Full-Time

Site Acquisition Lead

Updated on 9/3/2026

LeoLabs

LeoLabs

51-200 employees

LEO satellite tracking and collision avoidance.

No salary listed

No H1B Sponsorship

Remote in USA

Remote

Must be located in the Pacific or Mountain time zones; extensive U.S. and global travel may be required.

US Top Secret Clearance Required

Bachelor's

Category
Real Estate
Required Skills
Communications
Data Visualization
Version Control

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Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree in Real Estate, Engineering, Business, Project Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
  • At least 7 years of experience in program management, project management, operations, business development, real estate or site development, site acquisition, infrastructure development, international expansion, or a related field.
  • Ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams while balancing competing priorities and maintaining momentum, quality, and attention to detail.
  • Strong problem-solving skills to navigate complex, ambiguous, or evolving situations involving external partners, documentation, follow-up, and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Strong negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
  • Strong project management and organizational skills.
  • Excellent written communication skills to distill complex technical, regulatory, and commercial information into clear recommendations for stakeholders and leadership.
  • Strong attention to documentation quality, recordkeeping, and version control.
  • Willingness and capability to travel extensively within the United States and globally if required.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Personnel Security Clearance.
Responsibilities
  • Lead site acquisition strategy and execution for radar and sensor installation sites across the United States and abroad.
  • Identify and evaluate potential sites based on technical, environmental, regulatory, and operational requirements.
  • Conduct site feasibility studies in collaboration with engineering, radio frequency, and systems teams.
  • Manage negotiations with landowners, utilities, municipalities, and government stakeholders.
  • Coordinate permitting, zoning, and regulatory approvals required for site development.
  • Partner with engineering and construction teams to ensure site readiness for installation and operations.
  • Oversee site due diligence, including access, power availability, data connectivity, and environmental considerations.
  • Develop and manage site acquisition schedules aligned with program timelines and deployment milestones.
  • Mitigate risks related to land access, regulatory constraints, and deployment delays.
  • Maintain strong stakeholder relationships across public and private sectors.
  • Manage external consultants, advisors, brokers, surveyors, environmental specialists, radio frequency consultants, utilities, and other technical partners to ensure timely, high-quality deliverables.
  • Coordinate with Legal, Finance, Engineering, Corporate Affairs, and other internal stakeholders to keep site acquisition activities aligned with technical, commercial, and program objectives.
  • Develop, maintain, and continuously improve site acquisition processes, templates, checklists, and playbooks to enhance consistency, efficiency, and decision quality across the program.
  • Maintain comprehensive project documentation, including decision records, version-controlled files, and supporting documentation for auditability and knowledge retention.
  • Prepare executive updates documenting key decisions, risks, recommendations, and next steps for leadership and program stakeholders, and support long-term site portfolio planning and expansion strategy.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience working with government agencies, military installations, or classified programs.
  • Experience supporting radar, radio frequency, telecommunications, defense, or large-scale sensor infrastructure deployments.
  • Experience managing complex, multi-site acquisition or deployment programs.
  • Familiarity with remote or environmentally complex site development.
  • Knowledge of utility coordination and infrastructure requirements, including power, fiber, and communications.
  • Experience managing external vendors, consultants, and civil engineering partners.
  • Experience developing templates, playbooks, dashboards, or other tools that improve repeatability and program execution.
  • Experience supporting classified infrastructure or secure site development programs.
  • Experience working with regulatory, zoning, and permitting processes.
  • Ability to interpret technical requirements and translate them into site selection criteria.
  • Active U.S. Secret or Top Secret Personnel Security Clearance.

LeoLabs.Space provides satellite tracking, collision avoidance alerts, on-console payload identification, and mission risk assessment for operators, commercial users, and government clients in Low Earth Orbit. It uses a global phased-array radar network that continuously observes objects in LEO; its Vertex platform processes the data to track satellites, issue real-time warnings, and generate risk insights for decision-making. The company differentiates itself with an independent, wide-area radar network and end-to-end data delivery and risk assessment tailored for space operators and stakeholders. Its goal is to improve safety, reliability, and planning in LEO by giving timely, accurate information and tools to manage space traffic and mission risk.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Grant

Total Funding

$115M

Headquarters

Menlo Park, California

Founded

2016

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • USSF awarded LeoLabs $20.68 million on August 26, 2026 for Scout.
  • LeoLabs closed 2025 with over $60 million contract awards and 186% USG growth.
  • DOC and USSF jointly licensed LeoLabs’ object catalog in September 2025, validating TraCSS demand.

What critics are saying

  • Delta replaced LeoGuard in April 2026, proving product churn and integration risk.
  • The August 2026 Space Force OTA is prototyping, not a committed production program.
  • Northrop Grumman, Slingshot Aerospace, and classified government sensors can compress LeoLabs’ moat by 2027.

What makes LeoLabs unique

  • LeoLabs’ 2026 Delta platform fuses radar, catalogs, and AI for national security users.
  • Its proliferated radar network and object catalog give unmatched commercial LEO coverage.
  • Scout containerized radars extend coverage quickly into Indo-Pacific and contested theaters.

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Benefits

Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

-1%
Defense Daily
Aug 26th, 2026
LeoLabs to provide Space Force with surveillance radar.

LeoLabs to provide Space Force with surveillance radar. Wednesday, August 26th, 2026 LeoLabs on Wednesday said the Space Force has awarded the company a $20.7 million contract to deliver a modified version of its Scout containerized space surveillance radar for a "new defense mission set." The expeditionary S-band direct radiating array radar system was introduced in April 2025 and the first operational deployment occurred earlier this year, LeoLabs said (Defense Daily, April 7, 2025). The new "award provides the opportunity to demonstrate a variant of this system in support of future defense... Not a subscriber or registered user yet? Please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday - Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.

PR Newswire
Aug 26th, 2026
US Space Force awards LeoLabs $20.68M contract for transportable 3D radar systems

LeoLabs has been awarded a $20.68 million Prototype Other Transaction Agreement by the US Space Force to deliver a modified Scout radar system for defence testing and evaluation. The Menlo Park-based orbital intelligence company will demonstrate its transportable 3D search radar technology for new defence missions. The Scout system comprises containerised, transportable radars designed to integrate with existing defence architectures. These systems enable rapid deployment of additional sensing capacity to improve battle space awareness and architecture resiliency. LeoLabs deployed its first operational Scout system for space domain awareness earlier this year. The company operates a radar network providing real-time orbital data and AI-powered analytics for military, government, and commercial space operators.

LeoLabs
Aug 26th, 2026
LeoLabs awarded contract to deliver defense test capability in support of U.S. Space Force.

LeoLabs awarded contract to deliver defense test capability in support of U.S. Space Force. MENLO PARK, CA, 26 AUGUST 2026 - LeoLabs, Inc. (LeoLabs), the leading provider of persistent Orbital Intelligence, today announced it has been awarded a $20.68 million Prototype Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) to support the U.S. Space Force (USSF). Under the award, LeoLabs will deliver a modified LeoLabs Scout system, providing the company the opportunity to demonstrate its proven radar technology for a new defense mission set. As emerging threats become faster and more maneuverable, maintaining persistent custody and quality tracking requires a more resilient, distributed sensing approach. U.S. national security depends on terrestrial and space-based sensing networks that combine large, exquisite systems with rapidly deployable capabilities to extend coverage, strengthen resiliency, and adapt to evolving operational requirements. To meet this need, LeoLabs is advancing Scout, a family of containerized, transportable, 3D search radars designed to integrate seamlessly with existing defense architectures. These systems expand the distributed sensing layer by enabling rapid deployment of additional sensing capacity where and when it is needed, improving battle space awareness, strengthening architecture resiliency, and supporting persistent custody across dynamic, contested environments. Following the deployment of its first operational Scout system optimized for space domain awareness earlier this year, this award provides the opportunity to demonstrate a variant of this system in support of future defense missions. This reinforces the company's commitment to delivering rapidly fielded commercial capabilities that strengthen U.S. national security. More broadly, the award reflects LeoLabs' long-standing strategy of identifying emerging operational challenges, investing ahead of formal procurement requirements, and developing commercially funded technologies that can be rapidly demonstrated, integrated, and scaled alongside government partners. "We're honored to partner with the Space Force and bring our proven sensing technology into U.S. national security," said Tony Frazier, Chief Executive Officer of LeoLabs. "We've spent the past decade building and operating high-performance radar systems while investing in transportable, proliferated sensing to meet emerging mission needs. Together, we're demonstrating how proven commercial technology can accelerate the delivery of new capabilities for U.S. defense missions." LeoLabs Press Contact [email protected]

Tech Funding News
Aug 5th, 2026
Ex-Portuguese Space Agency chief's Neuraspace raises €15.6M to protect satellites with AI.

Ex-Portuguese Space Agency chief's Neuraspace raises €15.6M to protect satellites with AI. August 5, 2026 * Portuguese space tech startup Neuraspace has secured €15.6 million in new funding from Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, Armilar Venture Partners and Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan. * Founded in 2020, the company provides AI Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Traffic Management (STM) solutions, monitoring more than 600 satellites for commercial, institutional and defence customers. * The fresh capital will accelerate autonomous space operations, expand sensing infrastructure and strengthen its dual-use platform for defence and government customers. Space used to be big enough to ignore. It isn't anymore - and the woman who once ran Portugal's national space agency now runs the company betting that Europe needs its own eyes on orbit before someone else's do the looking for it. Neuraspace, headquartered in Coimbra with additional offices in Luxembourg and Germany, has raised €15.6 million to scale its AI Space Domain Awareness and Space Traffic Management platform. The round combines six million euros in private capital from Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, and Armilar Venture Partners with 9.6 million euros awarded under Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan. Founded in 2020 and incubated at Instituto Pedro Nunes, Neuraspace is led by CEO Chiara Manfletti, the former president of the Portuguese Space Agency and a former senior adviser to the director general of the European Space Agency. Armilar was Neuraspace's first institutional backer, putting in €2.5 million back in 2022 - this new round is roughly six times that size, and comes on the back of Armilar closing its own 120-million-euro Fund IV in November to back more Iberian What the platform does. Neuraspace fuses commercial and sovereign sensor data with orbit-determination modelling and AI risk assessment, giving satellite operators automated manoeuvre recommendations rather than manual collision-avoidance work. An operator managing dozens of satellites gets an automated flag and a suggested manoeuvre the moment a conjunction risk crosses a threshold, instead of an engineer manually cross-checking tracking data. The company has widened its scope beyond collision avoidance into contested-space threats - cyberattacks, GPS spoofing, and jamming - through its dual-use NeuraspaceDEF platform, built for defence and government customers alongside its commercial product. Neuraspace competes with US-based LeoLabs, which has raised roughly $120-130 million to date and holds contracts with the US Space Force, as well as Slingshot Aerospace, Privateer Space, and Kayhan Space. Most rivals stick to collision avoidance alone. Neuraspace's pitch is combining that with defence-grade threat intelligence in one platform, on the theory that space safety and space security stopped being separate problems a while ago. It's a similar sovereignty argument to the one playing out across Europe's defence tech sector, where the US still captures roughly 85% of NATO defence-tech venture funding, a gap funds like AVP and Earlybird's new 500-million-euro E2D vehicle are trying to close. The traction and the trajectory. Neuraspace says it now monitors more than 600 satellites for customers including Spire Global, GEOSAT, NanoAvionics, Sidus Space, U-Space, and the European Space Agency, alongside contracts with the Portuguese Air Force and NATO. The company was also recently selected as prime contractor by an unnamed European Ministry of Defence, with SpaceNews reporting Neuraspace deferred full details to a planned announcement in September. Revenue reportedly grew more than 350% over the past year, though that figure is company-reported and not independently verified. "Neuraspace has established itself as one of Europe's most promising space technology companies, combining outstanding technical execution with growing commercial traction in a market of increasing strategic importance," says Vasco Pereira Coutinho, CEO of Lince Capital Manfletti frames the raise as a shift in mission: "When Neuraspace was founded, our mission was to make space safer. That mission has evolved with the operational reality. Today, protecting satellites means addressing both accidental risks and intentional threats." European space ventures raised 1.4 billion euros in 2025, per ESA's Space Economy Report 2026, down 8% year on year but still the second-highest annual total on record, even as US space investment surged 177%. Neuraspace's raise lands as a test of whether Europe will fund its own orbital infrastructure at the scale the moment demands, or keep depending on capabilities built elsewhere.

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Jun 11th, 2026
LeoLabs deploys first mobile space tracking radar.

LeoLabs deploys first mobile space tracking radar. LeoLabs deploys first mobile space tracking radar written 11 june 2026. In this section. Via Satellite reports, "LeoLabs has debuted a new mobile space domain awareness (SDA) tracking radar housed in a shipping container, deploying the first radar in the Asia-Pacific region." Full Story (Via Satellite)