Director, AI Partnerships EMEA

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.

About the role

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.

Responsibilities

• 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).

Benefits

• Equity, to have an active role in our success.
• Up to 35 days of Paid Time Off (vacations & RTT) and flexible working hours.
• Health and life insurance.
• Lunch vouchers.
• Cross‑office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse.
• Company‑wide and team off‑sites and events.
• Relocation assistance to Toulouse when applicable.
• We strongly encourage candidates to apply even if they do not meet all listed qualifications.

About the company

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. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives. We are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, Golden, and Toulouse to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.