Sales Director, Fleet Development

Solairus Aviation; Petaluma (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Solairus Aviation seeks a Sales Director, Fleet Development to identify, develop, and convert new aircraft-management opportunities with owners, brokers, and industry partners. This external, relationship-driven role leads proposals, negotiations, and onboarding in collaboration with internal teams.

You will manage a complex consultative sales process, maintain an active pipeline, and travel regularly to client meetings and industry events, translating market insights into compelling value for

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Significant experience in business development, sales, client development, aircraft management, business aviation, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to develop relationships with sophisticated clients and professional intermediaries and to convert those relationships into business opportunities.
• Strong understanding of business aviation, private aircraft ownership, aircraft management, charter operations, or adjacent aviation services.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a complex consultative sales process involving multiple internal and external stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute business-development activities to grow Solairus managed fleet.
• Build and maintain relationships with aircraft owners, brokers, attorneys, wealth advisors, and other qualified sources.
• Identify, qualify, cultivate, and advance opportunities from initial contact to contract execution.
• Represent Solairus professionally in meetings, industry events, and aircraft transactions.
• Prepare and deliver proposals, presentations, and financial analyses tailored to prospects.
• Coordinate with internal teams to ensure proposals reflect capabilities and requirements.
• Maintain an actionable pipeline with contact histories, timing, and next actions.
• Use data sources to identify owners, transactions, and market activity for opportunities.
• Develop tools, dashboards, and automation to improve prospecting and reporting.
• Support fleet-development sales processes and competitive intelligence.

Skills

Business development

Sales

Client development

Aircraft management

Business aviation

Consultative sales

CRM proficiency

Executive communication

Data analysis

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

CRM platforms

Microsoft Office

Research tools

Sales automation tools

Job description

Overview

The Sales Director, Fleet Development, identifies, develops, and converts new aircraft management opportunities for Solairus Aviation. The role is primarily external and relationship-driven, focused on aircraft owners, prospective owners, brokers, advisors, and industry partners. Approximately 80% of the role is dedicated to business development, with the remaining 20% focused on research, data analysis, proposal development, sales automation, and related sales enablement. The Director manages opportunities from prospect identification and qualification through proposal, negotiation, and transition to operational teams. Success requires strong interpersonal skills, disciplined follow-through, analytical ability, sound judgment, and a collaborative, team-first approach.

Essential Responsibilities/Duties

• Develop and execute business-development activities that result in new aircraft management relationships and growth of the Solairus managed fleet.
• Build and maintain relationships with aircraft owners, prospective buyers, brokers, attorneys, wealth advisors, family offices, aircraft finance professionals, OEM representatives, and other sources of qualified Fleet Development opportunities.
• Identify, qualify, cultivate, and advance prospective aircraft management opportunities from initial contact through contract execution and aircraft onboarding.
• Represent Solairus professionally in meetings, industry events, conferences, aircraft transactions, and other settings where prospective clients and referral partners are engaged.
• Understand prospective clients' objectives, operating requirements, service expectations, and decision criteria, and coordinate Solairus resources to develop a compelling management solution.
• Prepare and deliver proposals, presentations, financial analyses, management comparisons, and other sales materials appropriate to individual prospects and opportunities.
• Coordinate with Fleet Development leadership and internal subject-matter experts, including operations, charter, finance, maintenance, safety, human resources, legal, and other departments, to ensure proposals and commitments accurately reflect Solairus capabilities and operating requirements.
• Maintain an accurate and actionable pipeline of prospects and opportunities, including appropriate documentation of contacts, activities, probability, timing, next actions, and anticipated aircraft additions.
• Use internal and external data sources to identify aircraft owners, transactions, aircraft deliveries, market activity, and other indicators that may generate qualified Fleet Development opportunities.
• Conduct targeted research and data analysis to improve prospect identification, territory development, intermediary engagement, and business-development prioritization.
• Develop tools, workflows, templates, dashboards, and automation that improve Fleet Development prospecting, proposal generation, reporting, and follow-up.
• Help strengthen Fleet Development sales processes, best practices, messaging, competitive intelligence, and proposal content.
• Maintain awareness of competitive aircraft-management offerings, market conditions, aircraft transactions, industry trends, and other factors affecting the company's ability to attract and retain managed aircraft.
• Work collaboratively with other Fleet Development professionals, sharing leads, information, relationships, resources, and expertise when doing so advances the interests of Solairus and its clients.
• Support colleagues on significant or complex opportunities without regard to individual ownership of the opportunity, recognizing that enterprise success and team performance take priority over individual credit.
• Facilitate an effective transition from the sales process to aircraft onboarding and ongoing account management, ensuring that commitments, expectations, and relevant client information are communicated accurately to the responsible teams.
• Exercise discretion and professionalism when handling confidential client, aircraft, financial, competitive, and company information.
• Perform other Fleet Development and business-development responsibilities as required to support company growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of relevant education and professional experience.
• Significant experience in business development, sales, client development, aircraft management, business aviation, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to develop relationships with sophisticated clients and professional intermediaries and to convert those relationships into business opportunities.
• Strong understanding of business aviation, private aircraft ownership, aircraft management, charter operations, or adjacent aviation services.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a complex consultative sales process involving multiple internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong executive presence and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to communicate credibly with aircraft owners, C-suite executives, family offices, attorneys, brokers, and other professional advisors.
• Strong written communication skills and demonstrated ability to develop high-quality proposals, presentations, correspondence, and other client-facing materials.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to research markets, evaluate data, identify prospective clients, and translate information into actionable sales opportunities.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms, Microsoft Office applications, and contemporary research, data-analysis, and sales-productivity tools.
• Demonstrated aptitude for developing or using workflow automation, data tools, artificial intelligence, or other technologies that improve sales productivity and effectiveness.
• Strong organizational and pipeline-management skills with consistent attention to follow-through, responsiveness, and detail.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently while functioning effectively as part of a collaborative sales and operating organization.
• Team-oriented mindset characterized by collaboration, information sharing, mutual support, accountability, humility, and a willingness to contribute wherever required to achieve enterprise objectives.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential or commercially sensitive information.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly for client meetings, industry events, internal meetings, and other business-development activities.
• Valid driver's license and ability to meet company travel requirements.

Additional Information

Solairus Aviation embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

To comply with regulations by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), the principal duties in job descriptions must be essential to the job. To identify essential functions, focus on the purpose and the result of the duties rather than the manner in which they are performed. The following definition applies: a job function is essential if removal of that function would fundamentally change the job.