Director, Space & Missile Growth

Key Responsibilities

· Develop and maintain trusted relationships across the national security space, missile defense, aerospace, and intelligence communities.

· Engage with government stakeholders to understand evolving mission requirements, acquisition priorities, and emerging opportunities.

· Represent NextGen at customer meetings, industry conferences, technical exchanges, industry days, and strategic forums.

· Identify, qualify, and help shape opportunities aligned with corporate growth objectives.

· Support account planning, pipeline development, and long-range growth strategies.

· Provide customer and market insight to help guide corporate investment and positioning decisions.

· Support capture teams in developing customer-focused solutions and winning strategies.

· Lead or support proposal development efforts, technical solutioning, color team reviews, and executive presentations.

· Assist in development of discriminators, technical approaches, teaming strategies, and partnership opportunities.

· Provide senior-level subject matter expertise across space systems, missile defense systems, systems engineering, acquisition programs, modeling and simulation, test and evaluation, mission engineering, and operational concepts.

· Support customer programs through technical advisory services, assessments, strategic consulting, and select contract execution activities.

· Mentor technical staff, business development personnel, capture managers, and future leaders across the company.

· Provide executive leadership with assessments of market trends, customer priorities, competitive landscapes, and emerging technologies.

Required Qualifications

· Active Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance with SAP eligibility at time of hire.

· 15+ years of experience supporting national security space, missile defense, aerospace, intelligence, or related Department of War (DoW) programs.

· Demonstrated experience within organizations such as the United States Space Force, Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, Space Systems Command, Space Development Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Intelligence Community, AFRL, Combatant Commands, or related organizations.

· Experience serving in technical leadership, acquisition, operations, engineering, program management, or advisory positions.

· Proven ability to engage senior government, military, and industry stakeholders.

· Experience supporting customer engagement, opportunity development, business development, capture activities, strategic planning, or proposal development.

· Strong understanding of defense acquisition processes, space architectures, missile defense systems, command and control, and/or mission engineering principles.

· Excellent briefing, communication, and relationship-building skills.

Education:

· Bachelor’s degree in related technical discipline.

· Master’s degree preferred.

Desired Qualifications

· Former senior military officer, senior enlisted leader, GS-15/equivalent government civilian, program manager, chief engineer, technical director, division chief, or comparable industry leader.

· Experience serving in senior operational, acquisition, technical, engineering, intelligence, or mission leadership roles.

· Graduate of USAF Weapons School – 328th Weapons Squadron (Space Superiority WIC)

· Experience supporting SSC, SDA, Space RCO, MDA, AFRL, NRO, US Space Force Combat Forces Command (CFC), STARCOM, or other operational space organizations.

· Existing professional relationships across the national security space, missile defense, and intelligence communities.

· Experience supporting classified programs, special access programs, strategic pursuits, captures, and proposal development.

· Understanding of Space Domain Awareness, Missile Warning and Tracking, Satellite Systems, Space Control, Modeling and Simulation, Digital Engineering, and/or Hypersonic Mission Areas.

Ideal Candidate:

· Recognized and respected member of the national security space community.

· Possesses the technical credibility, operational experience, and professional relationships necessary to support customer missions while helping expand NextGen's presence across the space and missile enterprise.

· Comfortable operating across executive leadership, customer engagement, proposal development, technical advisory, and growth-focused activities.

· Able to translate customer challenges into actionable business opportunities and technical solutions.