Business Development Manager, Missions - Portugal

Role highlights:

• Business Development Manager, Missions - Portugal

• Location: Portugal

• Department: Mission Sales

• Reports to: VP Missions Sales Spain & Portugal, dotted line to CEO Portugal

• Employment type: Permanent

• Workplace model: Hybrid (Lisbon office)

• Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. Portuguese national security clearance and SUPO, where required)

Why this role matters:

As Business Development Manager, Missions – Portugal, you’ll help accelerate ICEYE’s sovereign satellite and ISR mission growth in Portugal.

This is a hands-on commercial role for someone who enjoys turning strategy into action: engaging customers, following up opportunities, building pipeline, keeping Salesforce accurate, supporting bid activity, and helping ICEYE show up strongly in the regional defence, space, and dual-use government ecosystem. It is also a thinking role: you define the Portugal go-to-market strategy together with the ICEYE Portugal CEO, ground it in analysis, and execute it with discipline. We are looking for someone analytical and paranoid about disciplined sales execution: every opportunity qualified, every follow-up on time, every record accurate.

You will work closely with the VP, Missions Sales Spain & Portugal as a trusted partner in day-to-day commercial execution, with dotted-line collaboration with the ICEYE Portugal CEO to ensure strong local alignment. By helping manage customer engagement, regional opportunities, events, and cross-functional collaboration, you will directly support ICEYE’s ambition to become the global provider of turnkey ISR infrastructure to allied nations. While Missions is your line of business, you represent ICEYE as a single company: you quickly identify opportunities outside Missions – satellite data, analytics solutions – follow up on them, and connect them to the right ICEYE teams.

Who We Are

ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth.

ICEYE owns the world’s largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system.

ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future.

Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1000 employees across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

Your day-to-day responsibilities

• Co-develop the Portugal go-to-market strategy together with the ICEYE Portugal CEO and VP Missions Sales, and translate it into campaign plans, target accounts, and a disciplined execution rhythm.

• Develop and qualify commercial opportunities in Portugal, supporting the growth of ICEYE’s Missions pipeline.

• Engage with government, defence, space, and industry dual-use stakeholders, end-users, including ministries of defence, space agencies, ESA-related stakeholders, primes, associations, and commercial partners.

• Support the VP, Missions Sales Spain & Portugal with customer follow-up, meeting preparation, opportunity tracking, and regional account activity.

• Maintain accurate and timely Campaign plans and Salesforce records, including pipeline updates, meeting notes, next steps, and opportunity status. Run a disciplined execution cadence: no stale opportunities, no missed follow-ups.

• Quickly identify and follow up on opportunities outside the Missions line of business (e.g., satellite data and analytics solutions), and bring in the right ICEYE teams so nothing is dropped – ensuring customers always experience ICEYE as one company.

• Work closely with Sales Engineering and other internal experts to support bids, proposals, customer presentations, and technical-commercial responses.

• Help coordinate ICEYE’s Portugal commercial presence at regional events, sectorial associations, regional or local exhibitions, industry forums, and customer-facing activities.

• Collaborate with Marketing, Data, Missions, and other teams to ensure joined-up customer engagement and strong regional positioning.

• Share market intelligence, customer feedback, and competitor insights to support regional planning and prioritisation.

What we’re looking for

Must haves:

• Experience in business development, sales, account management, or capture within defence, aerospace, space, ISR, NATO, or other high-technology environments.

• Experience working with both government/public-sector customers and commercial or industry partners.

• Familiarity with the defence and space ecosystem in Portugal, including relevant government bodies, agencies, primes, integrators, or industry associations.

• Experience using Salesforce or other CRM systems to manage opportunities in a structured way, including lead qualification, stakeholder mapping, follow-up, pipeline tracking, and cross-functional coordination.

• Analytical by default: you build the territory and account case with data, qualify rigorously, and are paranoid about disciplined sales execution.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across commercial, technical, marketing, and leadership teams.

• Professional fluency in Portuguese and English.

• Willingness to travel regularly across Portugal, Finland or other ICEYE locations.

• Experience supporting bids, tenders, capture plans, gate reviews, or proposal development.

Nice to haves:

• Previous military, government, or defence-sector experience.

• Exposure to earth observation, satellite systems, or defence intelligence solutions.

• Existing network across ministries of defence, space agencies, ESA-related stakeholders, local primes, or defence and space associations.

• Experience applying GenAI or AI-enabled tooling to business development, sales, market intelligence, CRM hygiene, proposal preparation, stakeholder mapping, or other commercial workflows.

• Sales training in Miller Heiman, Korn Ferry, Shipley or similar.

Application Process

• Recruiter Interview

• Peer interview

• CEO Portugal Interview

• Hiring Manager Interview

• VP Interview

• Offer Decision

Working at ICEYE

At ICEYE, you’ll join a diverse and highly engaged team united by the ambition to make the impossible possible. As a global scale-up, we combine speed and ambition with the opportunity to take real ownership from day one. Your growth, wellbeing, and success are a priority, with continuous professional development, training opportunities, and a culture where collaboration is how we win.

How We Work (Our Values)

Make the impossible possible: We set ambitious goals and stay calm under pressure. We bring grit, optimism, and ownership when things get hard, and we keep moving until we find a way.

• Be curious: Go deep, ask questions, listen carefully, and think critically. Understand the “why” behind decisions.

• See the big picture: Stay close to what’s happening across the company so you can make better decisions. Consider how your work affects others.

• Drive effective teamwork: Create psychological safety, invite different perspectives, and build inclusive teams. There are no bad questions.

• Act as one team: We win together. We match tasks to the right owner and stay agile as priorities shift.

• Have fun: What we do matters—and it should be enjoyable. Celebrate progress, take pride in results, and share the wins.

Benefits

Our benefits are designed to support your health and wellbeing, at work and beyond. We keep improving them based on employee feedback, and offerings vary by location. Talent Acquisition will confirm what applies for this role and location during the process.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We want ICEYE to be a place where people can be themselves and do great work. Different backgrounds and perspectives make us stronger, which is why we work to create an environment where people feel included, respected, and able to speak up. Whatever your background, we want you to bring your authentic self to the table.

We’re committed to fair, inclusive hiring and equal opportunity. Everyone is welcome to apply. If you need any adjustments or support during the recruitment process, tell us—we’ll do our best to help.

Apply now to start your ICEYE journey, and help us continue to make the impossible possible together. Read more about ICEYE and working with us at iceye.com.