Senior Defense BD Leader — Missile Actuation

Salient Motion, Inc.; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Salient Motion, Inc. is seeking a Principal Business Development Manager – Defense who owns and grows the defense order pipeline focused on missile actuation systems, CAS, actuators, EMA, and TVC.

This senior individual-contributor role operates with autonomy across the full capture lifecycle, shaping requirements and positioning Salient ahead of solicitation. The role requires deep DoD knowledge, executive relationships, and the ability to win significant programs while ensuring compliance with

Responsibilities

• Own the business development and capture strategy for the missile actuation product line, and identify adjacent growth opportunities across the broader defense portfolio.
• Build and manage a qualified opportunity pipeline across current and multi-year pursuits; forecast accurately and maintain CRM discipline that leadership can plan against.
• Lead capture end to end: shape requirements early, develop win strategy and price-to-win, position Salient ahead of solicitation, and drive internal gate reviews to decision.
• Cultivate and expand executive- and program-level relationships with missile and munitions primes, Tier 1 suppliers, and relevant U.S. Government program offices.
• Track the DoD acquisition and budget cycle (PPBE/POM), monitor programs of record and emerging requirements, and translate that intelligence into actionable pursuits.
• Orchestrate responses to Sources Sought, RFIs, and RFPs in partnership with proposal, engineering, contracts, and pricing to produce compliant, compelling submissions.
• Direct the external business development and lead-generation agencies supporting top-of-funnel activity, and ensure qualified opportunities transition cleanly into the capture pipeline.
• Represent Salient Motion at trade shows, industry days, and customer engagements as a credible technical and commercial voice for the actuation portfolio.
• Feed competitive intelligence and voice-of-customer input back to product line management and engineering to inform roadmap and investment decisions.
• Serve as a capture mentor and standard-bearer for less-experienced business development staff, without direct reporting authority.
• Ensure all activity complies with ITAR/EAR export controls, FAR/DFARS requirements, and internal business conduct standards.

Job description

Salient Motion, Inc. is seeking a Principal Business Development Manager – Defense who owns and grows the defense order pipeline focused on missile actuation systems, CAS, actuators, EMA, and TVC.

This senior individual-contributor role operates with autonomy across the full capture lifecycle, shaping requirements and positioning Salient ahead of solicitation. The role requires deep DoD knowledge, executive relationships, and the ability to win significant programs while ensuring compliance with