Director, AI Partnerships EMEA

Wanna join the adventure? AI for Space is Loft’s newest business unit, focused on building the Loft Mission Store - an open platform where AI companies publish models, satellite operators deploy them in orbit, and the system delivers structured intelligence rather than raw imagery. The team is lean, the ambition is significant, and the satellites are already operational. As Director, AI Partnerships EMEA, you own commercial development of Loft’s AI Marketplace across France and the broader region, driving partnerships with AI companies, system integrators, and defense primes to deploy models on Loft’s satellite infrastructure or embed Loft’s AI capabilities into their programs. You serve as the primary interface to the European sovereign AI ecosystem - including DGA, CNES, Bpifrance, CNRS, and key defense and intelligence stakeholders - shaping space-based AI initiatives. Working closely with the Head of AI Engineering, you translate technical capabilities into compelling partner value propositions and feed partner insights into the product roadmap, while also building cross-constellation partnerships to enable advanced sensor fusion solutions. About this role: Build and manage a pipeline of AI Marketplace partnerships across France and EMEA. Identify and qualify AI companies, integrators, and defense primes for platform integration. Lead commercial negotiations from first meeting through signed partnership agreement. Represent Loft in the French sovereign AI and defense ecosystem ( DGA , CNES , BPI , and adjacent institutions). Develop cross-constellation partnership opportunities ( SAR , thermal, RF providers for sensor fusion use cases, with the likes of ICEYE ). Translate technical platform capabilities into clear, compelling partner value propositions. Surface partner inputs back to the product and engineering roadmap. Work with product and engineering to shape the partner onboarding experience. Track competitive landscape and feed insights back into go-to-market positioning. Must Haves: 5-10 years in business development, partnerships, or sales in technology, defense, or aerospace. Existing network in French defense, space, or AI ecosystems. Track record of closing complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships. Ability to understand and articulate technical products to non-technical buyers (and the reverse). Fluent in French and English. Comfortable operating with high autonomy in a fast-growing company. Nice to Haves: Direct experience with sovereign or classified programs (French or European). Background in satellite services, Earth observation, or geospatial analytics. Experience working with system integrators (Thales, Airbus, Leonardo). Some of our Awesome Benefits: Equity, we want you to have an active role in our success Up to 35 days of Paid Time Off (vacations & RTT ) and flexible working hours, we want you to be at your best Health and life insurance, we care about your health Lunch Vouchers, because let’s be honest, we love food! (we even have a slack channel about it #loft-gourmand ) Cross-office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse to learn from our differences Company and team off-sites and many other events to work & celebrate together Relocation assistance to Toulouse when applicable * Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Loft, we value respectful debate and people who aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes. Who We Are Loft: Space Made Simple. Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit. We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives. With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure. As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.