Director of Business Development - DOD/IC

The Mission
At Kestrel, we are building the future of scalable autonomy across domains. Our systems enable commercial and national security customers to sense and act in support of complex missions without significant autonomous system expertise. This technology bridges domains (e.g., space, air, land, sea) and fields (e.g., AI, orbital dynamics, geospatial), so it requires a team with both breadth and depth in these related topics.

The Role
As Director of Business Development for a set of DoD and/or IC customers, you will grow Kestrel’s national security portfolio by building relationships, shaping requirements, and capturing new work across defense and intelligence organizations. You will connect mission owners with Kestrel’s ISR tasking, collection management, and sensor orchestration capabilities, and you will turn early conversations into funded programs. This role requires initiative, credibility with operational and acquisition communities, and a deep respect for the mission.

Core Responsibilities:

• Build and manage a qualified pipeline of opportunities across COCOMs, service components, PEOs, and IC agencies (e.g., NGA, NRO, INSCOM, DIA).
• Develop trusted relationships with mission owners, program managers, contracting officers, and technical evaluators.
• Identify, shape, and pursue opportunities through traditional and nontraditional acquisition pathways, such as OTAs, SBIRs, BAAs, CSOs, and CRADAs.
• Lead capture planning for priority pursuits, including customer engagement strategy, competitive analysis, teaming, and win themes.
• Partner with engineering and product leaders to translate customer mission needs into clear solution concepts, demos, and pilot plans.
• Lead or support proposal development, including white papers, solution briefs, technical volumes, and pricing inputs.
• Build teaming relationships with primes, integrators, and other nontraditional vendors to expand Kestrel’s access to contract vehicles.
• Track opportunities, forecasts, and customer activity in Kestrel’s pipeline tools, and report progress to company leadership.
• Represent Kestrel at industry days, conferences, and customer events (e.g., GEOINT Symposium, AUSA, SOF Week, AFA Warfare Symposium).
• Help the company transition pilots and prototypes into follow-on production contracts and programs of record.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in business development, capture management, or program leadership supporting DoD or IC customers.
• A demonstrated record of winning new contracts, with direct experience in OTAs, SBIRs, or other rapid acquisition mechanisms.
• A working understanding of the DoD and IC organizational landscape, budgets, and acquisition processes (e.g., FAR, DFARS, PPBE).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and write compelling proposals.

Bonus:

• Prior operational experience in ISR, collection management, GEOINT, or SIGINT.
• Familiarity with sensor tradecraft across SAR, EO/IR, RF, or hyperspectral domains.
• Experience selling software, AI, or data products to government customers, particularly at a startup or venture-backed company.
• An existing network across space, air, and maritime mission communities.
• Location near Colorado Springs, CO, or Washington, DC (with regular travel to customer sites in the National Capital Region and to COCOM locations).
• Active Top Secret // Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS//SCI) clearance with a counterintelligence-scope polygraph (CSP) or full-scope polygraph (FSP).

Must be a US Citizen.