Core Partnerships Manager
Oxenham Group | Job Description
Location: Austin, Texas (onsite) Or Washington, DC with 25-30% travel
Employment Type: Full-time
Reports To: Chief Growth Officer
Security Clearance: Eligibility to obtain a security clearance is required
Compensation: Salary + Equity
About the Company
Our client is a startup building proprietary targeting software for unmanned systems. Manufacturers integrate this software directly onto UAVs, USVs, UUVs, and other unmanned vehicles, where it runs on the vehicle's onboard computer.
This software detects, classifies, and tracks targets from onboard cameras, maintains persistent target identity when video degrades or breaks up, and can execute terminal guidance through to impact. It is built to keep operating in contested environments: when GPS is denied and communications links are jammed.
Our client has previously held Department of War (DoW) contracts, including work with Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Position Summary
Our client has been founder-led on sales since 2021 and has closed contracts with both primes and vendors. You will be their first dedicated partnerships hire, building relationships with unmanned vehicle manufacturers and owning the partner pipeline from first call to signed deal.
Our client's primary buyers are companies that build UAVs, UGVs, USVs, UUVs, and other UxVs and want our client's software running on their vehicles. You will find and qualify those manufacturers, then negotiate the agreements that put the software on their platforms, such as licensing, teaming, joint development, or reseller deals. Once a manufacturer signs, you will work with the Deployments team to schedule integration and field testing.
Key Responsibilities
- Find, qualify, and build relationships with unmanned vehicle manufacturers across air, ground, surface, and undersea platforms.
- Own the partner pipeline from first call to signed deal, building it primarily through outbound prospecting.
- Negotiate and close licensing, teaming, joint development, and reseller agreements that put our client's software on partner platforms.
- Pitch a technical product to manufacturer and defense engineering teams.
- Hand off signed partners to the Deployments team and coordinate scheduling for integration and field testing.
- Keep the CRM current and report pipeline to the executive team.
- Use AI tools for prospecting, note taking, research, and drafting.
- Travel 25 33% of the time for partner meetings, field tests, conferences, and industry events.
Requirements
- 4+ years in sales, partnerships, or business development at a B2B, hardware, defense, dual-use, or deep-tech company.
- You have built your own pipeline through outbound, not only worked inbound leads or accounts you were handed.
- Experience closing licensing agreements with hardware manufacturers, primes, or systems integrators.
- Experience selling into defense, and an understanding of how DoW programs buy.
- Experience pitching a technical product to engineers in defense.
- Experience keeping a CRM up to date and reporting pipeline to the executive team.
- Fluency with AI tools for prospecting, note taking, researching, and drafting.
- Ability to work on-site in Austin, Texas, or remotely from the DC area until an office opens there, and to travel 25-30% of the time.
- Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)). This role works with export-controlled technology.
Preferred Qualifications
- Existing relationships at U.S. unmanned vehicle manufacturers (air, ground, or maritime) and the primes and integrators around them.
- Experience getting software integrated onto an OEM's vehicle and into production.
- Experience building the GTM, partnerships, or sales function at a startup.
- Experience selling to international vendors.
What Success Looks Like
- A qualified, outbound-built pipeline of unmanned vehicle manufacturers.
- Signed licensing, teaming, joint development, or reseller agreements that put our client's software on new platforms.
- Smooth handoffs to Deployments, with integration and field testing scheduled for each signed partner.