Director, Product and Mission Engineering

About Us

Besxar Space Industries, Inc. (Besxar) is building off-Earth foundries that use the natural ultra-high vacuum of space as a manufacturing input. Our Fabships are designed to produce trusted, ultra-high-yield semiconductor materials that are difficult or impossible to make on Earth at comparable purity and defect performance.

We are not building a science project; we are building a new industrial capability. That means real hardware, rapid iteration, disciplined execution, and a willingness to challenge assumptions from first principles as we design, fly, learn, and improve mission by mission.

About the Role

This role sits at the intersection of engineering and business, tactical execution and long-term strategy. This role will drive the outcome of missions or products, responsible for aligning disparate engineering, test and business development equities, making correct tradeoffs, priorities, setting schedule etc. 

As an early-stage company, this role requires both breadth and depth. The successful candidate can lead teams and deliver on integrated missions, represent Besxar externally to customers, partners, and government program offices, and be able to lead specific programs or missions, drive a program to closure, or work directly with engineers when a problem requires focused ownership.

This role will initially run program execution directly and, over time, build and lead a mission operations function that takes on day-to-day execution of specific efforts.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Own delivery of mission and product outcomes to Besxar customers — accountable for ensuring each assigned configuration, mission, or customer engagement is delivered as committed. Run integrated execution — maintain the plan, critical path, risk register, and decision log; set cross-functional priorities within the approved technical baseline; coordinate trades; and drive readiness for build, qualification, delivery, and mission operations.
• Translate customer and mission needs into engineering priorities and verification requirements, and drive interface closure across mechanical, electrical, thermal, software, materials, manufacturing, test, ground, launch, and mission operations.
• Partner with the Head of Engineering and Test Lead to ensure successful mission and product execution, and elevate technical, architectural, test, or verification issues to them when those fall within their authority.
• Partner with the CEO and CRO to ensure successful mission execution, represent Besxar to program-specific external counterparts (government program offices, launch providers, foundry quality and program managers, partner technical leads), and provide input on overall company strategy, the product roadmap, and product development priorities.
• Build and lead the program management function at Besxar — hire and develop the team, and establish the standards and practices for how Besxar runs integrated programs from definition through delivery.

Basic Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to operate as a self-starter in ambiguous environments and bring decisions to closure without heavy oversight.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, materials science, or a similar technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in product management, program management, or technical leadership delivering complex hardware products from concept through build, integration, test, and customer delivery.
• Demonstrated ownership of product roadmaps or program portfolios for hardware products, including milestone definition and external commitments tied to that roadmap.
• Experience leading engineering and test teams through execution, including running design reviews, test readiness reviews, testing, and anomaly resolution.
• Demonstrated ability to represent a company externally to customers, government program offices, commercial customers, partners, or investors at the level of a senior buyer or program manager.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience in semiconductors (compound semiconductor materials or semiconductor process equipment) or space hardware development (spacecraft, satellite, launch, propulsion, robotics).
• Experience supporting proposals, capture efforts, and/or contract negotiations as the technical owner of what is being committed to.
• Experience in early-stage or high-growth environments where speed, risk management, and decision-making under uncertainty
• Experience supporting export-controlled or ITAR-sensitive hardware development efforts.

Additional Requirements

• Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed around test campaigns, flight readiness, and major customer milestones.
• Ability to travel for short and extended trips as needed (up to 25%).

Location and Reporting

Washington, D.C. Reports to the Chief Revenue Officer

Culture

We value first-principles thinkers who move with urgency and take ownership. We expect leaders to build the system, not just the component; chase down answers; communicate clearly; and use lessons learned to make each build better. We give people autonomy and expect accountability in return. Launch windows and test campaigns can be intense, but we work as a collaborative team that respects one another and stays focused on execution.