Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships

UnitX; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

UnitX is seeking a Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships in Milpitas, CA. This externally facing role will build executive relationships with major AI infrastructure players and guide opportunities from discovery to global deployment across North America and APAC.

You will map complex manufacturing ecosystems, translate challenges into product opportunities, and coordinate across sales, engineering, and service teams to scale programs worldwide.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in business development, strategic accounts, enterprise sales, or partnerships in applying advanced technology to industrial customers.
• Proven track record breaking into complex enterprise accounts and developing relationships from a cold start.
• Experience selling or developing technically complex solutions involving multiple stakeholders and long qualification cycles.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute go-to-market strategy for emerging verticals, starting with AI data centers and AI hardware.
• Break into high-value strategic accounts including leading AI hardware and infrastructure companies.
• Build relationships with senior leaders across manufacturing, quality, engineering, operations, procurement, and supply chain.
• Map accounts' global manufacturing ecosystems including factories, contractors, partners, and suppliers.
• Identify high-value applications for AI-powered inspection, assembly verification, process monitoring, and manufacturing automation.
• Translate customer challenges into defined product and commercial opportunities for UnitX.
• Lead opportunities from discovery through pilot, production deployment, and expansion globally.
• Coordinate with sales, application engineering, and service teams across regions to ensure consistent account strategy and support.
• Bring market and customer insights back to the product team to prioritize capabilities.

Skills

Business development

Strategic accounts

Enterprise sales

Partnerships

Stakeholder management

Cross-regional coordination

Travel readiness

Job description

About UnitX

UnitX is building the AI-powered eyes and brain for autonomous manufacturing. Our machine-vision platform helps manufacturers detect complex defects, automate inspection, and improve production quality in applications where conventional vision systems fall short.

We are expanding into emerging, high-growth markets—including AI data-center infrastructure and next-generation AI hardware—and are looking for a business development leader to help establish UnitX as a strategic partner to the companies defining these industries.

The Role

Location: Milpitas, CA

The Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships will be responsible for breaking into major strategic accounts and developing them from initial engagement through pilot, production deployment, and global expansion.

This is a hands-on, externally facing role for someone who can build executive relationships while working deeply with customers’ engineering, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams. You will identify where UnitX’s AI vision technology can solve critical manufacturing problems, develop the business case, and coordinate the resources required to turn early opportunities into scalable global programs.

You will work closely with UnitX’s sales, application engineering, and service teams across North America and Asia-Pacific to support customers whose manufacturing operations span multiple regions.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and execute the go-to-market strategy for emerging verticals, initially focusing on AI data centers, advanced computing infrastructure, and next-generation AI hardware.

• Break into a targeted set of high-value strategic accounts, including leading AI infrastructure companies, hyper-scale technology platforms, advanced computing companies, and consumer and enterprise hardware leaders.

• Build relationships with senior leaders and key stakeholders across manufacturing, quality, engineering, operations, procurement, and supply-chain organizations.

• Map each account’s global manufacturing ecosystem, including internal factories, contract manufacturers, equipment partners, system integrators, and component suppliers.

• Identify high-value applications for AI-powered inspection, assembly verification, process monitoring, and manufacturing automation.

• Translate customer manufacturing challenges into clearly defined product and commercial opportunities for UnitX.

• Lead opportunities from initial discovery and technical validation through commercial negotiation, production deployment, and expansion across additional factories and applications.

• Coordinate closely with UnitX sales, application engineering, and service teams in Asia-Pacific to ensure consistent account strategy, effective customer support, and successful global deployments.

• Bring market and customer insights back to the product team to help prioritize capabilities required by emerging AI-hardware manufacturing applications.

What Success Looks Like

During your first 12 months, you will:

• Establish credible relationships and clear account plans within a focused portfolio of strategic target accounts.

• Build a qualified pipeline of POCs with high-value manufacturing applications in AI infrastructure and next-generation hardware.

• Convert initial customer engagements into paid pilot production programs.

• Create a pathway for successful North American engagements to expand into manufacturing sites world-wide.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of experience in business development, strategic accounts, enterprise sales, or partnerships in applying advanced technology in AI or sensors into industrial customer base.

• Demonstrated success breaking into complex enterprise accounts and developing relationships from a cold start.

• Experience selling or developing technically complex solutions involving multiple stakeholders and extended qualification cycles.

• Strong understanding of how advanced hardware products move from design and new-product introduction into high-volume manufacturing.

• Ability to engage credibly with both senior executives and technical teams in manufacturing, quality, engineering, and operations.

• Experience coordinating opportunities across North America and Asia-Pacific, including but not limited to Vietnam, Japan, China, Korea and Thailand, particularly when customer headquarters and manufacturing operations are in different regions.

• Strong commercial judgment and the ability to connect technical value to measurable ROI in quality, yield, labor, throughput, or time to production.

• A highly proactive, resourceful working style and willingness to personally drive opportunities through ambiguity.

• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.

• Willingness to travel internationally as customer opportunities require.

Why Join UnitX

This role offers the opportunity to accelerate human productivity through robotics in manufacturing. You get to define how a differentiated AI-vision platform enters some of the world’s fastest-growing and most strategically important manufacturing markets. You will work directly with company leadership, influence product and market strategy, and build relationships that can become significant global accounts.