AI & Geospatial Data Operations Manager

Geo Owl · SDVOSB · Est. 2013

AI & Geospatial Data Operations Manager

NGA MAVEN PROGRAM · GEOINT · EO/SAR DATA OPERATIONS · SENIOR · KEY POSITION

NGA Maven's overhead satellite data pipeline doesn't run itself — it runs because someone with serious technical depth and steady leadership keeps it compliant, accurate, and moving. That person is you. This role is the nerve center of GEOSPI data operations: you'll own the pipeline from acquisition through preprocessing, lead a technical team, and serve as the primary interface between the government and the contractor team executing the mission.

Role Overview

As the AI & Geospatial Data Operations Manager, you provide technical and managerial leadership over the full overhead satellite imagery preprocessing pipeline — from data acquisition and ingest through transformation, storage, and bi-directional movement across platforms. You'll oversee other GEOSPI data contractors, enforce data standards across all sensor modalities (EO, SAR, FMV, HMI), and serve as the government's primary point of contact for tasking and requirements. This is both a hands-on technical role and a leadership position: you'll be expected to make sound engineering recommendations and drive them through to execution.

A Day in the Life

• ✓Review overnight pipeline runs and data health alerts; triage QC flags and route them to the right team members for resolution
• ✓Sync with government customers to receive updated tasking, communicate compliance status, and surface any blockers to pipeline execution
• ✓Lead the data ops team: assign work, provide technical guidance on ETL challenges, and keep documentation (data dictionaries, ERDs, software comments) current
• ✓Identify non-compliant datasets — metadata completeness gaps, schema drift, format inconsistencies — and drive corrective action
• ✓Apply engineering best practices to optimize pipeline efficiency across sensor modalities; assess and recommend architectural improvements to cloud-based data infrastructure
• ✓Prepare and deliver written and oral status reports to government stakeholders on Maven data holdings compliance and operations health

Why This Role Matters

Core Responsibilities

• ▸Oversee and manage the databases and pipelines supporting NGA Maven's satellite data acquisition, curation, and preprocessing — ensuring compliance with all specified requirements and priorities
• ▸Lead QC operations across the full data pipeline; identify and remediate non-compliant datasets including metadata completeness, accuracy, and schema consistency issues
• ▸Apply engineering best practices to optimize pipeline efficiency and performance across all sensor modalities (EO, FMV, HMI, SAR)
• ▸Lead and develop other GEOSPI data operations team members; provide technical expertise and project management guidance for data creation and management initiatives
• ▸Ensure data dictionaries, Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs), and all software documentation are regularly maintained and current
• ▸Manage the end-to-end data operations pipeline: imagery acquisition and ingest, preprocessing and transformation, and bi-directional data movement between platforms
• ▸Assess and report Maven data holdings compliance status through written documentation and oral presentations to government stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• ✓Active TS/SCI
• ✓3+ years of people management experience (team lead, project lead) with a track record of independently driving technical projects to completion
• ✓4+ years of quantitative analysis experience: data manipulation, ETL procedures, and working knowledge of SQL and NoSQL database technologies
• ✓Demonstrated experience managing databases and operational data pipelines
• ✓Experience working with cloud architectures
• ✓2+ years of experience working with large, complex geospatial data files and formats
• ✓Excellent written and verbal communication skills — able to brief both technical peers and senior government customers

Tools, Technologies & Tradecraft

What Makes Someone Successful in This Role

• ▸You lead with technical authority — your team trusts your judgment and the government trusts your word
• ▸You're a systems thinker who sees how acquisition, preprocessing, and data management integrate — and you proactively close the gaps
• ▸You communicate with precision: you can brief a government PM and debug a pipeline schema in the same afternoon
• ▸You hold the line on data standards without creating friction — compliance is a discipline, not a bottleneck
• ▸You're calm under operational pressure and decisive when the pipeline needs rapid corrective action

Is This Role For You?

Career Growth & Professional Value

This role builds leadership equity on one of the most technically demanding geospatial AI programs in the intelligence community. You'll deepen expertise in cloud-native data pipeline architecture, geospatial data governance, and AI/ML data readiness — while establishing your reputation as a trusted technical leader at the customer interface. Experience managing data operations on a program of this scale and sensitivity is a significant career differentiator in the GEOINT and national security space.

About Geo Owl

Geo Owl is a mission-first geospatial intelligence and national security company supporting defense, intelligence, and Government missions. We value tradecraft, humility, precision, service, accountability, and people who care deeply about the mission and the team. On roles like this, our goal is to give serious professionals work that is technically meaningful, operationally relevant, and connected to outcomes that matter.