Business Development Manager San Jose

Hark; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Hark is seeking a Business Development Manager to own complex enterprise and strategic partnerships from inception to signature. You will collaborate across product, engineering, hardware, finance, legal and marketing to shape and close deals that advance a new category of AI and hardware.

The role requires 5–8 years in deal-focused roles, strong financial modeling, and the ability to negotiate under tight timelines.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years in business development, corporate development, strategic partnerships or similar deal-focused roles.
• Ability to build deal models and translate revenue share, pricing and commitments into clear economics for leadership.
• Led negotiations from term sheet through definitive agreement with counsel.
• Able to align product, engineering, finance and legal stakeholders around a deal without owning headcount.
• Thrives in ambiguity and can advance deals without a predefined playbook.

Responsibilities

• Deal Architecture: Architect deals with input from stakeholders across product, engineering, hardware, finance, legal and marketing. Define deal structures and economics.
• Business Case: Build business case and financial model for each deal and align leadership on priorities.
• Negotiation: Lead negotiations from term sheet to definitive agreement with strategy and redlines.
• Closing: Drive signatures on timelines and coordinate launch readiness with partner teams.
• Relationship Management: Manage day-to-day partner relationships and track commitments.
• Pipeline and Reporting: Source new opportunities and present status to senior leadership.

Skills

Deal Experience

Commercial Acumen

Negotiation

Cross-Functional Influence

Ambiguity Ownership

Job description

Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence. One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.

We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines. While today's AI largely operates through chat boxes and decade-old devices, Hark is focused on what comes next: agentic systems that interact naturally with people and the real world.

To get there, we're developing multimodal models and next-generation AI hardware together - designed from the ground up as a single, unified interface for a new era of intelligent systems.

About the Role

Hark is seeking a Business Development Manager to be the central quarterback for Hark's business development deals, including bespoke enterprise, vendor and other strategic partnerships. You will work alongside our Hardware, Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal and Marketing teams as Hark brings a new category of AI and hardware to the world.

You'll own deals end to end: shaping the structure with input from key stakeholders, negotiating with the counterparty, driving the agreement to signature, and maintaining the relationships that lead to the next transaction. Many of these deals won't have an established playbook, so this role calls for someone who is equally comfortable thinking strategically about deal structure and rolling up their sleeves on redlines, models and day-to-day partner management.

If you enjoy building partnerships from scratch, working through ambiguous commercial problems, and closing deals that shape how a new product reaches the world, we'd love to hear from you.

Responsibilities

• Deal Architecture: Architect deals with input from stakeholders across product, engineering, hardware, finance, legal and marketing. Define deal structures, commercial terms and economics, including revenue share, pricing, credits, minimum commitments and performance-based terms.
• Business Case: Build the business case and financial model for each deal, and align leadership on priorities and trade-offs.
• Negotiation: Lead negotiations from term sheet through definitive agreement, preparing negotiation strategy, walk-away positions and alternatives for each deal, and partnering closely with Legal on drafting, redlines and risk.
• Closing: Drive deals to signature on aggressive timelines, managing internal approvals and cross-functional sign-off, then coordinate launch readiness with partner teams once agreements are signed.
• Relationship Management: Serve as Hark's day-to-day point of contact for key partners, tracking commitments, deliverables and performance against agreed terms, and identifying expansion and follow-on opportunities.
• Pipeline and Reporting: Source and qualify new partnership opportunities aligned with company priorities, maintain the deal pipeline, and present status, risks and recommendations to senior leadership.

Requirements

• Deal Experience: 5–8 years in business development, corporate development, strategic partnerships, investment banking or a similar deal-focused role, with a track record of closing complex agreements as the lead.
• Commercial and Financial Acumen: You build your own deal models and can translate revenue share, pricing, credits and commitments into clear economics for leadership.
• Negotiation: You have led negotiations from term sheet through definitive agreement and are comfortable working through redlines alongside counsel.
• Cross-Functional Influence: You align product, engineering, finance and legal stakeholders around a deal without owning their headcount.
• Ownership in Ambiguity: You thrive where the commercial model has no precedent and can move a deal forward without a defined playbook.

Bonus Qualifications

• Partnership experience in AI, consumer technology, connected devices or telecommunications.
• Experience structuring vendor or platform deals such as compute, model, data or integration partnerships.
• Experience at an early-stage company launching a first-generation product.

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $200,000 - $400,000 annually.

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.