Director - Product Management

Descartes Labs Government•Dulles, VA

7d•Remote

About The Position

The Director, Product Management – Defense and Intelligence, is the senior product leader responsible for defining and driving EarthDaily's product strategy for defense and intelligence markets. The Director will identify high-value mission problems and translate them into differentiated, scalable products that combine EarthDaily's Earth observation data, analytics, AI/ML, contextual data, and workflow capabilities. This role is highly outward-facing and will spend substantial time with government users, commercial customers, acquisition stakeholders, Sales & Business Development, and industry partners to understand the market and translate those insights into clear product priorities and requirements. The role is part of EarthDaily's Analytics Product organization and works in close partnership with EarthDaily Federal, Analytics line of business, and Engineering to develop defense and intelligence products for U.S. Government and international defense agencies and customers. The Director owns the product problem, customer outcome, product strategy, roadmap, requirements, prioritization, packaging, and commercial product case. EarthDaily Federal and EarthDaily Analytics market teams along with Sales lead customer relationships, capture, opportunity strategy, contracting, and revenue execution, while Engineering owns technical design, delivery planning, sprint management, and implementation. The Director is expected to move quickly, make decisions with incomplete information, develop evidence-driven roadmaps that drive revenue, stay close to customers and technical teams, and maintain a high level of responsiveness and accountability.

Requirements

Location preferred: Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA).
Senior or Director-level product management experience with demonstrated ownership of product strategy, discovery, prioritization, and commercialization.
Must be a U.S. Citizen.
Must hold a minimum active Secret clearance; active TS/SCI strongly preferred.
Must have strong knowledge of U.S. Government mission needs, budgets, spending cycles, acquisition pathways, and commercial GEOINT/EO adoption, with experience in one or more of imagery, geospatial analytics, AI/ML, or mission workflow solutions.
Must be able to engage credibly with mission users, program offices, acquisition stakeholders, senior government leaders, and technical teams and translate among those audiences.
10+ years of product management, product strategy, or closely related product leadership experience, with meaningful experience at the Senior Product Manager, Group Product Manager, Principal, or Director level.
Demonstrated experience taking data-intensive, analytics, geospatial, ISR, AI/ML, or workflow products from discovery through commercialization and adoption.
Strong knowledge of U.S. Government defense and intelligence mission environments, with the ability to understand user and operator workflows as well as government buying behavior.
Experience working directly with customers and users to conduct product discovery, validate problems, test concepts, and translate findings into product decisions.
Strong commercial judgment, including experience with pricing, packaging, market segmentation, product positioning, and revenue-oriented product decisions.
Ability to convert complex technical and mission concepts into concise, prioritized product requirements and executive-level recommendations.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to create customer-facing product content and represent the product in external meetings.
Comfort operating in a matrixed organization where Product owns the market solution, product strategy, product priorities, requirements, and outcomes; Market leads market selection, capture and revenue execution; and Engineering owns technical design and delivery execution.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with GEOINT, remote sensing, commercial Electro-Optical imagery, spectral data, SAR, or multi-source geospatial analytics.
Prior work with USG IC agencies, COCOMs, Military Services, NRO, NGA, or other civil, defense/intelligence mission organizations.
Prior work leading non-U.S. defense products (e.g., Canada, Europe, Australia).
Understanding of federal acquisition, appropriations, PPBE/budget cycles, OTAs, CSOs, IDIQs, data buys, software licensing, and other common pathways for commercial technology adoption.
Experience with product-led capture, market shaping, or building customer advocacy for emerging commercial capabilities.
Prior military, IC, or federal service with firsthand exposure to analyst, operator, or mission workflows.

Responsibilities

Set and continuously refine the product strategy, roadmap, and investment priorities for EarthDaily's defense and intelligence portfolio, including Earth observation data, analytics, AI/ML, contextual data, workflow solutions, and mission applications.
Maintain a continuous external discovery process with U.S. Government users, buyers, mission owners, partners, and influencers to understand unmet needs, mission priorities, buying behavior, competitive alternatives, and emerging demand.
Translate customer problems and operational workflows into clear product requirements, desired outcomes, priorities, and success measures that technical teams can act on.
Identify common requirements across customers, programs, and mission areas and translate them into scalable products, reusable capabilities, and configurable workflows. Distinguish between strategic product investments, reusable customer-driven capabilities, and one-off custom development.
Make clear recommendations on what EarthDaily should build, improve, package, partner for, or explicitly not pursue based on customer value, market size, differentiation, revenue potential, strategic fit, and technical feasibility.
Convert recurring customer and mission needs into differentiated, scalable offerings that can be repeatedly sold and delivered. Work with EarthDaily Federal, Growth, and Business Development to understand funded demand, inform opportunity shaping and capture, and create product proof points that support commercialization and revenue growth.
Develop and evolve pricing, packaging, licensing, and value propositions for defense and intelligence offerings based on customer willingness to pay, budget structures, acquisition pathways, competitive dynamics, and product economics.
Drive the product substance behind customer-facing materials, product briefs, demos, presentations, proposal content, use cases, and sales enablement. Ensure external claims accurately reflect current and planned capability.
Establish disciplined feedback and validation loops with government end users and buyers. Validate the problem, value proposition, workflow fit, usability, and willingness to pay before and after major product investments.
Establish a working operating rhythm with Engineering in which Product provides customer context, clear priorities, requirements, and desired outcomes while technical teams own architecture, delivery planning, sprint execution, and implementation. Work closely with Market and Sales leadership so customer and capture needs inform product decisions without turning individual opportunities into one-off product direction.
Track relevant commercial EO, GEOINT, analytics, AI/ML, workflow, and data-fusion competitors and substitutes. Translate market movement into implications for EarthDaily's differentiation and product choices.
Communicate product strategy, customer evidence, investment choices, risks, and performance to senior leadership. Surface decisions early and drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Analytics, Growth, Programs, Partnerships, and EarthDaily Federal leadership.
Define and track outcome-oriented product metrics, including customer validation, adoption, usage, time-to-value, product reuse across customers and programs, pipeline influence, revenue contribution, and other measures appropriate to the product lifecycle.