Sijia Qiu (He/Him)

/ˈsiːdʒə tʃuː/ (See-jyah Chyuu)

Startup GTM & Program Lead — Aerospace, Defense & Space

Technical go-to-market for complex hardware in defense and space.

About

I specialize in technical go-to-market for complex hardware in defense and space. I lead Keysight's startup engagement program for the New Space segment, a motion I built from the ground up, and I own how emerging space and defense companies evaluate, adopt, and scale our platforms.

That work sits on a decade-plus of hands-on engineering: radar and RF systems at Colorado Engineering, satellite connectivity at Gogo, and electronic systems at Northrop Grumman. I pair that hardware background with applied AI/ML, including generative AI proof-of-concepts and an MS in AI & Machine Learning in progress at Purdue, to help founders and program leaders turn ambitious technology into deployed capability.

Work Experience

2025 – Present
Keysight — Startup Engagement Program Lead

Remote

  • Incepted the startup engagement program for Keysight's New Space segment, building the go-to-market motion from the ground up.
  • Built the technical sales motion alongside Account Executives, owning solution design from evaluation through deployment and expansion.
  • Originated the evaluation frameworks startups use to measure Keysight's performance against their specific use cases, winning technical evaluations on the strength of the data.
  • Built technical credibility with founders and startup engineering teams by speaking their language and guiding architecture decisions.
  • Launched a field-to-product feedback loop, turning emerging use cases and deployment patterns into roadmap input for Product and Engineering.
  • Led workshops and technical deep dives at customer sites, startup events, and industry conferences.
2022 – 2025
Keysight — Sr. Solutions Engineer, Eggplant Division

Remote

  • Drove enterprise customer acquisition through hands-on technical evaluations, custom demos, and rapid POCs for Eggplant's test automation platform.
  • Owned the technical sales cycle end-to-end, aligning stakeholders from engineering teams to C-suite decision-makers to close complex deals.
  • Partnered with R&D to build generative AI proof-of-concepts, de-risking feature development through customer validation and rapid prototyping.
  • Designed and delivered an AI/ML enablement curriculum for the sales organization, translating emerging capabilities into business value.
2021 – 2022
Keysight — Solutions Engineer, Eggplant Division

Remote

  • Delivered technical demonstrations and proof-of-concepts that established credibility with enterprise prospects early in evaluation cycles.
  • Developed prospecting strategies and engagement frameworks that accelerated pipeline growth across multiple verticals.
  • Navigated complex stakeholder ecosystems spanning QA, DevOps, and IT leadership to advance deals.
2019 – 2021
Colorado Engineering Inc. — Sr. Business Development Engineer

Colorado Springs, CO

  • Led RFI/RFP responses and authored the technical proposals and whitepapers that translated engineering capabilities into customer-facing value propositions.
  • Owned technical selling for complex B2B hardware deals on a business development team that secured >$1M in contracts in FY2019 and >$3M in FY2020.
2017 – 2019
Colorado Engineering Inc. — Senior Engineer

Colorado Springs, CO

  • Designed system architectures and PCB‑level layouts using Visio and Altium.
  • Owned component placement and signal routing; modeled with MATLAB and Python.
  • Led PM for 77GHz radar evaluation kit for Infineon leveraging state‑of‑the‑art MMIC.
2015 – 2017
Gogo Business Aviation — Aircraft Electrical Engineer

Chicago, IL

  • Executed and maintained harness designs and electrical schematics in AutoCAD.
  • Delivered full lifecycle design and on‑site install of 2KU satellite Wi‑Fi systems on Delta aircraft.
  • Drove continuous improvement to reduce waste and optimize manufacturing costs.
2013 – 2015
Northrop Grumman — Electrical Systems Engineer, PDP

Rolling Meadows, IL

  • Rotational program in the Electronic Systems division in the following departments:
    • Power Electronics
    • Modeling and Simulation
    • Digital Systems
    • Integration and Test

Education

Expected Fall 2027
Purdue University — MS, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

West Lafayette, IN

2009 – 2013
Purdue University — BS, Electrical & Computer Engineering

West Lafayette, IN

Certifications & Skills

Certifications

  • AWS Certified AI Practitioner (September 2025)
  • Certified Scrum Master (CSM, 2022, ScrumAlliance.org)

Skills

  • Technical Go-to-Market: Startup program design, technical evaluations and proof-of-concepts, solution architecture for complex hardware, RFI/RFP and proposal leadership, founder and executive engagement.
  • RF, Radar & Satellite Systems: 77GHz radar and MMIC-based designs, satellite communications, PCB design and system architecture, Altium, MATLAB, Python.
  • AI/ML: Generative AI integration, LLM application design, AI evaluation frameworks, prompt engineering, technical enablement for sales and engineering teams.

Interests

  • Generative AI and machine learning
  • Agentic AI, Computer/Browser-use Agents
  • Computer Vision, VLMs

Fun Facts

  • Have a mini-Aussie named "momo"
  • My favorite ice cream is Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper from Salt and Straw
  • I grew up in Hawaii