Director, Business Development- Civil Space

The Director Business Development for Civil Space operates with broad latitude and is recognized as the lead executive, expert, and thought leader for Rocketdyne’s growth and strategic business pursuits for NASA, NOAA and other civilian space agency customer set across all Rocketdyne’s core competencies, products, and business units. This role reports to the VP for Growth, and is responsible for identifying, qualifying, and leading a range of deals varying in value and complexity, but always aligned to overall corporate growth goals and initiatives of strategic importance to the organization.

This individual provides enterprise-level leadership across the pre-contract deal lifecycle, from identification, through shaping, developing win strategies, assessing and building pursuit teams, influencing internal and external stakeholders, and supporting capture executives, all while maintaining a robust opportunity pipeline for major government and commercial opportunities. The Civil Space BD executive works across multiple functions to recommend and implement Rocketdyne opportunity processes, tools, and practices that directly impact business growth, operational effectiveness, and overall win strategy.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in business development and pipeline management within the U.S. civil & commercial space community and has a strong record of leading and landing high-value pursuits.

Essential Functions:

Rocketdyne has four core competencies: space avionics; launch systems; in space propulsion; and space energy solutions. For each of these 4 business lines, Rocketdyne works with a wide variety of government agencies and commercial firms including leading tier one primes. The Civil Space business development executive’s essential functions include:

• Coordinate and conduct briefings and reviews for the Rocketdyne CEO and support staff, customers, and external stakeholders on proposal status, risks, strategies, and recommendations.
• Lead and manage large, complex pursuit efforts at the highest business importance, including pursuits more than $100M total contract value.

• Establish, refine, and champion growth processes, tools, templates, standards, and operating mechanisms to improve consistency, compliance, and effectiveness across the organization.
• Actively manage internal discretionary resources (Direct Selling, Bid & Proposal, and Independent Research & Development) to capture new business opportunities.
• Protect Rocketdyne Intellectual Property
• Seek strategic alliances to build market share in current and adjacent markets (both traditional and non-traditional defense industry companies).
• Execute and guide deals through our Gate Review process.
• Provide inputs and direction to Technology Roadmaps that support future technology development and internal investment.
• Maintain currency with key government strategies and annual budgets influencing buying decisions that will influence Rocketdyne business.
• Provide input for the annual Joint Strategic Plan (JSP)
• Represent the organization in meetings, conferences and workshops, as assigned
• Influence leadership, capture teams, and functional stakeholders to adopt new proposal practices, approaches, and concepts that improve proposal quality, efficiency, and win probability.
• Business travel up to 30%

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 12 years of prior relevant experience; or
• Graduate degree and a minimum of 10 years of prior related experience; or
• In lieu of a degree, a minimum of 16 years of prior related experience.
• Mastery-level knowledge of the business development cycle and significant experience in strategic pursuit leadership within the US Civil & commercial space industry.
• Secret Security Clearance
• Experience influencing senior leaders and cross-functional teams on matters of substantial importance to business strategy, business growth, and organizational effectiveness.

Preferred Additional Requirements:

• Curiosity & passion for advancing the U.S. space industry
• Experience within the US industrial base on programs analogous to Rocketdyne core competencies
• Experience with government acquisitions in a FAR based and OT based framework
• Experience at a Government space agency
• Ability to direct and control overall organizational resources; considerable initiative, organizational skills; and the ability to drive convergence and resolution to challenges of substantial importance to Rocketdyne.
• Contact network with U.S. Government customers/stakeholders and aerospace/defense Prime contractors.
• Located near our primary civil space customers