VP of Strategic Accounts— Aerospace & Defense

Vice President, Strategic Accounts — Aerospace & Defense

Location: Remote / hybrid. Preference for candidates near a major A&D hub with strong airport access — Los Angeles, Phoenix, Bay Area, Denver, San Antonio, Atlanta, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus (OH), Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Houston, or Las Vegas. Candidates near other A&D hubs (Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington DC, Huntsville, Tampa, Orlando, St. Louis, etc.) will also be considered.

Compensation: $210,000 – $250,000 base + 30% target bonus + equity.

Reports To: Chief Commercial Officer

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About the Role

The company is building out its Aerospace & Defense vertical and is hiring a Vice President of Strategic Accounts to lead the effort end to end. The role has two halves: a supply chain / operational-readiness half and a business development half. This is a build role, not a pure hunter role. You will own customer-facing growth across A&D primes and Tier 1/2 suppliers, and you will also serve as the company's internal point of contact for A&D operational readiness, guiding our plants on the certifications, cyber standards, and audit-preparation work required to deliver to defense customers.

Why this role exists — and why we are anchoring it on the supply chain. Selling into A&D primes is not a cold-outreach problem. Primes work with partners who already speak their language: people who understand the supply chain, materials flow, packaging specifications, and program-side procurement cadence from the inside. The ideal hire spent the bulk of their career inside a prime, or a deeply prime-embedded Tier 1, and is now ready to take that fluency to the supplier side. We have already proven this play in another of our verticals: the leaders who built it came out of that industry's own supply chain ecosystem before joining us. We are looking for that same shape, tailored to A&D primes.

A&D is currently a low single-digit share of the company's overall revenue. The successful hire will both expand existing footprint at Lockheed, Northrop, Honeywell, RTX, and Boeing and build the vertical's compliance and operational backbone so we can scale it to a meaningful share of revenue. You will not be carrying a quota into a fully-stood-up vertical. You will be helping us stand it up — starting by learning the company's real capabilities and production lead times, landing one or two Tier-1 "lighthouse" accounts as proof points, and building a repeatable, scalable process (and, over time, a small regional team) behind them.

Responsibilities

A&D Vertical Build-Out & Operational Readiness

• Serve as the company's internal single point of contact for A&D customer compliance and audit readiness across our national multi-site plant footprint
• Partner with plant operations leadership to drive readiness against AS9100, NIST 800-171 cyber requirements, DFARS clauses, ITAR-relevant handling, and prime-specific quality programs
• Quarterback prime-customer audits (e.g., Lockheed plant visits) end to end: paperwork, documentation, plant walk-throughs, follow-up
• Translate prime-customer requirements (cert language, MIL-STD packaging, first-article/POP test protocols, Technical Data Packages, classified shipping requirements, ESD handling, OEM delivery schedules) into concrete operational expectations the plant teams can execute against
• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with operations on the front end so A&D pursuits are fulfillable before they are sold — understanding the company's capabilities and limitations first, and never overselling what the plants can deliver

Strategic Account Growth

• Expand existing A&D footprint at Lockheed, Northrop, Honeywell, RTX, and Boeing across both defense and commercial aerospace work
• Land new logos at primes and Tier 1/2 suppliers, ordnance/munitions manufacturers, drone/UAV makers, and emerging defense tech (Sierra Nevada, Anduril, Shield AI, Skydio, AeroVironment, Joby, Archer, etc.)
• Prioritize one or two Tier-1 "lighthouse" accounts as case studies that build the company brand before chasing low-hanging fruit
• Cultivate executive relationships with decision-makers at A&D heavyweights, working the three stakeholder tracks in parallel — executive, program/technical, and supply chain — and positioning the company as a long-term strategic partner
• Build account growth plans that reflect realistic A&D sales cycles (3–18 months), share-of-wallet expansion, MRO/aftermarket recurring revenue, and design-in opportunities

Solution Selling

• Consultatively sell the company's full capability set (custom-engineered packaging kits, foam fabrication, wood crates, corrugated, molded pulp, last-mile logistics) into A&D hardware, sub-assembly, avionics, and energetic/ordnance use cases
• Coordinate internal R&D and engineering on custom packaging design where prime requirements demand it, including first-article/POP certification for Class-1 items
• Deliver business reviews and pitch presentations grounded in operational reality, not over-promised capability

Cross-Functional Coordination & Team Build

• Sequence work across operations, engineering, logistics, finance, and legal so A&D deals are profitable, compliant, and deliverable on the dates we commit to
• Surface gaps between customer requirements and the company's current operational capability, and drive resolution rather than work around them
• As the vertical scales, help define and build the supporting team — including regional account coverage where customer geography demands it

Market Intelligence

• Track A&D market trends across aircraft, UAVs, land systems, munitions, and space to identify the next-best-revenue opportunities for the company
• Feed market intelligence and competitive insight to the CCO and CEO to shape investment, M&A, and capability decisions

Requirements

Ideal Candidate Profile

This is a hybrid supply-chain-and-business-development seat, and the ideal hire reflects both halves. The center of gravity is A&D credibility earned inside the prime ecosystem — whether through supply chain/procurement, defense logistics, or engineering/OEM distribution — paired with named, trusted relationships and a builder's instinct.

Primary Target: The Prime Supply-Chain Insider Moving to the Sell Side

Someone who spent the bulk of their career (10+ years) inside an A&D prime — or a deeply prime-embedded Tier 1 — in supply chain, program procurement, materials, strategic sourcing, or packaging engineering, and is now ready to take that fluency to the supplier side. You carry active, named relationships with prime supply chain, procurement, and program-office decision-makers. You understand how primes actually buy, qualify, and onboard suppliers, and you can convert that insider credibility into multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts. You can walk into one of our plants and tell the team what AS9100 / NIST 800-171 / DFARS readiness looks like in practice, because you have lived on the buying side of those requirements. This is the A&D-tailored version of a hiring play that has already worked for us in another vertical.

Acceptable Alternatives

• A defense-logistics / supply-chain leader with a prime pedigree who has built and scaled programs inside a prime (and/or as a services provider) and brings a deep, trusted relationship network across defense/ordnance primes and manufacturers.
• An A&D engineering or OEM-distribution BD leader who has sat inside a prime and then penetrated primes/OEMs on the sell side, with strong spec-in ability and compliance depth.
• An A&D operations or quality leader who has already moved into a customer-facing BD / strategic-accounts role and can demonstrate genuine, named inroads into prime supply chain organizations (not just program or technical contacts).

In every case, what we will scrutinize is the depth of your supply-chain/procurement relationships at the primes and the stability of your recent tenure.

We are not looking for a sitting VP of Strategic Accounts at a packaging competitor. We are not looking for a pure sales hunter without operational A&D and supply-chain fluency. We are looking for a builder with insider credibility at the primes.

Must-Haves

• 10+ years in A&D supply chain, program procurement, materials, packaging engineering, defense logistics, or strategic sourcing, with meaningful tenure inside a prime or a deeply prime-embedded Tier 1
• Active, named relationships with prime supply chain, procurement, or program-office decision-makers
• Proven ownership of multi-million-dollar contract relationships, whether on the buy side or the sell side
• Working knowledge of A&D quality and compliance programs: AS9100, NIST 800-171, DFARS, ITAR-relevant handling, MIL-STD packaging (e.g., MIL-STD-2073), first-article/POP testing, prime-specific quality systems
• Track record of either expanding strategic accounts or standing up a new vertical/customer program inside an industrial business
• Stable tenure history — sustained time in role, not a pattern of short stints
• Strong cross-functional orchestration skills: comfort moving between plant operations, engineering, finance, legal, and executive customer audiences
• Willingness to travel to customer sites and company plants as needed
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Business, or related field. MBA welcome but not required.
• US Citizen, eligible for US security clearance (active clearance is a plus)
• Ability to work in the United States without visa sponsorship

Nice-to-Haves

• Sustained tenure (five-plus years) in a single supply chain, logistics, materials, or program-procurement role at a prime or major Tier 1
• Prior commercial or strategic-accounts experience selling industrial services into the A&D ecosystem
• Fluency with AS9100, NIST 800-171, CMMC, ITAR, NADCAP, MIL-STD packaging, or RTCA DO-160 — you do not need to have personally built a QMS, but you should be conversant
• Hands-on experience preparing a manufacturing site for a prime-customer audit or a government source inspection (DCMA/CSI)
• Familiarity with classified shipping requirements, ESD-compliant packaging, first-article/POP test protocols, and avionics/electronics handling standards
• Background in industrial packaging, protective packaging, foam fabrication, or specialty crating is welcome but not required (we can teach the packaging; we cannot teach A&D)
• Experience building and leading a small BD / account-management team, including distributed/regional coverage
• CRM proficiency (Salesforce or equivalent) and comfort with data-driven account planning
• Veteran status or a DoD acquisition background is welcome; the company values that background

What Success Looks Like

• First 90 days: Full audit of the company's current A&D footprint, plant-by-plant compliance readiness assessment, and a prioritized account plan naming the first one or two Tier-1 "lighthouse" targets against existing primes and net-new logos
• 6 months: Visible progress on plant-side compliance readiness for top-target primes; first new-logo wins and expansion deals in motion; a repeatable, scalable pursuit process taking shape
• 12 months: A&D vertical scaled materially as a share of company revenue, with internal operations capable of absorbing A&D-specific compliance work as a standing capability rather than an exception