Director, Applications Engineering

CesiumAstro•El Segundo, CA

2d•$228,000 - $279,000

About The Position

CesiumAstro is hiring a Director, Applications Engineering to lead its customer-facing technical organization. The director oversees Applications Engineers who are experts in the company’s communication products and serve as a key interface among customers, Product, Engineering, Business Development, and program execution. The organization helps customers understand, integrate, operate, and deploy standard and configurable products throughout the lifecycle, from early evaluation and pursuits through integration, testing, deployment, and on-orbit or other operational support. The director owns the Voice of the Customer within the product organization, translating customer needs, integration challenges, operational experience, and product feedback into actionable requirements, roadmap priorities, documentation, tools, and improvements. The role also develops the team’s technical expertise and scalable application solutions, and coordinates customer support and product issue resolution with internal teams.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field with 11–15 years of related experience; or a master’s degree in a related field with 9–12 years; or a PhD in a related field with 7–10 years. Relevant experience may be in applications engineering, systems engineering, product engineering, customer integration, technical support, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 5 years of leadership or management experience leading applications engineering, systems engineering, product engineering, or related technical professionals and managers.
Extensive experience directing customer integration and deployment activities involving complex hardware and software systems.
Expertise resolving significant system integration, product performance, and technical challenges through direct customer engagement and cross-functional engineering coordination.
Demonstrated experience translating customer requirements, operational feedback, and field experience into product requirements, technical documentation, application tools, and product improvements.
Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, conditional resident, asylee, or refugee protected under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State, to comply with U.S. Government Space Technology Export Regulations.

Responsibilities

Build, develop, and lead a high-performing customer-facing Applications Engineering team with deep knowledge of company products, applications, interfaces, and operation.
Establish Applications Engineering as the primary technical interface for customers integrating and deploying standard and configurable products.
Ensure customers receive the technical guidance, documentation, tools, training, and support needed to integrate, test, commission, and operate products.
Capture customer needs, integration challenges, feedback, and operational experience, and translate them into actionable input for Product and Engineering.
Partner with Product leadership to identify recurring customer needs, usability gaps, integration challenges, and new applications that should influence product capabilities and investment priorities.
Ensure the team maintains detailed knowledge of product hardware, software, interfaces, performance, configuration, and operational behavior through engagement with development teams and hands-on laboratory experience.
Partner with Communication Systems Architects, Business Development, and Product teams to apply products to customer needs, develop configurations, answer technical questions, and support proposals and customer demonstrations.
Establish how customers are supported through integration, testing, commissioning, and operation, including rapid diagnosis and resolution of customer-reported anomalies.
Own the strategy and quality of customer-facing technical content, including manuals, application notes, integration guides, reference architectures, examples, and training materials.
Identify recurring customer integration patterns and develop reference architectures, tools, procedures, and standard solutions that reduce engineering effort and simplify deployment.
Establish mechanisms to escalate product issues, communicate customer priorities, support root-cause resolution, and ensure deployment lessons improve future product releases.
Work across Conceptual Design, Product Development & Assurance, Product Management, Engineering, Business Development, and execution teams throughout the product lifecycle.
Develop a team that combines technical depth with customer engagement, systems thinking, troubleshooting, and clear technical communication.