John Moberly has spent three decades at the sharp edge of national security space, moving between government, industry and startups as the mission evolved and the stakes rose. From overseeing some of the intelligence community’s most sensitive research and acquisition programs to helping pioneer early deep-learning systems for overhead sensing, his career tracks the quiet transformation of how the U.S. builds, deploys and protects space capabilities.
Now, as chief growth officer and general manager at Ibeos, Moberly is focused on what comes next: edge processing in space, high-performance compute at lower cost and systems built to operate where power, heat and radiation leave no margin for error.
In this Q&A, he reflects on the path that brought him here, why space remains a personal mission and how Ibeos is scaling fast to meet a rapidly changing operational reality.
Can you provide a brief overview of your professional background and career progression?
I’ve got 30 years combined military and industry experience with most focused on national security space. I was a WashingtonExec Space Exec in both 2023 and 24. With significant time at the NRO and in the IC, my last government position was leading Title 50 R&D and Major System Acquisition program oversight for then OUSD(AT&L) in conjunction with ODNI.
In industry, I’ve worked classified payload and space systems development and led initial development in AI/ML with the first deep learning based automated target recognition for overhead systems along with other phenomenology and algorithm work. I then transitioned to startup world as the first president of LeoLabs Federal, VC backed company focusing in space domain awareness and then led SpiderOaks pivot to space for their decentralized data transport software.
I joined Ibeos as Chief Growth Officer and General Manager, a company I’d provided informal consulting to, to really build out edge processing in space – a long-term interest. We’ve had tremendous growth and now have multiple product lines established.
Why was this the path you chose, and how influential was it to your career?
I pursued this venture because of the needs in high performance compute for networking, dynamic space operations, and processing AI at the edge is a need I am well educated and experienced to help provide.
Do you have a personal connection to the current mission you support?
National security space connects my mission drive to solve hard problems with my technical education and experience and is a great juncture of the two; I’ve more recently expanded into commercial challenges as well such as direct-to-cell.
What are your current top priorities and responsibilities? How do these relate to your company’s overall mission/growth strategy?
My current priorities are to continue growth while being able to execute production at scale; yes a good problem to have but it is still a challenge.
Where do you and your team see growth opportunities in your current field or portfolio you support, or what do you anticipate to be your customers’ top pain points?
Growth in proliferated space drives to lower cost compute and avionics products that can still achieve high-end performance. We do this by leveraging automotive grade components and then modifying designs for the power, thermal and radiation environment of space with all of our products being rad tolerant and moving into rad hardened capabilities.
How are you and your team planning to address/prepare for these opportunities?
We are hiring steadily and expanding our production and testing space to accommodate more throughput
How important is mentorship & networking in GovCon? Were they influential to your career?
I have a very broad and deep network in the space community and, while it is large and growing, it is a community of like-minded individuals that have often already overcome challenges that we face and can learn from or, the opposite, and I can help them with their challenges.
What is something most people don’t know about you personally?
I invited my now wife of 30 years to come and watch me box in the division finals and, luckily, won. In all seriousness though, I came up through Army combat arms background and highly technical and experienced in aerospace engineering and leading technical organizations.