Vice President of Sales and Business Development (Washington)

A Series A defense technology company building next-generation high-altitude ISR, precision payload delivery, and mesh communications systems is hiring its first VP of Sales & Business Development. This is a company already flying real missions in active conflict zones, moving at a speed that outpaces legacy primes by years, not months. The next chapter is building a real commercial engine across two fronts: U.S. Department of War programs of record, and allied partner nations, with the Middle East and Europe as leading priorities. This role owns both.

You won't inherit a team to optimize. You'll be handed an active pipeline, an existing prime contract relationship, and a program of record already in motion, and you'll be trusted to run it your way with direct backing from the CEO and co-founders. You'll be the architect of the BD function and its top individual producer at the same time, for as long as it takes to prove the model, then the natural person to build and lead the team that follows.

Job Responsibilities:

• Build and expand a qualified pipeline across DoD program offices and allied overseas defense ministries, from first conversation through contract award
• Get close enough to program offices and partner-nation end users to understand their mission problem better than any incumbent
• Navigate domestic non-traditional acquisition pathways (OTAs, SBIR/STTR) and international sales mechanics (FMS, DCS, ITAR/EAR export licensing)
• Identify and manage teaming agreements with primes and in-country partners
• Stand up sales and capture discipline: qualification criteria, capture playbooks, forecasting, and CRM hygiene
• Translate program office and end-user feedback directly back to engineering and product
• Represent the company at conferences, program office engagements, and allied-nation meetings, including congressional staff and industry association engagement where it affects program funding
• Build and close the company's first BD hire once pipeline and wins justify it
• Handle whatever the deal needs, including contracting paperwork, in an early-stage environment with no back office

Experience Required:

• 10+ years in defense/federal business development or capture management, ideally in ISR, UAS, kinetics/munitions, or adjacent platforms
• A demonstrated track record of building pipeline from scratch at an early-stage company, not just running an established BD org's plays inside a prime
• Existing relationships with relevant U.S. program offices and overseas defense ministries or partner-nation primes that shorten time to first conversation
• Understanding of PPBE and Congressional appropriations cycles and their impact on sales forecasting
• Working knowledge of FMS/DCS mechanics and U.S. export control regimes (ITAR/EAR)
• Comfort operating without an established team or process while also closing
• Strong written and presentation skills: proposals, requirements white papers, executive-level decks
• Eligibility for a security clearance (active clearance a plus)
• Prior early-stage/startup experience (Series A-C) a plus