Director of Product Strategy, Design & Innovation

Slingshot Aerospace is on a mission to enhance global security through innovative space operations. The Director of Product Strategy, Design & Innovation will lead product strategy and design efforts, focusing on identifying emerging technologies and translating insights into actionable product direction and innovation.

Responsibilities:

• Lead product strategy and innovation to identify future product opportunities, growth areas, and differentiated market positions
• Continuously assess emerging technologies, scientific developments, customer needs, market shifts, and competitor activity to inform product direction
• Build and maintain an innovation roadmap that translates validated opportunities into broader product strategy and future roadmap recommendations
• Lead design to elevate existing product experiences and validate new concepts, with a strong emphasis on future-state innovation
• Establish a repeatable process for opportunity assessment, concept testing, prioritization, and continuous improvement across design and research
• Partner with research and design teams to turn customer insight, market evidence, and usability learnings into actionable product concepts
• Partner with Product Management, Research, Science, AI, Engineering, and Leadership to translate insight into roadmap recommendations and new product initiatives
• Influence senior stakeholders through clear strategic narratives, opportunity sizing, customer evidence, and experiment findings
• Provide monthly readouts of innovation advancements, emerging opportunities, and experiment findings (with included prototype links)
• Manage, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary design team of direct reports
• Set team priorities, establish operating rhythms, and create accountability for high-quality strategy, design, and innovation deliverables
• Create clear mechanisms for continuous roadmap evolution, innovation intake, and leadership decision-making

Requirements:

• 4+ years of experience in product strategy, product management, design strategy, innovation, research, or related product leadership roles
• Demonstrated experience leading product strategy or innovation functions in complex technical, data, AI, aerospace, defense, or mission-critical environments
• Experience managing and developing teams, including setting priorities, operating rhythms, and accountability mechanisms
• Strong ability to synthesize customer needs, market dynamics, emerging technologies, competitive signals, and business goals into clear product direction
• Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to present strategic recommendations, tradeoffs, and opportunity assessments to senior leadership
• Has previously held a Senior Manager or Director-level role
• Experience with AI, space domain awareness, data products, geospatial intelligence, defense technology, or other mission-critical software
• Background leading design, research, or concept-validation programs in addition to product strategy
• Experience building repeatable innovation processes, opportunity assessment frameworks, and roadmap governance models
• Familiarity working with government, defense, intelligence, or commercial aerospace stakeholders