About Poseidon Aerospace:
Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates unmanned planes for commercial logistics and defense missions. Our two full-size fixed-wing platforms - Heron, a seaplane, and Egret, a STOL aircraft - can carry two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. We are headquartered in San Francisco with satellite offices in Washington, DC and Maine.
About the Role:
We are seeking a Vice President of Defense who owns Poseidon’s growth with the Department of War from first contact to first operational use. You will turn mission gaps into funded programs by leading all phases of business development—from pipeline creation and early shaping through PPBE insertion, capture, proposal, award, and initial operational employment. You will be accountable for revenue, program outcomes, and enduring relationships across Services and COCOMs, with particular focus on contested logistics and maritime/expeditionary problem sets. Day to day, you’ll align product direction with mission needs, set the operating cadence for business development, and represent Poseidon credibly with senior leaders in the Pentagon, the field, and on the Hill. Your center of gravity is winning, fielding, and scaling programs.
Responsibilities:
Strategy & positioning: Define theater- and service-specific campaign plans, map competitive dynamics, and identify the most direct paths to resourcing
Requirements & resourcing: Translate mission problems into clear requirement language and testable outcomes; build sponsor coalitions and align demand with near- and out-year funding windows.
Capture & partnerships: Lead captures end-to-end select teaming strategies, guide pricing and negotiations, and maintain executive-level relationships with requirements owners, resource sponsors, PEOs/program offices, and primes
External engagement: Maintain constructive engagement with congressional committees and staff; brief policy and budget stakeholders; represent Poseidon at exercises, demos, and industry forums.
Qualifications:
10–20+ years across operations, acquisition, capture/business development, and/or program management with a demonstrated track record leading 0→1 rapid-acquisition programs and winning large-scale bids; converts prototypes/pilots into funded, scalable programs.
Mastery of DoD resourcing and acquisition and how requirements map to funding lines, schedules, and risk.
Trusted relationships at senior and working levels across Services/COCOMs, PEOs/program offices, primes, and integrators
Demonstrated ability to stand up initial operational capability for new systems and convert prototypes or pilots into enduring programs or services.
Proven ability to translate technical capabilities into compelling, mission-relevant narratives for both engineering and senior operational audiences.
Strong proposal leadership (compliance, reviews, narratives), negotiations, pricing, and forecast ownership.
Builder-leader who installs process discipline and accountability in lean teams; high autonomy and bias for action.
Eligibility for TS/SCI; DC/DMV preferred; 25% travel.
Preferred Qualifications:
INDOPACOM relationships and familiarity with maritime/expeditionary and distributed logistics missions (Navy/USMC/Air Force).
Experience shaping resource decisions across PPBE timelines, with judicious engagement of appropriations/policy stakeholders when required.
Success partnering with primes/integrators to speed integration, certification, test, and sustainment.
Prior leadership scaling defense programs from first award to multi-year production or sustained service contracts.
Poseidon is reimagining logistics with autonomous aircraft built to move goods faster, cheaper, anywhere they're needed. We are building the unmanned backbone of tomorrow's logistics.
Key team members
Miles Jackler
Rohan Sharma, PhD
Ryan Engel
Dale Coffey
Jobr aggregates jobs directly from company career portals — no middlemen. Our team applies on your behalf with AI-tailored resumes, reviewed by a human before submission.