Director, Business Development

About Merlin: Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Quonset Point, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation. About you: You are an accomplished, roll-up-your-sleeves, innovative and technical expert capable of developing new business at aviation, autonomy or crew workload reduction technologies. You can collaborate, lead and follow in partnership with other key functional partners including product development, engineering, program management, contracts, and others to build business pipelines and strategic relationships. You are comfortable operating as a peer to senior military and commercial leaders while also acting as a force multiplier for the General Manager, Mobility and SOF. You translate customer needs into program execution. You are highly collaborative, data-driven, and focused on driving engagement and growth for the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, execute a detailed engagement and growth strategy for Merlin Labs to capture government business in the Mobility and SOF pipeline
• Build and maintain senior-level relationships across U.S. government agencies, including defense, aviation, and related stakeholders
• Connect current and be able to influence future needs/requirements for Mobility and SOF customers with Merlin’s products, programs, technologies and capabilities
• Provide quarterly updates/reviews to Merlin Labs senior leadership
• Drive early processes for new pursuits by collaborating with internal and external customers on strategic planning, including traditional and non-traditional acquisition pathways
• Build compelling proposals to win government business
• Accurately determine budgets and procurement intentions to set realistic Price to Win targets
• Achieve a set KPI’s to expand and convert Pipeline to align with internal priorities
• Minimum 30% travel

Qualifications:

• 8-10+ years of experience in business development or government relations, preferably with customer-facing experience
• Strong understanding of U.S. government structure, procurement processes and funding mechanisms
• Experience engaging with DoD, FAA, DHS or related agencies
• Proven ability to build relationships that lead to programmatic outcomes and revenue generation
• Strong understanding of mission-driven technologies, ideally in aerospace, aviation or defense
• Strong experience writing proposals that win government business
• Experience operating in complex, regulated environments
• Exceptional communicator—comfortable presenting to executives, leading live demos, and authoring polished written materials. Ability to influence senior leaders internally and externally
• Demonstrated experience with Salesforce, including ownership of pipeline, forecasting, and reporting

Nice to Have

• Experience with autonomous systems, aviation, or advanced air mobility
• Familiarity with non-traditional acquisition pathways
• Background in military service, government leadership, or senior advisory roles — experience working in or with Air Mobility Command or Special Operations Command a plus
• Experience work in or with venture-backed or high-growth technology companies