Strategic Account Executive — Autonomous Systems

Defense Unicorns; United States; Remote; USD 145,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Commission plan

High OTE

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking an Account Executive to own and grow business across the autonomous systems and federal technology market. You will identify opportunities, build trusted relationships with engineers, program leadership, government stakeholders, and partners, and work with a Solutions Architect to shape both technical architectures and commercial strategy.

Lead end-to-end deals from discovery through procurement, coordinate with prime contractors, and position Defense Unicorns as a

Qualifications

• Demonstrated success selling complex technology into federal, defense, autonomous systems, or similarly complex markets.
• Experience developing and closing opportunities involving multiple technical, business, and government stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of the federal technology ecosystem, including government customers, Federal Systems Integrators, prime contractors, OEMs, and technology vendors.
• Experience building new markets or territories rather than exclusively managing established accounts.
• Ability to develop opportunities before a formal procurement or RFP exists.
• Experience navigating long, complex sales cycles involving partnerships, technical evaluations, contracting, and program-level decisions.
• Ability to understand technical concepts sufficiently to engage credibly with engineering and architecture teams.
• Familiarity with cloud-native software, DevSecOps, Kubernetes, edge computing, software delivery, data infrastructure, or adjacent technologies is highly desirable.
• Experience working with autonomous systems, drones, aerospace, satellites, robotics, weapons systems, or other software-defined platforms is highly desirable.
• Strong executive communication, relationship-building, negotiation, and account-planning skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in an ambiguous and rapidly evolving market where customers, technologies, programs, and acquisition strategies are still taking shape.

Responsibilities

• Own pipeline creation, account strategy, opportunity development, and revenue across the autonomous systems and federal markets territory.
• Develop relationships with autonomous drone manufacturers, aerospace and satellite companies, Federal Systems Integrators, defense technology companies, and commercial companies entering the federal market.
• Identify programs, platforms, and customer initiatives where cloud-native software, secure software delivery, data transport, and edge computing capabilities can create strategic value.
• Work closely with the paired Solutions Architect to lead customer discovery and understand mission requirements, platform architectures, technical constraints, acquisition strategies, and business objectives.
• Build and execute account plans for strategic customers, partners, platforms, and programs.
• Develop opportunities from early technical conversations through evaluation, contracting, deployment, expansion, and long-term partnership.
• Navigate complex opportunities involving multiple stakeholders, including engineering teams, program leadership, executives, government customers, acquisition organizations, and industry partners.
• Build relationships with Federal Systems Integrators and prime contractors to identify where Defense Unicorns can become part of larger program architectures and customer solutions.
• Work with commercial technology companies to develop strategies for bringing their capabilities into federal and defense environments.
• Identify opportunities for Defense Unicorns technology to be incorporated into new platforms during the design phase as well as existing platforms undergoing software modernization.
• Coordinate internal resources across Solutions Architecture, Engineering, Product, Marketing, Contracts, and company leadership to advance strategic opportunities.
• Develop compelling business cases and value propositions that connect Defense Unicorns capabilities to customer mission outcomes.
• Maintain a disciplined understanding of pipeline, opportunity stage, next actions, decision criteria, stakeholders, competitive position, and forecast.
• Negotiate commercial agreements and drive opportunities through procurement and contracting processes.
• Represent Defense Unicorns at industry events, customer meetings, partner engagements, technical demonstrations, and other market-facing activities.
• Capture market feedback and recurring customer needs to help influence product strategy, partnerships, and go-to-market priorities.

Skills

Federal sales

Complex sales

Account planning

Relationship building

Solution selling

Public sector

Executive communication

Security/compliance

Tools

CRM

Kubernetes

Job description

Defense Unicorns is seeking an Account Executive to own and grow business across the autonomous systems and federal technology market. You will identify opportunities, build trusted relationships with engineers, program leadership, government stakeholders, and partners, and work with a Solutions Architect to shape both technical architectures and commercial strategy.

Lead end-to-end deals from discovery through procurement, coordinate with prime contractors, and position Defense Unicorns as a