Senior Business Development Lead
Leads defence business development and territory growth in Italy, managing pipeline, strategic accounts, partnerships, and complex government procurement opportunities. Requires 6+ years of relevant experience, strong executive stakeholder skills, and fluency in English and applicable regional languages.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Own and execute go-to-market strategy across assigned Italian markets.
- Build and grow pipeline for autonomy, aircraft, ISR, and mission-system opportunities.
- Lead end-to-end opportunity execution, including account planning, customer shaping, competitive positioning, proposals, negotiation, and contract close.
- Meet or exceed the assigned territory sales quota.
- Engage military leaders, Ministries of Defence, procurement authorities, sovereign stakeholders, and strategic industry partners.
- Represent and differentiate Shield AI’s autonomy and aircraft portfolio, including V-BAT, X-BAT, ViDAR-enabled ISR capabilities, and Hivemind autonomy software.
- Develop regional partnerships, consultant relationships, industrial participation structures, and offset-aligned strategies.
- Coordinate Business Development, Product, Engineering, Government Relations, Legal, Contracts, Export Compliance, Operations, and Customer teams.
- Maintain forecasting, pipeline management, opportunity tracking, and campaign reporting.
- Provide market intelligence on competitors, customer demand, and political or operational risks.
- Support post-award customer engagement, follow-on growth, and long-term account expansion.
Requirements
- 6+ years of experience in business development, capture, sales, strategic engagement, account management, or related customer-facing roles in defence, aerospace, national security, or advanced technology.
- Proven success identifying, shaping, and advancing complex opportunities with long sales cycles, senior stakeholders, and technically differentiated solutions.
- Strong executive presence and credibility with military, government, industry, and strategic partner stakeholders.
- Strong communication, negotiation, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Fluency in English and relevant regional languages.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional, military, or operational experience preferred.
Nice-to-haves
- Consultancy experience managing multiple stakeholders and complex client requirements.
- Experience with UAS, autonomy, ISR, mission systems, aerospace, or AI-enabled operational capabilities.
- Existing relationships with defence ministries, military organizations, procurement authorities, or strategic industry partners in Italy.
- Experience with direct commercial sales, Foreign Military Sales, or international government procurement programs.
- Military, operational defence, government, or national security experience.
Skills
Business Development, Capture Management, Account Management, Pipeline Management, Sales Forecasting, Negotiation, Stakeholder Management, Go-to-Market Strategy, Uas, Autonomy, Isr, Mission Systems, Aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, Foreign Military Sales
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