VP, U.S. Defense & Intelligence

blackshark.ai is at an important turning point. We serve government and commercial customers internationally, but U.S. defense and intelligence is where we intend to build our largest business first.

We already have customers, deployments and promising opportunities. Now we need to turn that foothold and early customer enthusiasm into a category-defining business. That means expanding where our software is already used, winning new customers and making blackshark.ai part of how they accomplish their mission.

Strong technology and successful demos will not get us there alone. Someone has to understand the mission, find who owns the decision, follow the funding and build a path to a signed contract. Where funding does not yet exist, someone has to build the case and work with the people who can get it prioritized and funded. Then do it again, with a team that can win beyond one person’s relationships.

That is your job. Your first priority is U.S. D&I revenue, and you will drive it yourself: opening doors, spending time with customers, shaping opportunities, negotiating and closing business. You decide where we place our bets and stop pursuits that will not lead anywhere. You know when to work directly with an agency, when a prime is the better route and when an opportunity needs to be shaped before there is anything to bid on.

You will start with the team and resources we have and build from there. We expect you to make clear choices about where people, partnerships and spending will accelerate the business. As opportunities justify it, you will build the Sales, Solutions Engineering and Business Development team, while staying personally involved in our most important deals.

You will also help us build the right U.S. foundation. Export control, certifications, FCL and FOCI mitigation need to be addressed before they become blockers to revenue. You know what each opportunity requires and bring up the commercial case and push for timely decisions, without building an expensive organization ahead of the business.

You will keep Product and Engineering close to the mission, bringing back what customers need to accomplish, where our software falls short and which improvements would drive adoption and expansion, within the boundaries of FOCI arrangements.

You will be part of our commercial leadership team, working closely with the Head of Sales and directly with the CEO and Head of Operations to build our U.S. defense and intelligence business.

This will be hard. The bar is high, the pace is fast and there is no large prime behind you. If you want to build a national security business rather than inherit one, and own its results, come build it with us.

• • Own the U.S. D&I revenue target, pipeline and forecast across government customers, defense primes and integrators, with reviews grounded in real funding and procurement progress.

  • Personally source, shape and close business. Spend time in the field with customers and partners, drive our strategic deals through award and stay involved as deployments turn into renewals and larger contracts.

  • Assess the current team and build the one we need across Sales, Solutions Engineering and Business Development: start small, expand as the business grows, give each account a clear owner and coach people to close their own deals.

  • Map each priority account (who needs the product, who can fund it, who can buy it and what must happen next) and build the relationships to match, from end users to program offices, contracting officers and budget stakeholders.

  • Build funding paths for priority opportunities. Work with customer champions to get requirements into budget requests and funded programs, pursue available funding and contracting routes, and connect successful evaluations to money for production and expansion.

  • Decide where we invest: balance shaping longer-term requirements and funding against business we can close sooner, set campaign priorities with Marketing and the CEO, and stop pursuits that do not justify the effort.

  • Grow existing deployments into funded production use, renewals and new use cases, and pursue programs of record where they offer a credible route to scale.

  • Bring first-hand insight into how government customers budget for, evaluate and buy software, and use it to shape pricing and licensing with company leadership. Build offers that make it easy to start, renew and expand, protect the value of our software and make custom work explicit, with pricing aligned across defense, intelligence and commercial markets.

  • Identify security, clearance, cybersecurity and export-control requirements early with customers, primes and the relevant specialists. Bring clear requirements, commercial stakes and deadlines to Operations, get decisions escalated when needed and build account plans around realistic implementation timelines.

  • Bring customer workflows and competitive evidence back to Product, and agree scope and delivery dates with Product, Engineering and our Executive Producer before committing them to a customer.

• Hit the revenue targets, with a forecast the company can rely on to plan hiring and spending.

• Turn pilots and initial deployments into sustained, funded adoption: win production contracts, expand across programs and agencies, and get our software built into programs of record.

• Build a pipeline with real customer needs, identifiable funding and credible contracting paths.

• Over time, build a team that wins and grows accounts without every deal depending on you, while continuing to drive the most important opportunities yourself.

• Grow software revenue without turning every customer into a separate development project.

• Surface market-access requirements early, secure leadership decisions on the investments needed and build credible account plans around implementation timelines.

• • A proven record of personally sourcing, shaping and closing significant U.S. defense or intelligence software contracts, including seven-figure awards. You can explain what you did yourself and how you won with a small team and limited support. Experience achieving this for a foreign-owned startup and navigating the additional barriers it faces is a strong advantage.

  • Experience turning successful evaluations and initial deployments into funded production contracts, renewals and expansion.

  • Deep knowledge of government acquisition, budgeting, appropriations and contracting routes. You understand how requirements become funded purchases and can work both near-term opportunities and longer-term budget cycles.

  • Relationships and credibility across DoD and IC organizations, defense primes and integrators, particularly NGA, NRO, Army and combatant commands.

  • A strong understanding of geospatial intelligence and the workflows our software serves. Hands-on experience as an analyst, operator or in a program delivering geospatial capability is highly valuable.

  • Experience building and leading sales teams in a startup or high-growth company while staying hands-on in strategic deals.

  • Practical understanding of how clearances, FOCI, export control and cybersecurity requirements affect market access and deal execution, and the judgment to involve specialists early.

  • Sound commercial judgment on software pricing, licensing, renewals and expansion, with experience translating government buying requirements into offers that remain consistent with the company’s broader pricing strategy.

  • Ability to work closely with an international leadership team, with occasional travel to Graz, Austria.

• You own the number. You can tell us which deals you sourced, shaped and closed, what was actually funded, what you lost and why.

• You get into the field. You meet the users, work through the procurement obstacles and stay close enough to the deal to know what will move it.

• You follow the money. Customer enthusiasm is a starting point; you establish who will pay, how they will buy and what will move the decision.

• You turn relationships into business. You know what each engagement needs to achieve, bring in the right support and follow through until it moves the opportunity forward.

• You make choices. You can explain where we should invest, what we should stop and what evidence would change your mind.

• You build people as well as relationships. You work alongside the team, help people win and give them increasing ownership. You hire with a clear purpose and deal with performance problems directly.

• You respect expertise. You bring clear commercial priorities, involve the people who must deliver and keep commitments the company can fulfill.

• You are resourceful. You can move a deal forward before every role is filled or every process is established, and you know when an additional hire or investment will materially change the outcome.

• You communicate clearly and directly with customers, your team and leadership.