Advanced Navigation

Navigation Solution Architect

Advanced Navigation$120K — $145K *
Aerospace & Defense
15+ years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in relevant field; Master's preferred or 20+ years relevant experience.
  • Ability to obtain or currently hold Secret Clearance.
  • Extensive experience (20+ years) in technical, customer-facing roles.
  • Strong knowledge of inertial navigation systems and competitive market in defense.
  • High familiarity with ITAR and national clearance requirements.

Responsibilities

  • Design technical solutions tailored for key customers in Commercial and Defense segments.
  • Translate client requirements into effective architectural designs and configurations.
  • Lead proof of concept projects to validate proposed solutions.
  • Serve as primary technical authority, advising on complex system integration.
  • Conduct technical workshops to showcase product value and capabilities.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to engage with large, strategic customer accounts.
  • Potential for travel to enhance client relationships and project implementations.
  • Involvement in shaping product roadmap based on customer insights.
  • Opportunity for technical mentorship within the Application Engineering team.
Full Job Description
About The Role:

As a Navigation Solutions Architect, you will be responsible for designing technical solutions for our key customers, utilizing the Advanced Navigation product and configurations portfolio.

In this key technical role, you will work closely with some of Advanced Navigation's largest and most strategic customer accounts spanning both Commercial and Defense verticals. You will provide strategic advice internally and externally, assisting with product design and configuration, bridging the relationship between the customer and Advanced Navigation's Product and Engineering teams.

Success in this position will be measured by the ability to understand and communicate customer requirements and translate those to the engineering teams that support the designs of the end product capability. Your role will be crucial in facilitating technical discovery and mapping the right Advanced Navigation solutions to meet customer needs. Although an individual contributor role, you will also be responsible for actively providing technical mentorship to the wider Application Engineering team, and offering critical insights to inform the product roadmap of the Navigation Solutions Team.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Solution architecture validation and design:

  • Deeply understand customer requirements
  • Understands all competitors performance, and capabilities and can define and communicate what sets us apart internally to AdNav and with the customers.
  • Translate high-level client performance requirements into architectural navigation system designs and hardware/software configurations
  • Lead the design and architectural validation of Advanced Navigation product configurations tailored to specific client mission profiles
  • Lead the design and execution of proof of concept projects to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of proposed solutions
  • Serve as the primary technical authority for AdNav America, providing strategic advice on complex system integration
  • Collaborate closely with counterparts from key accounts to provide consultation in relation to systems integration and performance optimization

Technical leadership and expertise:

  • Maintain an expert-level understanding of the entire AdNav product ecosystem, including inertial sensors (MEMSs & FOG), GNSS technologies and other peripheral sensors, including Laser and Acoustics Velocity systems.
  • Understand system performance for extreme environments (e.g., subsea, aerospace, weapons, or autonomous defense platforms).
  • Conduct technical workshops and deep-dive sessions for clients to demonstrate the value proposition of proposed architectures.

Market and domain alignment:

  • Anticipate and interpret evolving navigation requirements within the US and Allied Defense and Commercial markets
  • Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive offerings to maintain a deep understanding of our products and their positioning in the market
  • Collaborate with the global Navigation Solutions Team to feed regional market requirements back into the product development lifecycle within the bounds of ITAR / EAR and the SSA.
  • Foster strong relationships with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Product, Engineering, Marketing and Customer Success.


Note: This role may require up to 25%+ travel to customer sites for in-person meetings, presentations, or project implementations. Sometimes clustered around key deliverables.

KEY MEASURABLES

  • Support qualified pipeline development: Generation of high-value, technically qualified opportunities in target applications and accounts
  • Client Satisfaction (NPS): Post-deployment Net Promoter Scores reflecting the technical efficacy and reliability of the designed solutions

BEHAVIORAL ATTRIBUTES FOR SUCCESS

  • Organizing Self
    • Manages own tasks and processes within projects, working independently under general direction. Independently determines and develops approach to solutions. Work is reviewed upon completion for soundness of technical judgement and adequacy in meeting objectives
  • Maintaining Positive Energy
    • Being relentless. Operating with a positive attitude, vigor and determination in the face of challenging situations, consistently maintaining high levels of effectiveness and productivity throughout
  • Delivering Excellence
    • Operates with a positive attitude, vigor and determination in the face of challenging situations, consistently maintaining high levels of effectiveness and productivity throughout
  • Communication
    • Conducting positive and open interactions with others by conveying information and ideas clearly and concisely in an engaging manner that helps them understand and retain the message; listening actively to others and sharing proactively information
  • Decision Making
    • Identifying and understanding problems and opportunities relevant to role by gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information; generating and evaluating alternatives, identifying the best course of action, and making timely decisions within own decision making scope
  • Initiating Action
    • Taking proactive and independent action to accomplish work goals; taking prompt action to achieve results beyond what is required; anticipating addresses problems without being prompted
  • Leveraging Feedback
    • Taking full advantage of opportunities to receive and explore feedback about own performance; responding favorably to feedback and using it constructively to deliver outcomes and improve knowledge, skills and behaviors


QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree in relevant field (Master's preferred) or 20+ years of relevant experience.
  • Must be able to obtain Secret Clearance (acceptable) in the future, which is current (preferred) or recently lapsed (acceptable).


Experience:

  • Proven depth of experience and seniority spanning multiple engineering and commercial disciplines: Sales, Mechatronics, Software Engineering (SWE), Electrical Engineering (EE), and Mechanical Engineering (MechE).
  • Experience and understanding of the competitive market for inertial navigation systems within the Department of War.
  • Solid technical knowledge of inertial navigation systems, GNSS, and fiber optic gyroscopes, Laser and Acoustics Velocity aiding.
  • High level of familiarity with ITAR and national caveat/clearance requirements is required, especially for the AMER region.
  • Extensive experience (20+ years) in a highly technical, customer-facing role focused on deep technical embedment or forward-deployed engineering.
  • Experience integrating solutions with complex Government Furnished Information (GFI) and Government Furnished equipment (GFE)
  • Experience in managing multi-year, multi-phase Program of Record work for acquisition, cost down, and lifecycle upgrades.
  • Proven track record of driving successful sales outcomes, building customer relationships, and delivering exceptional service.
  • Customer-focused mindset with a passion for problem-solving, innovation, and continuous learning.
  • Customer-facing role, with a balanced capability across business development, implementation, and support functions
  • A dedication to delivering a great customer experience while being a creative problem-solver in response to technical, product, and business questions
  • Enjoyment in being in a fast-paced environment, to help customers accelerate their journey to creating an accurate position, velocity, acceleration and orientation under the most demanding conditions
  • A collaborative and team-oriented mindset for accomplishing goals

Skills:

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Excellent time management, driven to work quickly
  • Strong attention to detail
  • Effective presentation crafting and delivery skills

About Advanced Navigation

Advanced Navigation is a technology company that specializes in navigation systems for a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, and autonomous vehicles. The company was founded in 2012 by Chris Shaw and Xavier Orr. Advanced Navigation's products include inertial navigation systems, GNSS receivers, and other sensors that provide accurate positioning and orientation data. The company's customers include NASA, Boeing, and the Australian Department of Defence. Advanced Navigation has offices in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
Learn more about Advanced Navigation
Size
50 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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