Director, Business Development (TGS)

Main Responsibilities:

• Identify a set of key customers whose missions are good fits for Lightspeed capabilities. With a primary focus on US Space Force and Federal government applications, this position will evangelize on the virtues of Lightspeed and identify early adopters.
• Plan and execute customer and user engagements, align resources and identify funding and contracting avenues and develop business development plans to maximize P(win) – win business that will build an active customer base as a bridge to Lightspeed FOC.
• Develop, communicate, and execute winning sales strategies for pLEO services targeting Government verticals. Analyze competitive landscape, channel conflicts and environmental factors to ensure that we continue to offer high-value winning proposals.
• Align with the TGS Growth Strategy through active participation in strategic planning, sales strategy development, forecasting, and sales resource planning.
• Work closely with executive team to ensure a culture of teamwork and success. Foster a culture of consistency in teamwork, accountability, high-performance, and ethical behavior.
• Be able to work collaboratively with our parent company colleagues while remaining within the limitations of the FOCI agreement, to achieve corporate and Group goals, cost controls and business alignment. We value a seamless interaction with our technical and business experts within Telesat across the globe and strive to maintain a productive and collaborative environment.
• Establish and maintain productive peer-to-peer relationships with customers, and prospects, be part of the overall business solution.  
• Report on progress and provide market intelligence to the team. Develop and manage an evolving pipeline of business, devise capture strategies and partnering opportunities.
• Be an evangelist for pLEO capabilities – be able to articulate the pLEO value proposition and enthusiastically promote the Telesat brand and Lightspeed capabilities.
• Set and maintain a standard of behavior and engagement that will serve as an example to others and demonstrate TGS’s commitment to integrity and professionalism.

Education and Experience Required:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen
• Self-starter, entrepreneurial mind-set with strong leadership and business development skills and proven track record of delivering success in a highly competitive start-up-like sales environment.
• Preferred minimum of 15 years of business development, solutions architect, program management or capture roles within industry or US government, offering complex and technical solutions in a business-to-government environment, ideally in the telecom or satellite communications industry.
• Master’s degree in business or engineering preferred and advanced degree aligned with the needs of this position. Demonstrated experience and success may be substituted.
• Significant experience working in a culturally diverse and geographically dispersed organization, and experience with dotted line reporting responsibilities to a foreign parent company under FOCI limitations.
• The ability to operate successfully within a team environment in what is essentially a start-up organization within Telesat, but with the ability to operate independently when needed.
• Experience in identifying, devising BD account plans, writing proposals and engaging parent company expertise to respond to complex government requirements in formal and informal settings.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships with partners within the group and with the parent company, in addition to working in support of business opportunities to garner support from vendors, technology and business partners and specialist consultants.
• The demonstrated ability to find new customers, prepare well-thought-out proposal and pricing, to deliver the appropriate solution and to make sure the customer remains well-served through the lifecycle of the contracted services, with the goal of transitioning them to Lightspeed when it is on-orbit.
• Previous DoD civilian or Military Space experience required.
• Active US Government security clearance, or the ability to get one. The position will be contingent on obtaining at least a TOP SECRET level clearance, with SCI preferred.

Decision making and Supervision:

• Candidate for this position is expected to be a self-starter, able to act independently with full awareness of the company’s strategic objectives, and to be able to make business decisions that will ensure strong positioning to win business opportunities.
• This position will report directly to the TGS Chief Growth Officer.

Working Conditions

• Occasional office work in Arlington, VA and will consider locations in proximity to Telesat’s intended customer base.