Strategic Account Director – Commercial  

This is a fantastic career opportunity and an exciting time for the Satellite Applications Catapult. We are at the forefront of the burgeoning UK Space Industry. Our purpose being to unlock the UK's potential to innovate and drive economic growth through the development and adoption of space data and technologies.  While exploration and space science get the headlines, the application of space to challenges on Earth will have the most significant impact.

More specifically, the Catapult has organised itself into four Mission areas: Beyond Earth, Connected Earth, Autonomous Earth, and Sustainable Earth. Each Mission is tasked with developing a strategic portfolio of Interventions through which projects and services can be designed and delivered to achieve market impact. To align the Missions to the Market, the Catapult has established four strategic accounts as the focal point for engaging customers across four discrete domains: Defence and Security, Government and Public Sector, Private Sector and Space Sector.

The Challenge: 

The Commercial Strategic Account Director will spearhead the development of a commercially sustainable space services business. This will involve:

• Identifying high-value opportunities: Engage with decision makers at FTSE 250 companies to pinpoint critical challenges that can be addressed through innovative space-based solutions.

• Building a strong ecosystem: Forge strategic partnerships with leading consultancies to co-develop compelling space service offerings specifically targeted for these companies.

• Developing strategic solutions: Craft bespoke service packages for large commercial accounts, leveraging the strengths of the UK space sector's offerings.

• Harnessing UK space expertise: Design product and service bundles that tap into the full potential of the UK space ecosystem's diverse product and service portfolio.

By implementing these strategies, the Director will secure and cultivate high-impact opportunities that align perfectly with the Catapult's Missions. They will also leverage customer insights to further refine these Missions in a way that directly benefits the Commercial Sector Account and its clients. The Director will ensure their team is fully on board with this vision and empowered to deliver exceptional results both within the Catapult and externally.   

As the Strategic Accounts Director, you will be responsible for:       

• Creating a sustainable Commercial Account - Understand the financial targets of the Catapult and build a strategy with your team that meets or exceeds annual sales targets specifically for order intake, sales revenue, and margin retention within the Commercial sector.  

• Focusing on identifying high-impact, high-revenue programs - Demonstrate, develop, and commercialize commercially viable UK Space supply-chain capability and technology relevant to the Commercial sector.    

• Developing an in-depth understanding of current and emerging trends – Understand the global space industry, including launch vehicle availability, satellite constellations, and space-based services.  

• Identifying high-value opportunities - Leverage the Catapult's expertise in specific areas like Earth observation, Infrastructure Monitoring, GIS, Commodity Monitoring, GHG Monitoring, etc.  

• Supporting the positioning of the Catapult as a neutral convenor - Work with the Chief of External Affairs, solidify our presence as a neutral party to help identify high-impact/ high revenue programmes that demonstrate, develop, and commercialise UK Space supply-chain capability and technology   

• Creating a high performing team - Build a customer focused BD team with ownership for the Account’s entire sales process from opportunity identification, qualification, order capture, sales revenue, and margin retention. You will develop your teams in order that they can see, and take advantage of, the opportunities of tomorrow and you will ensure your teams are excellent collaborators across the business, seeking and responding to feedback continuously.  

• Promoting Space Industry capability - the account director will play a pivotal role in driving commercial revenues with and in support of our partners in the sector. In this capacity, they will help to identify opportunities for the Space industry to raise the visibility of their products and services across the Government and Public Sector Account.  

You will also:

• Advocate for the Strategic Account internally and be the voice of the customer inside the Catapult   

• Build strong relationships with key decision-makers within commercial non-space companies to understand their priorities and challenges and identify opportunities to implement space-based services. 

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with Mission and Intervention leads and other stakeholders across the Catapult to ensure the smooth transition of orders into project delivery.       

• Work with Mission and Intervention leads as the internal customer for achieving Account sales revenue and margins from associated Mission led projects.      

• Collaborate with the CEA and other Catapult Strategic Account Directors / Managers to ensure a joined-up and collaborative approach to managing market engagements.   

• Engage with customers and partners to understand their needs, strategy, priorities, requirements & internal procurement, and contracting processes.     

• Create engaging stakeholder presentations and proposals with clear ideas and solutions that meet different audience needs (non-technical customers, external partners, internal stakeholders etc).     

• Be an Effective member of the cross-Catapult Alliance team to ensure the ability to deliver largescale strategic opportunities successful across the Commercial Sector Account.    

• Engage with Mission business and technical leads to capture both current capabilities and future horizon scanning, understanding the emerging technologies and capabilities relevant to the Commercial Sector Account.    

• Ensure corporate marketing and communication are optimised for the Commercial Sector Account, working with the CEA to define clear messaging and focus to drive effective lead generation campaigns.    

• Speak at relevant Domain events to promote Catapult capabilities.    

• Ensure that all activities deliver strong impact with clear routes to revenue and impact generation.        

• Take responsibility for identifying internal conflicts and blockers of progress and helping to resolve them   

 Skills and experience required:   

• Proven track record of success in managing strategic accounts within Commercial industries (Banking, Insurance, Agriculture, Transport & Logistics, etc.)  

• Strategic Account Management acumen and discipline       

• Excellent leadership, influencing and communications skills, with a strong ability to build long term trusted relationships.   

• Be an experienced public speaker, at ease with presenting to both small and large audiences.        

• Experience of the Commercial Domain and of operating successfully within it.     

• Knowledge/experience of the Space sector and the application of satellite technology.      

• Experience in developing creative and client-pleasing solutions to complex business problems.       

• Comfortable at operating at a conceptual level with a clear focus on communicating clear value propositions to senior stakeholders.    

• A team player, skilled and experienced at working within a matrix organisation, maximising the impact of the skills available from supporting departments and resources.    

How we work….

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work – this helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this:

• We care - for our people, our partners, and our planet

• We connect - and engage with people and ideas

• We learn - and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams, our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of anyone providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us.

This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job. However, if you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult. If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.