Senior Sales Engineer

Senior Sales Engineer

Job Locations: US-VA-McLean

Job ID: 2026-5133

Category

Sales

Worker Category

Regular Full-Time[F]

Company Overview

Iridium is an award-winning satellite communications company operating the world's only truly global voice and data network, delivering reliable connectivity anywhere on Earth. For more than 20 years, Iridium has powered mission-critical communications for governments, businesses, aviation, maritime, and the rapidly expanding Internet of Things.

Now part of Iridium, Aireon is the world's only space-based air traffic surveillance system, providing real-time visibility of aircraft over oceans, the poles, and remote regions. Together, Iridium and Aireon are helping build a safer, more connected, and more efficient future for global aviation.

Join our team and help shape how the world stays connected. We foster a collaborative, inclusive culture where employees are empowered to innovate, grow professionally, and make a meaningful impact.

What We're Looking For:

If you are a highly skilled and technically adept professional with experience in sales engineering, solutions engineering, or a related customer-facing role in SaaS, aviation, or data-centric industries, then you will be excited about the Sales Engineer opening with Aireon on our Product Management & Strategy team. As a Sales Engineer, you’ll be responsible for identifying and autonomously implementing ideas and solutions in support of serving as the technical bridge between Aireon and our customers-supporting pre-sales efforts, guiding solution design, and ensuring seamless onboarding. In this role, you will focus primarily on collaborating with the sales team to engage with customers through demos, prototypes, and technical responses to RFIs and RFPs; translating customer objectives into technical terms that align with Aireon’s capabilities; and providing hands-on technical guidance during onboarding, configuration, and early deployment. You will thrive in this role if you excel at translating complex technical capabilities into practical customer solutions and thrive in environments that require both strategic thinking and tactical execution.

What You'll Do:

• Collaborate with the sales team to engage with customers, leading demos, prototypes, and technical responses to RFIs and RFPs to drive pre-sales success
• Understand customer objectives and translate them into technical terms that align with Aireon’s capabilities, evaluating technical feasibility and recommending data delivery models and integration pathways to guide customers toward alignment with our product framework
• Act as a technical advocate for customers, capturing their needs, edge cases, and constraints into product development and roadmap planning
• Provide hands-on technical guidance during onboarding, configuration, and early deployment, ensuring a smooth transition from sales to implementation with minimal friction
• Maintain a feedback loop from customer experiences to internal teams, working with engineering and product teams to ensure alignment with customer needs
• Support the development of product documentation, including user guides, release notes, and training materials
• Conduct market research and customer engagements to identify customer needs and market opportunities, staying up-to-date with industry trends and competitive landscape to inform product development and strategy

What You'll Need to Succeed:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field OR equivalent relevant experience in lieu of degree
• 8+ years of relevant experience in technical sales engineering, solutions engineering, or a related customer-facing role in SaaS, aviation, or data-centric industries
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly convey products, deliverables, analyses, and/or issues to groups outside of your team or those who are unfamiliar with the topic, including presenting technical content to non-technical stakeholders
• Have confidence and be able to easily build relationships with leadership and colleagues outside of your team, including enterprise customers and cross-functional stakeholders
• Possess an analytical mindset, with the ability to understand a situation or problem and think critically to make decisions and come up with out-of-the-box solutions
• Be proactive in providing feedback and be enthusiastic in sharing your knowledge with others, with a bias for action and a solution-first mindset
• Demonstrated experience engaging directly with enterprise customers and translating business requirements into technical outcomes

Things That Would be Great if You Brought to the Table:

• Extensive knowledge of the aviation data market including ANSPs, Airlines, Airports, OEMs, and System Integrators
• Prior technical experience in aviation, aerospace, or defense industries
• Experience working with space-based services, satellite data, and sensor information
• Strong working knowledge of APIs, data delivery pipelines, and system integration architectures
• Experience with cloud integration patterns, secure data sharing, and large-scale deployments
• Experience in software development and/or data science

We’ll also need you to:

• Be able to travel up to 25%

Work Environment:

This position primarily works in an office setting and is largely sedentary with the majority of the position working with a computer. The role typically requires the use of basic office equipment such as a phone, video, computer, keyboard, mouse, and printer.

We believe in-person connection drives innovation, strengthens mentorship, and builds culture, while flexibility enables employees to do their best work. Under Iridium's Hybrid Work Policy, employees are expected to work at least four days per week (approximately 80%) in an Iridium office to support collaboration, relationship-building, and professional growth.

Additional Information

This job description outlines the general nature and level of work for this role and is not a comprehensive list of duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. Employees may be assigned additional responsibilities as needed.

Base Pay Range: $120,000 - $155,000 USD

Actual compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors and this range represents an estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Base salary is only one part of our compensation package for this role. You may also be eligible for company stock and annual bonus. Employee benefits also include medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage; 401(k) retirement plan options; paid time off and paid holidays; paid parental leave; and other discounts and perks.

Iridium is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.