As with most non-technical people working within the space industry, space happened accidentally but quickly became addictive. When I got the opportunity to work for an aerospace group, which in itself was through a series of unlikely events, it was with the understanding that my primary role would be policy-related. More specifically, supporting the company and the African associations affiliated with the group, with local and regional policy inputs, regulatory lobbying, and the like.

However, I quickly realised that this work would not be enough to keep me fully occupied and that I was only adding value to an auxiliary function within the business. Driven by an innate need to add value and curiosity to learn more about the company and industry, I started putting my hand up more and inserting myself into broader conversations. As a result, I started seeing more of the gaps and experiencing firsthand that 'super' technical people rarely excel at the non-technical functions (albeit they will even more rarely admit this). Armed with this insight, I started filling in the gaps. By the end of my first three years in the industry, I was working across all the subsidiaries within the aerospace group, which spanned upstream and downstream companies, in functions related to marketing, business development, stakeholder relations, funding/ tender management, and human capital development initiatives. I also got involved in the wider industry through young professional forums such as the SGAC and IPMC.

Despite the incredible opportunities I had within the aerospace group to learn and grow my capabilities, and the network that I'd started to cultivate, I still had to face the uncertainty of what pivoting would look like within this industry as a non-technical professional. I wanted to move on, but I was still non-technical and working in a country (South Africa) with a small, still relatively 'up-and-coming' private space industry. By that point, I was little more than an enthusiastic jack-of-all-trades with a policy background.

When looking to move on from the aerospace group, my current employer, NewSpace Systems (NSS), was my first choice. Inspired by their vision, I knew I wanted to be a part of the journey of growing the business to one of international repute and a leader in its field. However, it was early days for the company, and they weren't exactly looking for someone with my profile. Again, I sought to understand their pain points, which at the time were all the non-technical bits and finance. And so that is how I positioned myself, starting my journey at NSS in sales, marketing, export compliance, logistics, and even some office management. To this day, I credit my career in space to this mindset of value creation.

More than 10 years later, despite whittling down my focus significantly and growing in areas such as management and leadership, I remain an enthusiastic (and unapologetic) jack-of-all-trades, focused on learning what's needed to continue adding value.

Despite being a multinational, multimillion-dollar company, our management structure has remained relatively flat thanks to our roots as a lean and agile SME.

Reporting directly to our founder and CEO, as Sales & Marketing Manager I am responsible for a variety of functions including but not limited to, the formalisation and execution of our annual sales & marketing strategy (including ongoing strategic messaging and positioning to inform marketing interventions and campaigns), providing inputs into our technology roadmap and market strategy, supporting the formalisation of strategic partnerships, generating of budgets and pipeline/cashflow forecasting, the implementation and adherence of corporate guidelines across our partnership network (incl. subsidiaries, partners and resellers), KPI formalisation and monitoring both internally and across our partnership network, leading innovation within my department, customer/partner relationship maintenance, providing inputs to and supporting processes surrounding commercial and regulatory compliance, ensuring departmental ISO compliance, as well as the day-to-day generation of quotations/ proposals, customer interfacing, process maintenance and more.

Beyond these tasks, one of my primary functions is ensuring that my department continually interfaces with the other departments. This may sound silly, but silos can form quickly. Some examples of this engagement includes, providing continual insight into what is coming/ what has changed to inform resource planning, strategic buying, and cashflow. Ensuring that proposed solutions are feasible by consulting engineering and other relevant experts, and that proposed timelines are achievable based on continual feedback from operations (incl. project management, industrialization, and production).

The space industry is dynamic and requires a variety of skill sets. While it's easy to feel intimidated as a non-technical professional, focus instead on where the gaps are and how you can add value. Persistence, coupled with a clear understanding of what you can bring to the table to support a company's mission/ address their pain points, is a hard thing to say no to.