/or managing large government proposals
Travel & Marketing:
- Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and government meetings
- Travel approximately 25-30% of the time, mostly domestic with some international travel
- Support the Public Relations team on their press releases, marketing materials, and social media accounts
Required Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in STEM or related field
- 10+ years of business development and capture experience in the space or defense sectors
- Proven track record of hunting and securing US government contracts
- Experience selling to NASA, NOAA, NSF, and other civil agencies like CSA, ESA, and JAXA
- Proven track record of hunting and securing US government contracts
- Experience selling to the Space Force, NRO, SDA, DIU, Navy, Army etc
- Able to regularly report to the Sterling, VA office
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Proficiency with Salesforce, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
- Must be a US Citizen
Bonus Points:
- Master’s degree in a STEM field and/or MBA
- Experience in the New Space industry
- An active US Department of Defense TS/SCI clearance
- Prior US military experience