Head of Defense and National Security

Echelon; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 350,000 - 650,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing allowance

Transport allowance

Education allowance

Performance bonus

Medical cover

Employee equity programme

Job summary

Echelon seeks a leader to drive dual mandates in Riyadh: open defense software deals with partners and build the Echelon Defense Industries thesis spanning hardware, manufacturing, and partnerships. You will craft customer-driven proofs of value and shape the strategic roadmap with leadership.

You will read technology shifts, select where to play, and establish a scalable business model with governance, partnerships, and a growing team. Strong defense experience is essential.

Qualifications

• Deep record in defense and national security, ideally spanning end-user and industry.
• Understanding of how software and hardware integrate in defense ecosystems.
• Strong ability to open doors, qualify opportunities and close deals.
• Structured thinker who translates tech trends into a business thesis and plan.
• Discretion and sound judgment when handling sensitive matters.

Responsibilities

• Build the pipeline with defense and national security entities and secure first software deals.
• Position partner software to address defense use cases with a deliberate deployment plan.
• Collaborate with partners and advisors through clear briefs and MOUs.
• Plan each defense account with the CRO’s team and deployment strategists.

Skills

Defense track record

Software for defense

Commercial drive

Structured thinking

Discretion

Leadership from zero

Talent attraction

Job description

The role: a dual mandate

Reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer, you carry two mandates at once. You open the vertical commercially: the relationships, the needs and the first deals for our partners’ software, Applied Intuition first, with credibility earned through early, concrete results. And with the leadership, you build the thesis and business model of Echelon Defense Industries: how defense technology is shifting, where Echelon should play beyond software (in hardware, manufacturing and the industrial partnerships they need), and the path to a first contract. Each mandate feeds the other: what you learn with customers shapes the thesis, and the thesis shapes what we bring to market.

Sell partner software

• Build the pipeline. Relationships with defense and national security entities, their needs mapped before anything is proposed, a qualified pipeline and the first deals for our partners’ software.

• Position partner software. Applied Intuition’s software and other partners’ technology on concrete defense use cases, with a deliberate choice of the applications we lead with, alongside the partners and our deployment teams.

• Work with partners and advisors. Partners and any advisor we engage, each with a clear brief, and agreements such as MOUs turned into progress.

• Plan each account. A plan for each defense account, built with the CRO’s team and the deployment strategists.

Build the Echelon Defense Industries thesis

• Read the technology shift. Continuous intelligence on how defense technology is changing (autonomy across air, maritime and ground, counter-drone, AI-enabled command and control) and what it means for the threats customers face and the capabilities they will buy.

• Choose where to play. The applications Echelon Defense Industries focuses on, from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to interception, tested against customer needs and our partners’ roadmaps.

• Build the business model. The model beyond software, with the leadership: the IP position (develop, co-own or acquire), partners for parts and manufacturing, economics, plan and the path to a first contract.

• Set the governance. Defense procurement and export-control rules respected on every engagement, with Legal and Compliance, and partners from different jurisdictions kept strictly separate where their rules require it.

• Build the team. The team of Echelon Defense Industries and of the vertical, built as the business grows: recruited through your network and developed in role.

Where we align:

• Defense record. You bring a deep record in defense and national security, ideally from both sides: as an end user in the armed forces or government, and in industry or a defense technology company.

• Software and industry. You understand both what software brings to defense and what it takes to build and manufacture hardware.

• Commercial drive. You open doors, qualify opportunities and close.

• Structured thinker. You read where defense technology is going and turn it into a thesis and a business model others can test and decide on.

• Trusted. You handle sensitive matters with discretion and judgment.

• Builder from zero. You have built a team, a programme or a business from nothing and taken it to working order.

• Talent attractor. Strong people want to work with you, and you inspire the next generation to join.

Strong advantage

• Defense technology. Experience with autonomous and uncrewed systems, AI-enabled command and control or simulation.

• Procurement. Experience of defense procurement, offsets, localisation programmes and export-control regimes.

• Arabic. Professional fluency in Arabic.

• Ecosystem standing. Established relationships with defense authorities, the armed forces and defense industry.

Our values

• Customer first. You measure your work by customer outcomes, and prioritise accordingly.

• Ownership mentality. You own outcomes end to end. When something breaks or stalls, you treat it as yours to fix.

• Clear communicator. You explain complex systems simply, to operators and executives alike, and make the value of your work visible.

• Comfortable with ambiguity. You make progress with incomplete information, partial data and unfamiliar environments, and you enjoy solving problems where there is no structure yet.

• Long-term builder. You invest in Echelon’s long-term success, bringing field insight back into our strategy and operations.

• Builds others. You measure yourself by the people you develop and the capability you build with customers.

The seat

• Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

• Reports to: The Chief Revenue Officer

• Travel: Regular time with customers across the Kingdom and with partners abroad.

• Package: A base salary with housing, transport and education allowances, a performance bonus, medical cover, and equity through the employee equity programme. Terms are shared at offer stage.

How we work

You start from the problem, not the tool. You meet an unclear brief or a broken environment with energy and a plan.

• Curiosity. You learn how the work really happens on site and keep learning as the stack moves.

• Speed. You move from brief to a first working result quickly and do not wait for perfect conditions.

• Rigour. You test claims against the data, check what is delivered and can explain every choice.

• Confidence and humility. You challenge and accept challenge, and change your view on evidence, without ego.

• Autonomy. You decide with incomplete information and own it; from an outcome, you organise the work yourself.

• Resourcefulness. Missing access, partial data, an unfamiliar organisation: you find a way with what is available.

• Situational leadership. You lead when the moment calls for it, and follow when someone else has the better call.

• A force multiplier. Your playbooks, reviews and coaching make the whole team faster.

• AI-native depth. AI tools are part of how you work, and you can explain to a defense customer what AI changes and what it does not.

• Where you are. A defense insider with a commercial instinct and an industrial mind