Defense Business Development Lead

About Flyby Robotics:

Flyby Robotics builds programmable drones with massively powerful GPU processing capabilities.  Our team manufactures American-made drones that serve as MOSA open platforms for applications in machine learning. 

The need is urgent. Our warfighers need large numbers of affordable drones that can be made fully independently from China. Our warfighers need drones that can be quickly programmed and adapted against the speed of modern conflict.  Our warfighers need drones that can run meaningful AI to not be outnumbered by the man-power advantage of our adversary. 

We recently won our first $1m+ DoD contract engagement to enable mission-specific AI to AFSOC Special Operators, and we have realized there is a massive gap in the deployment of AI-capable drones and applications. We’re hiring help to speed this up, so our service members won’t be behind in the era of robotic warfare. 

The Role:

Our company is a team of engineers from Yale University, NASA JPL, NVIDIA, and U.S. Naval Air Command at our Culver City production facility. You’ll be working directly with the CEO to discover the most urgent problems that require solutions by the warfighter and navigate the challenging process of securing fast-moving contract pathways (SBIR, OTAs, BAAs, CRADAs) to deliver solutions to the warfighter. To succeed, you understand how to build high-trust relationships with warfighters and DOD civilians across all echelons and organizations, including AAL, AFWERX, DIU, MCTSSA, and SOCOM, who can unlock doors to quickly field capabilities. 

What You'll Do:

• Identify, draft, submit, and manage funding proposals and own the challenging funding process to deliver cutting-edge equipment to American and allied warfighters..
• Conduct market research with all services of the US military to identify tactical problems that are best solved with drones and machine learning approaches. 
• Build trust and relationships with warfighters who are the solution champions and willing to serve as technical point-of-contacts for funding proposals. 
• Whiteboard and create solution proposals that address warfighter needs, and work with our engineering team to bring it to prototype, then production.

Core Requirements:

• You deeply care about this mission, and you are fundamentally motivated to take this role so our warfighters can be fielded with the best solutions. 
• You’ve been in a BD, contracting role, or were a DoD stakeholder, ideally with experience with autonomous systems or acquisitions. 
• You've extensive prior knowledge of how pilots, OTAs, SBIR Phase II/III are won/successful. It’s a difficult process, and you know how to push things through. Alternatively, you have demonstrated the ability to rapidly adapt to new systems and processes to achieve results with minimal guidance. 
• You need to have high written communication skills and experience. We need to communicate the severity and the urgency of specific problems and how the solution we developed will solve them for the warfighter.  Our failure to communicate and persuade should not be the reason we failed at our mission. 
• Must be able to commute to Culver City, Los Angeles. Open to travel to military bases or exercises.

Compensation and Benefits:

• $110,000 per year annual salary.
• Up to $50,000 performance bonus based on the value of contracts awarded. 
• 0.5% equity via stock options, depending on the candidate's experience, with the opportunity to win additional equity over time. 
• Company holiday calendar and competitive PTO plans.

You'll be building something incredibly consequential. If you like to push to see what you can accomplish with your grit and ingenuity, consider applying for this role at Flyby Robotics. 

Flyby Robotics is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristic.