Solutions Architect Director, International Government

What we are seeking:  

Maxar is seeking a Solution Architect Director to join Maxar’s International Government (IG) Solutions Team.  This role is focused on enabling customer success by supporting the technical sales and deployment of our advanced geospatial analytics and AI-powered product suite into ISR platforms and environments. The ideal candidate is a highly motivated individual with a proven track record of being a technical leader and SME, innovative thinker, and value generator.  

Why It Matters:  

The IG Solutions team is a dynamic, results-oriented team of Defense and Intelligence subject matter experts (SME), innovators and solution sales architects who over-deliver for our customers. This Solution Architect Director will be a leader among a team of innovation professionals and will interact across C-suite and senior government and military officials and tech teams to help our customers bring our solutions to life in their systems.  Our business is fueled by delivering tangible value to our customers, and we need a team member who is obsessed with making that happen. 

Who We Are:  

Maxar is the global leader in Geospatial Intelligence and Insights. Since the 1970s, Maxar has delivered full-cycle solutions from imaging satellite design to AI/ML-powered insights and the most accurate 3D terrain models at global scale. Our products support mission-critical operations for governments and defense organizations, civil agencies, and commercial customers worldwide. Whether responding to disasters or enabling sovereign decision-making, Maxar delivers precision, scale, and trust. 

Where: This role is based in either our Herndon, VA, or London, UK offices. 

The Role:  

As a Solutions Architect Director, your focus will be on leading technical sales and integration engagements for our most demanding customers, matching mission requirements with Maxar capabilities and driving successful launch of new solution offerings across international customers.  Your focus will also be on helping customers evaluate, integrate, and deploy our products and system components into a variety of environments including edge compute systems, environments supporting positioning and navigation, imagery, and real-time analysis. You will be expected to: 

Think Strategically: 

• ​Establish and maintain effective relationships with current and new government and national security customers gaining recognition as a trusted and respected representative of Maxar 

• Guide the positioning and articulation of our key value propositions to targeted high value customers   

• Mentor, coach, and advise technical sales professionals and leaders within the regions on technical aspects and go to market strategies for new Defense and Intelligence related solutions.  

• Partner with product management and engineering teams to respond to complex customer requirements including AI/ML based solutions. 

Act Tactically: 

• Direct responsibility for IG solution technical sales.  This includes coaching regional sales and sales engineer teams in technical pre-sales aspects of the government industry  

• Take a “hands-on” approach when called for on top innovation projects, coaching sales, technical teams and business unit execs in technical and solution strategies 

• Help in driving the design/development of custom products/solutions  

• Lead co-development of proposals to respond to RFPs, RFIs, and tenders. 

• Rigorous technical and solutions qualification of innovation projects and sales opportunities focusing resources on those opportunities/projects which differentiate in the marketplace. 

• Interact directly with customers and their technical experts to review, understand, and gather requirements and convey those technical requirements to Maxar internal teams    

• Clearly communicate with multiple Maxar stakeholders and leaders with consistency and integrity.   

• Deliver custom demonstrations and rapid prototypes for customer evaluations 

​Understand Our Customers: 

• Leverage your government industry, mission domain and AI/ML knowledge when working with cross-divisional teams to grow business and increase market share for Maxar Intelligence. 

• Understand and assess the customer’s technical environment, including constraints, interfaces, and operational workflows 

• Engage with both program and engineering stakeholders to map mission needs to system integration pathways.  

• Use consultative selling skills to understand operational, mission and business challenges of customers. 

Required Qualifications: 

• Active US / UK Government security clearance 

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline (Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Math) 

• 10+ years of previous experience in technical/solution sales in the International National / Ministry-level space intelligence, ISR and geospatial or similar defense and intelligence work. 

• 10+ years of matrixed sales experience, interfacing with internal stakeholders in professional services, products, and operations.  

• Experience working with ISR-relevant imagery and video formats, such as GeoTIFF, MPEG-TS, KLV metadata, H.264/H.265, STANAG 4609, MISB and working with image matching techniques (e.g., SIFT, ORB, SURF) 

• Understanding of 3D terrain data formats (e.g., DEM/DTED, Cesium 3D Tiles) and coordinate systems (e.g., WGS84, UTM) 

• Experience in translating / distilling complex customer requirements and concepts of operations into creative winning solutions and proposals  

• Results-oriented team player with a demonstrated high level of integrity.  

• Works well in a dynamic environment where some of the parameters are unknown and change is a given. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English  

• Ability to travel domestically or internationally averaging about 25% with potential peaks up to 50% 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Master’s degree in an Engineering or related Discipline 

• Minimum 4 years of experience as a people manager for an enterprise technical sales organization  

• Background in AI/ML applications related to computer vision, sensor fusion, or ISR analytics 

• Experience in AI/ML intelligence and insights use cases  

• Systems engineering, software engineering, or program management experience in the context of defense programs 

• Experience conducting technical feasibility assessments for mission-critical platforms