Director of ASO, Maritime Applications

Overwatch Imaging • Hood River, OR

3d

About The Position

Overwatch Imaging is hiring a Director of ASO for Maritime Applications to drive the adoption and growth of our Automated Sensor Operator product line across maritime domain awareness, maritime patrol, search and rescue, border and coastal security, counter-narcotics, fisheries enforcement, and related missions. Working both as an Integrated Product Team Leader and a collaborator across company functional teams, this Director will lead and influence the iterative process of understanding maritime user needs, developing and delivering capabilities that solve those needs, capturing and successfully executing contracts, learning from operational customer feedback, and converting successful deployments into growth opportunities. This role is built for a lead-from-the-front executive who can earn trust with maritime operators while also leading a team of product developers and customer success professionals. The successful candidate will understand the operational realities of wide-area maritime search and surveillance and be able to translate those realities into differentiated product capabilities, successful deployments and sustained revenue growth. Success in this role is defined by customer success and adoption of ASO across the maritime ISR community. This leader will work closely with business development, marketing, demonstrations, product development, test, and quality teammates across the company. This role reports directly to the CEO and will be accountable for substantial growth within the maritime mission area.

Requirements

• 10+ years of product development, customer management, business development, maritime ISR or operational experience relevant to maritime applications.
• Deep familiarity with maritime surveillance and ISR missions through prior operational service, program experience, product leadership or direct support to Navy, Coast Guard, DHS, international maritime forces or commercial maritime operators.
• Strong understanding of airborne maritime search and surveillance workflows, including the operational challenges of searching large ocean and littoral areas and identifying, classifying and maintaining awareness of vessels of interest.
• Experience with airborne ISR platforms such as P-8, HC-144, C-27J, MQ-9, ScanEagle, maritime patrol aircraft, UAS platforms or comparable ISR aircraft is strongly preferred.
• Proven track record of identifying, winning and delivering opportunities within defense, homeland security or maritime markets.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance; active Secret clearance preferred.
• Comfort with agile software development workflows and tools.
• Ability to deliver messages confidently to audiences ranging from software engineers and sensor operators to acquisition officers, program managers and senior decision-makers.
• Familiarity with maritime ISR technologies and data sources such as EO/IR sensors, AIS, maritime radar, geospatial intelligence and tactical data-sharing systems.
• Understanding of the relationship between sensor performance, search area, probability of detection, resolution, environmental conditions and mission effectiveness.
• Comfort with AI/ML, autonomy, computer vision and geospatial workflows; able to engage credibly in technical discussions involving edge processing, automated vessel detection, classification and tracking.
• Familiarity with relevant government acquisition and contracting mechanisms and the ability to navigate programs from initial demonstration through operational adoption.
• Thrives in a dynamic, fast-paced, venture-backed startup business environment.
• Motivates and inspires teammates through a strong work ethic and high personal accountability.
• Combines strong product judgment with a commercial mindset and understands that successful product decisions must ultimately drive customer adoption and business growth.
• Collaborates well in a small-team environment with teammates, customers and industry partners.
• Enjoys hands-on work, learning new technologies and missions, and taking responsible risks.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and making decisions with imperfect information.
• Takes pride in seeing new capabilities move rapidly from concept to operational use.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with airborne ISR platforms such as P-8, HC-144, C-27J, MQ-9, ScanEagle, maritime patrol aircraft, UAS platforms or comparable ISR aircraft is strongly preferred.
• Active Secret clearance preferred.

Responsibilities

• Turn Maritime User Needs into Product and Business Success
• Maintain close working relationships with maritime operators, program offices and industry partners to deeply understand mission workflows, capability gaps and emerging requirements.
• Identify opportunities to expand ASO adoption across maritime domain awareness, maritime patrol, search and rescue, counter-narcotics, border security, fisheries enforcement and related missions.
• Translate operational requirements into product capabilities that improve wide-area search, vessel detection, classification, tracking and actionable intelligence delivery.
• Deliver product prototypes and feature releases that demonstrate measurable operational value and lead to follow-on growth.
• Develop a strong understanding of adjacent sensors and data sources—including EO/IR, AIS and radar—and identify opportunities to create increasingly integrated maritime workflows.
• Oversee the Maritime Applications Integrated Product Team
• Identify, recruit and lead a cross-functional team capable of prototyping new capabilities, demonstrating and iterating on those capabilities, and transitioning successful concepts into long-term product offerings.
• Own product priorities and roadmap decisions for the maritime mission area based on customer value, competitive differentiation, technical feasibility and revenue potential.
• Connect the work of the Maritime team with broader company functional teams to maintain codebase integrity, architecture and quality standards.
• Act as a delivery leader by tracking progress, mitigating risks, removing blockers and ensuring commitments to customers are met.
• Drive Maritime User Community Adoption and Growth
• Contribute to the broader product vision for sensor autonomy while owning the roadmap necessary to drive frequent operational use and revenue growth in the maritime segment.
• Speak the language of maritime operators and translate effectively between customers, engineering, business development, marketing and company leadership.
• Build expertise in how ASO can improve long-range maritime search, vessel detection and classification, AIS-assisted workflows, multi-target surveillance and autonomous sensor operation.
• Represent Overwatch Imaging at relevant Navy, Coast Guard, maritime security, UAS, defense and intelligence conferences, exercises and government events.
• Develop a deep understanding of competitors, alternative solutions, acquisition pathways and evolving maritime ISR requirements.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally and with Company Leadership
• Coordinate closely with BD Directors covering Navy, Coast Guard, DHS and international maritime accounts to identify opportunities and build coordinated account and capture strategies.
• Partner with Marketing on maritime-specific messaging, materials, customer stories, demonstrations and campaigns.
• Work with external platform, sensor and technology partners to expand ASO's reach across maritime ISR architectures.
• Collaborate with other Integrated Product Teams to ensure product architectural integrity and maximize reusable capabilities across mission areas.
• Team with Training, Documentation, Helpdesk and Demonstrations staff to ensure successful customer adoption and operational support.
• Assist with management reporting and support executive-level customer, partner and board briefings as needed.

Benefits

• Generous PTO
• 10 company holidays
• Equity/Stock Options
• Medical/Dental premiums 100% covered by Overwatch Imaging for employees and their families
• Available pre-tax health savings account
• Employer matching contributions up to 4% of pay for 401K

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed