A hands-on, field-based business development role.

Your job: get into the field, put the product in front of operators, learn how they really plan and fly missions, and feed that ground truth straight into the product.

Shearwater

Aerospace (Montreal, QC) United States, remote, living close to a defense UAS ecosystem Full-time (contract-to-hire acceptable, see note) Travel: 30–50% (US, with travel to Canada: test ranges, operator sites, defense UAS events) What we do not have yet is a systematic presence with the people who feel the planning pain daily: defense UAV operators and the contractors who fly for them. That means in office, in the crew room, earning operator trust and living where the aircraft fly — pointed at learning: how they plan today, where it breaks, what a bad plan costs them. You open the doors, run the field work, and bring the founders into the conversations that matter.

The CTO joins for the technical depth

- What you hear changes what we build, on a weekly cycle, and the operator network you develop stays yours to grow with the role (see Career path). Defense services contractors and operators-for-hire (ISR, range support, flight test crews) Military and military-adjacent UAS units and their support ecosystem Market map and field access (end-to-end) Reach operators through the channels this community respects: warm intros, events, ranges, veteran networks, direct approach. This is a small community and we get one first impression per organization Own the full loop: source, contact, follow up, schedule, travel.



Field engagement and evaluations Use the operator's own words wherever the wording matters — we would rather have the quote than your paraphrase — but this is a field report, not a transcript By day 30: the market map and the plan to work it — 50+ target organizations and 100+ named individuals, prioritized, with your own outreach approach for each segment. Market development in defense starts before there is a pipeline. That is what makes a pipeline possible. Phase 1 — Field discovery (roughly 1–2 quarters). Phase 2 — Commercial ownership. Credibility with UAS operators, earned one of two ways: you have planned or flown real missions yourself (military or civil), or you have spent years selling or supporting a comparable product to the people who do. Either way, you can hold a technical conversation about how a mission gets planned and flown An existing network in the US defense UAS community that you can start working in week one Demonstrated self-directed outreach: in some prior context, you built a contact list from nothing and worked it (recruiting, capture, event organizing, community building all count) Willing and able to travel across the US and to Canada
- Familiarity with GCS tooling (Mission Planner, QGC, UgCS)



and the planning workflow around them Prior customer discovery, capture analysis, field research, or FSR (Field Service Representative) experience Existing relationships at test ranges or with defense services primes' flight test orgs Prior capture, business development, or defense sales experience — a plus, but hustle and network matter more An active or recently active US security clearance. note that we are not currently in a position to sponsor or maintain one, so this is an asset rather than a requirement US military service in a UAS, aviation, or mission-planning role, or a reserve affiliation. Not required, but a fresh operator network and firsthand knowledge of the culture shorten your path Part-time consultants
- Intro call with the founders (fit, background, your network) USD $130,000–$170,000 base depending on network depth and proven selling record, plus meaningful early-stage equity Commission on closed business — target 2–5%, structure agreed before you start Full travel expenses covered Note: a 3–6 month contract-to-hire structure is on the table for candidates who prefer to de-risk mutually Reports to the CEO, who owns demand generation and go-to-market.

The CTO owns the product feedback loop: what you learn drives what we build, so your field evidence goes directly to the person who changes the product Weekly sync with both founders: the CEO on targets, field schedule, and pipeline

- Works alongside our business operations function, not under it #

📌 Business Development Lead, US Defense UAS (Montreal)
🏢 Shearwater Aerospace
📍 Montreal