
Senior Program Manager, Defense at Sphere Defense (Brussels, Belgium)
Sphere Defense· Brussels, Belgium·
Role details
Job description
Who we are
Sphere Defense is a fully funded technology startup with the mission of providing allied countries with sovereign, effective and seamless autonomous countermeasures to neutralize todays’ and tomorrow’s aerial threats.
Sphere Defense was founded by industry veterans with previous successful exits, and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, in the heart of Europe.
About you
You are an experienced and highly-motivated Program Manager that has demonstrated experience managing multinational defence programs, with a mix of governmental, academic and industry stakeholders.
What you’ll do
- Coordinate Sphere Defense participation to multi-national defence programs.
- Manage stakeholders such as industry partners, NATO, national MODs, academic institutions, etc.
- Build realistic, long term proposals, including budgets
- Build timelines and schedules and update them based on actual results
- Ensure that internal and external activities are carried out on-time, with the right quality level
- Be hands-on and participate to test campaigns, working close to the engineering teams when needed
- Travel to onsite meetings and test campaigns, in Europe and abroad, depending on program needs
- Draft, review and take ownership of program documentation
- Be a team player and a mentor, being available to support and grow the team when needed
Location: Onsite in Brussels, Belgium. Our office is close to Central Station.
Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Engineering, Economics, or equivalent
- At least 8 years in relevant role, with increasing levels of ownership
- Demonstrated experience coordinating multinational defense program with the involvement of prime defense contractors, governmental and academic institutions.
- Good understanding of missile systems
- Solid understanding of RFx and tender processes of governmental procurement organizations
- Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality, customer-facing proposals and documentation
- Obsessive attention to detail when needed, without losing track of the bigger picture
- Experience with planning, budgeting, resource allocation and scheduling, and with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Wrike and Jira
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills in written and spoken English; French, Dutch, Italian or German is a plus
- You are a self-starter, able to work in a high-ambiguity environment and willing to take up new challenges
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with drones (quadcopters, VTOL) or precision-guided munitions
What we offer
- Attractive compensation
- Year-end bonus
- Stock Options Plan
- Mobility Budget
- 32 days of holidays
- Meal vouchers
- Private Health insurance
We are building a core team of hard-working people. If you want to join a company with tremendous impact and you are autonomous, creative and driven, we want to hear from you!
Sphere Defense offers attractive compensation, stock options, and a unique opportunity to change the global defense landscape.
This role is only open to candidates with right to work in Belgium. We cannot provide visa sponsorship at this time.
Why work at Sphere Defense
- Mission-driven impact: Directly protect allies from the #1 cause of military casualties in Ukraine (drones cause >70% of casualties). Opportunity to shape the future of autonomous defense.
- Early-stage ownership: Be one of the first members of a high-performing team; shape software, perception architecture, and product direction.
- Tech stack: C++ for production, Python for prototypes, ROS2, simulation environments (Gazebo, Foxglove), PX4 flight controllers, Rust preferred. Work on autonomous flying vehicles, sensor fusion, VIO/SLAM, ML, reinforcement learning.
- Compensation: Attractive base pay plus stock options (depending on geography/position).
- Location: Onsite in Brussels, Belgium. Office at Rue d’Enghien 18, 1080 Brussels.
- Culture: High-ambiguity, self-starter environment; team of hard-working, autonomous, creative people. French or Dutch is a plus but English is primary.
- Team size: Very small (early-stage). Founder team includes industry veterans with previous successful exits.