Business Development Operations Manager

Who We Are:

At SES Space & Defense, we are a trusted partner ensuring mission success for customers operating in the most demanding environments. As part of SES S.A., a global leader in satellite-enabled connectivity, we deliver multi-orbit, end-to-end satellite and technology solutions that provide secure, reliable, and high-bandwidth communications across the globe.

Our differentiated multi-orbit architecture combines GEO and MEO satellite systems with integrated terrestrial and network infrastructure to deliver resilient, low-latency, high-throughput connectivity at a global scale. With more than 120 satellites covering nearly the entire world, a global ground network, and thousands of deployed terminals supporting over 5,000 government missions annually, SES Space and Defense is a trusted partner to the U.S. Federal Government and national security community, allied governments, NATO, and agencies including NASA for mission-critical communications.

We strive to be the only solution when success is critical and recognize our people as our competitive advantage. At SES Space & Defense, you'll work alongside a mission-driven team committed to integrity, honor, and accountability, delivering real-world impact across today's most critical missions.

What You'll Do / Impact You'll Own:

This role owns the business development operating rhythm, pipeline and forecast discipline, CRM workflows, internal tooling, and cross-functional execution needed to help Business Development Managers close deals. You will translate BD priorities into measurable action across Business Development, Product, Marketing, Finance, Contracts, Legal, Engineering, Operations, and senior leadership; remove friction from capture and proposal workflows; deliver decision-ready reporting; and create structure in a fast-moving environment serving DoD, Intelligence Community, Civil agency, and commercial space stakeholders. Support expansion and growth of the business base by maintaining current SATCOM customers and developing new customer relationships within emerging space markets including hosted payloads, space situational awareness (SSA), remote sensing missions, data architectures, hybrid networks, and nextgeneration space systems.

• Owns business development operating cadence with single-threaded accountability for forecast visibility, pipeline hygiene, priority tracking, and executive follow-through.
• Creates structure in ambiguous, fast-moving BD environments by translating strategic priorities into processes, dashboards, playbooks, and measurable execution.
• Uses CRM systems, data quality standards, and workflow automation to make Salesforce the source of truth for pipeline, capture status, account health, and leadership decisions.
• Supports fielded BDMs by streamlining administrative workflows, mitigating internal blockers, coordinating stakeholders, and enabling customer engagements.
• Navigates cross-functional dynamics across Product, Marketing, Finance, Contracts, Legal, Engineering, Operations, and leadership to align resources, resolve tradeoffs, and advance deals.

• Run weekly and quarterly BD operating cadence, including forecast reviews, pipeline inspection, account reviews, campaign reviews, opportunity follow-up, and action-item closure.
• Partner with Business Development Managers and senior leadership to improve bookings forecast accuracy, pipeline coverage, opportunity qualification, capture timing, and portfolio health.
• Build and maintain dashboards and executive reporting for revenue, bookings, pipeline, account health, campaign impact, capture progress, bid/proposal status, and resource gaps.
• Support BDMs from opportunity identification through qualification, capture planning, proposal support, customer-engagement preparation, pricing/approval coordination, and post-meeting follow-through.
• Track off-sites, pipeline deep-dives, customer engagements, trade shows, executive briefings, campaign execution, and strategic initiatives.
• Identify process bottlenecks, decision blockers, ownership gaps, and misaligned incentives; recommend improvements and drive adoption without slowing deal velocity.
• Maintain disciplined documentation of BD priorities, opportunity status, next steps, dependencies, and leadership decisions so distributed field teams remain aligned.

Who You Are / Impact You'll Bring:

You are an operational leader who brings structure, clarity, and accountability to complex business development environments. You've supported high-performing sales or capture teams in government or mission-driven sectors, translating strategy into disciplined execution through strong pipeline management, forecasting, and CRM ownership. You are highly organized and detail-oriented, with a track record of building operating rhythms, dashboards, and processes that improve visibility and accelerate deal velocity. You operate comfortably across cross-functional teams, aligning stakeholders, removing blockers, and ensuring priorities move forward in fast-paced, ambiguous environments. Ultimately, you serve as the force multiplier behind the team, enabling leaders to focus on winning business while you ensure the engine runs efficiently and predictably.

• 8+ years of combined experience across business development operations, capture/sales support, and federal-sector program support.
• 3+ years supporting U.S. Federal, DoD, Intelligence Community, Civil agency, or other complex government/public-sector accounts in a BD, operations, capture, or sales enablement capacity.
• Hands-on ownership of CRM ecosystems such as Salesforce, including dashboarding, reporting, pipeline hygiene, stage governance, and workflow optimization.
• Proven ability to support BDMs or sales leaders in complex deal environments with forecast reviews, opportunity inspection, action tracking, customer-engagement preparation, and proposal/capture support.
• Mission-critical leadership experience in a high-accountability environment such as military operations, government contracting, aerospace/space, defense technology, or another high-urgency operating context.
• Strong planning, organization, project management, written communication, and presentation skills.

• Experience in high-growth space, satellite services, remote sensing, RF/data, SATCOM, defense technology, or government-focused technology businesses.
• Familiarity with DoD/IC/Civil agency buying cycles, federal acquisition/budgeting processes, capture management, proposal workflows, and customer/partner engagement models.
• Prior U.S. military officer or equivalent operational leadership experience with responsibility for readiness, systems, personnel, compliance, and risk management.
• Demonstrated measurable impact improving forecast accuracy, pipeline quality, CRM adoption, onboarding/time-to-productivity, retention, campaign conversion, or BD team execution.
• Ability to understand and communicate space/government mission context, including satellite operations, hosted payloads, remote sensing, data services, and constellation/mission-architecture concepts; active security clearance or ability to obtain one.

SES Space & Defense is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws. #LI-Hybrid #LI-DR1