Business Development and Growth Director

Overview:

Digantara U.S. is the U.S. arm of Digantara, a space domain awareness company that combines space-based and ground-based sensing with analytics to deliver space intelligence to government and commercial operators. We are a Nontraditional Defense Contractor building our first U.S. team in Denver, Colorado.

This is a founding role: you will be one of the first U.S. hires, reporting to the Group CEO, and you will shape the team, the market strategy and the culture of the U.S. business.

You will lead the growth of Digantara's U.S. defense business, building the customer relationships, partnerships, and pipeline needed to establish a strong market presence. You will identify and prioritize target programs, shape opportunities before solicitation, and lead strategic pursuits from initial engagement through contract award.

You will own the business development pipeline across the U.S. Space Force (including Space Systems Command and Space Operations Command), the National Reconnaissance Office and Intelligence Community, the Space Development Agency, innovation channels such as SpaceWERX, AFWERX and DIU, and the broader defense ecosystem. You will set the direction, open doors, drive opportunities, and win contracts.

What You Will Do:

• Build and execute a focused U.S. defense growth plan for Space Domain Awareness & Missile Warning capabilities, including data and services buys, hardware systems, account priorities, market hypotheses, pipeline stages, and revenue objectives.
• Develop durable relationships with government program offices, acquisition stakeholders, operational users, systems integrators, and prime contractors.
• Identify, qualify, and shape opportunities before formal solicitation by clarifying mission need, funding path, acquisition approach, decision criteria, and competitive position.
• Own capture strategy for priority pursuits, including customer engagement plans, win themes, teaming strategy, executive reviews, and bid/no-bid recommendations.
• Create and manage partner and teaming relationships, including deciding when Digantara should lead as prime and when it should team as a subcontractor.
• Translate customer needs into clear internal direction for product, engineering, operations, pricing, legal, and proposal contributors, in compliance with export-control (ITAR/EAR) and FOCI requirements that govern what can be shared with Digantara's non-U.S. teams.
• Maintain an accurate, evidence-based pipeline and report opportunity health, risks, next actions, and resource needs to leadership.
• Represent Digantara U.S. at relevant defense conferences, customer meetings, and partner forums while maintaining high standards of ethics and procurement integrity.
• Build the U.S. business development function: hire and lead the Capture Manager and future BD staff, select advisors and consultants, and establish CRM, gate-review and pricing discipline.

What You Bring:

• 12+ years in U.S. defense business development, capture, program leadership or acquisition, including at least 5 years in national security space.
• A track record of personally leading capture on DoD or Intelligence Community pursuits that resulted in awards, ideally in space domain awareness, missile warning/tracking or space intelligence. You can describe your role, the win strategy, contract values and outcomes.
• Experience selling to the government from a startup, nontraditional or commercial-first company, using OTAs, CSOs, BAAs, commercial data purchases or innovation channels (SpaceWERX, DIU).
• Preferred: experience at a foreign-owned U.S. company operating under FOCI mitigation and working knowledge of ITAR/EAR.
• Working knowledge of the defense acquisition lifecycle, contracting vehicles, procurement ethics, and the distinction between early shaping and active solicitation.
• A credible network across relevant DoD, defense-industry, and teaming-partner communities, with the judgment to build new relationships where needed.
• Strong executive communication, customer listening, negotiation, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Ability to operate as a player-coach in a resource-constrained environment and make disciplined decisions about where not to invest.
• U.S. citizenship required. Active Secret clearance (or one current within the last 24 months) required; active TS/SCI strongly preferred, CI polygraph a plus.

General Requirements:

• Proven ability to build and scale business development functions, develop qualified pipelines, and achieve or exceed revenue and growth targets.
• Strong strategic and analytical skills, with the ability to translate complex technical capabilities into compelling customer value propositions and actionable growth strategies.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to deliver executive briefings, customer presentations, and persuasive business proposals to senior government and industry stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ownership, accountability, and initiative, with the ability to operate hands-on, prioritize effectively, and deliver results in a fast-paced, resource-constrained environment.
• Ability to lead cross-functional collaboration across technical, commercial, and executive teams, with willingness to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.

Digantara US is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other attribute protected under applicable law. All employment decisions are strictly made on the basis of merit, competency & qualifications.

Job Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States