Business Development Manager - AFRICOM & EUCOM

Who We Are:

At SES Space & Defense, we deliver secure, resilient connectivity and integrated space solutions for customers operating in the world’s most demanding environments. As part of SES S.A., a global leader in satellite-enabled communications, we combine capabilities across all orbits with extensive global ground infrastructure, managed networks, hosted payload solutions, and mission integration services to support communications, sensing, data transport, and operational resilience worldwide.

Our vertically integrated space and ground capabilities bring together satellite capacity, terrestrial infrastructure, advanced network technologies, and deployed user terminals to support mission-critical government operations around the world. We are a trusted partner to the U.S. Federal Government and national security community, allied governments, NATO, NASA, and other civilian agencies, delivering reliable, high-performance solutions when mission success is critical.

At SES Space & Defense, our people are our competitive advantage. You’ll work alongside a mission-driven team committed to integrity, innovation, accountability, and delivering real-world impact for customers whose missions matter most.

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SES Space & Defense is seeking a strategic, growth-oriented Business Development Manager to lead customer engagement, opportunity development, and capture activities supporting the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) and U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) mission areas.

The Business Development Manager will be responsible for identifying, qualifying, developing, and securing new business opportunities supporting U.S. Government, Department of War (DoW), Intelligence Community (IC), NATO, allied, and partner-nation missions throughout the EUCOM and AFRICOM Areas of Responsibility (AORs).

The position will focus on expanding SES Space & Defense's presence across Combatant Command headquarters, military service components, Special Operations Forces, joint and coalition organizations, acquisition organizations, and strategic industry partners. The successful candidate will develop trusted relationships with senior military and government leaders and identify requirements for commercial satellite communications (SATCOM), multi-orbit connectivity, secure networking, managed communications services, resilient communications, and other space-enabled capabilities.

The ideal candidate combines a strong understanding of U.S. defense and international security markets with proven business development and capture experience, executive-level relationship management skills, technical credibility, and a demonstrated ability to develop and win complex government and defense opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

Business Development & Growth Strategy

• Develop and execute strategic business development initiatives supporting SES Space & Defense growth objectives within the AFRICOM and EUCOM theaters.
• Establish and maintain a qualified pipeline of opportunities across Combatant Commands, military service components, DoW, IC, NATO, allied governments, partner nations, and other strategic customers.
• Identify emerging requirements for SATCOM, space services, secure connectivity, managed network services, tactical communications, and resilient communications capabilities.
• Develop and execute account strategies for key AFRICOM and EUCOM customers and organizations.
• Conduct market analysis, competitive intelligence, customer research, and mission analysis to identify emerging requirements and funding opportunities.
• Track theater-specific operational priorities, modernization initiatives, exercises, contingency requirements, and acquisition programs that may generate business opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing customer relationships and introduce additional SES Space & Defense capabilities.
• Develop and maintain a strategic business development plan aligned with corporate growth objectives.
• Provide senior leadership with regular assessments of market conditions, customer priorities, competitive activity, and pipeline health.

AFRICOM & EUCOM Customer Engagement

• Establish and maintain trusted relationships with senior government, military, acquisition, and industry stakeholders supporting AFRICOM and EUCOM missions.
• Develop relationships across Combatant Command headquarters and subordinate organizations, including military service components and Special Operations Forces.
• Engage with organizations supporting European and African theater missions, including U.S., NATO, allied, and partner-nation stakeholders.
• Develop a strong understanding of customer mission requirements, operational challenges, acquisition strategies, and future capability needs.
• Represent SES Space & Defense at customer meetings, industry conferences, trade shows, exercises, government events, and defense forums.
• Coordinate executive-level engagements between SES Space & Defense leadership and key government and industry stakeholders.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to customers by identifying mission challenges and aligning SES Space & Defense capabilities with operational requirements.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with prime contractors, systems integrators, satellite operators, telecommunications providers, and other industry partners.

Capture & Opportunity Development

• Lead or support capture activities from early opportunity identification through contract award.
• Qualify opportunities based on customer need, funding, acquisition strategy, competitive environment, probability of win, and alignment with corporate objectives.
• Develop capture strategies, win themes, competitive assessments, customer engagement plans, and opportunity-specific value propositions.
• Identify and influence requirements early in the acquisition lifecycle.
• Develop teaming strategies and identify appropriate prime, subcontractor, and industry partners.
• Coordinate with technical, operations, pricing, contracts, legal, finance, and program management organizations to develop competitive solutions.
• Support development of pricing strategies, solution architectures, technical approaches, and competitive differentiators.
• Lead or participate in customer demonstrations, solution briefings, industry days, technical exchanges, and executive presentations.
• Monitor and report opportunity status, customer engagement, competitive activity, probability of win, and anticipated contract timelines.
• Maintain accurate CRM data, pipeline forecasts, account plans, and business development reporting.

SATCOM & Space Market Development

• Develop a strong understanding of commercial and government SATCOM architectures, multi-orbit solutions, managed communications services, secure networking, and resilient connectivity.
• Identify opportunities to support distributed and expeditionary forces operating throughout Europe and Africa.
• Understand customer requirements for fixed, tactical, mobile, and rapidly deployable communications.
• Identify opportunities involving Ku-, Ka-, X-, C-, L-, UHF-, and other applicable commercial or government communications capabilities.
• Evaluate customer requirements for bandwidth, coverage, mobility, resiliency, network management, teleport/gateway access, and worldwide IP connectivity.
• Translate operational requirements into commercially viable solutions using SES Space & Defense capabilities and strategic partners.
• Monitor developments in commercial space, proliferated LEO, GEO, multi-orbit networking, cloud connectivity, and resilient communications that may affect AFRICOM and EUCOM missions.

NATO, Allied & Partner-Nation Engagement

• Develop relationships with NATO organizations, European allies, African partner nations, and international defense organizations.
• Identify opportunities where U.S. and allied requirements can be addressed through common commercial space and communications capabilities.
• Support development of multinational and coalition-focused business opportunities.
• Develop teaming and channel-partner relationships that expand SES Space & Defense's ability to support international missions.
• Understand international procurement, contracting, export-control, and security considerations associated with allied and partner-nation opportunities.
• Coordinate with internal leadership and appropriate corporate functions to ensure international opportunities comply with applicable U.S. and international requirements.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Collaborate closely with engineering, operations, program management, contracts, legal, finance, security, and executive leadership.
• Translate customer requirements and market intelligence into actionable internal priorities.
• Provide customer and competitive insight to support solution development and service innovation.
• Coordinate internal resources to support customer engagements, demonstrations, proposals, and capture activities.
• Mentor junior business development professionals and contribute to a high-performance growth culture.
• Foster collaboration across business development, capture, operations, and technical organizations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, International Relations, Political Science, or related field.
• Demonstrated experience in business development, capture, strategic sales, or customer engagement within the defense, aerospace, satellite communications, space, telecommunications, or government technology sectors.
• Demonstrated success developing and winning opportunities with the DoW, Combatant Commands, military service components, Intelligence Community, NATO, allied governments, or international defense organizations.
• Strong understanding of U.S. Government acquisition processes, contracting vehicles, budgeting, appropriations, and procurement lifecycle.
• Understanding of the operational and acquisition environments supporting AFRICOM and/or EUCOM.
• Proven ability to establish and maintain senior-level customer relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and shape opportunities during the early stages of the acquisition lifecycle.
• Experience managing and forecasting multi-million-dollar opportunity pipelines.
• Strong presentation, negotiation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical capabilities to both technical and senior executive audiences.
• Ability to work effectively across technical, operational, business, and executive organizations.
• Active U.S. security clearance (Secret minimum; Top Secret/SCI preferred) or the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, including travel within the EUCOM and AFRICOM AORs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience supporting USAFRICOM and/or USEUCOM customers or subordinate organizations.
• Existing relationships with Combatant Command headquarters, military service components, Special Operations Forces, DoW acquisition organizations, NATO, or allied defense organizations.
• Experience supporting U.S. military operations or security cooperation activities in Europe or Africa.
• Experience with commercial SATCOM, multi-orbit architectures, secure networking, managed communications services, or resilient communications.
• Familiarity with tactical communications, expeditionary networking, beyond-line-of-sight communications, or space-enabled operational capabilities.
• Experience developing international or multinational government opportunities.
• Experience working with prime contractors and major systems integrators.
• Knowledge of government and commercial SATCOM procurement models, including managed services, transponder capacity, managed bandwidth, terminal solutions, and network services.
• Existing relationships with telecommunications providers, satellite operators, systems integrators, or other strategic industry partners.
• MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Business Development
• AFRICOM & EUCOM Market Knowledge
• Executive-Level Customer Engagement
• Account Strategy
• Opportunity Qualification
• Capture Strategy
• Competitive Intelligence
• Customer Relationship Management
• SATCOM & Space Market Expertise
• Government Acquisition
• NATO & Allied Engagement
• Negotiation & Influence
• Strategic Partnerships & Teaming
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Analytical Decision-Making
• Results Orientation
• Adaptability in Dynamic Environments

Performance Expectations

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Growth and quality of the AFRICOM and EUCOM qualified opportunity pipeline.
• Revenue and bookings generated from assigned accounts and markets.
• Win rate and successful capture of strategic opportunities.
• Growth of SES Space & Defense relationships within AFRICOM, EUCOM, DoW, NATO, allied, and partner-nation organizations.
• Number and quality of new customer relationships established.
• Successful identification and shaping of opportunities during the early acquisition lifecycle.
• Expansion of existing customer accounts and introduction of additional SES Space & Defense capabilities.
• Development of strategic teaming and industry partnerships.
• Accuracy and predictability of pipeline forecasting.
• Contribution to long-term corporate growth and market expansion objectives.
• Effectiveness of cross-functional collaboration and leadership.

Strategic Focus of the Position

The Business Development Manager will serve as a primary growth leader for SES Space & Defense within the AFRICOM and EUCOM theaters, with particular emphasis on identifying mission requirements before formal solicitations are released, developing trusted customer relationships, shaping requirements, building strategic partnerships, and positioning SES Space & Defense as a preferred provider of commercial space and communications capabilities.

The successful candidate will operate at the intersection of operational mission requirements, commercial space capabilities, government acquisition, and international defense partnerships, helping customers address the growing demand for resilient, secure, distributed, and multi-orbit communications across Europe and Africa.

SES Space & Defense is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law

The final base salary offered will be determined based on factors such as the position’s location, the candidate’s relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

Where applicable, this position may also be eligible for an annual bonus. Employees are eligible to participate in SES Space & Defense’s benefits programs, which include paid vacation, sick and personal leave; medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; a 401(k)-retirement plan; and others.