Business Development Lead

Navi captures everything a pilot sees and hears and turns it into automated debrief intelligence. The platform is live at flight schools, business jet operators, and the U.S. Air Force — and demand is accelerating. You're the person who turns that demand into deployments. ABOUT THE ROLE This is a founding business development role. You own how Navi expands across the aviation market — airlines, charter operators, and the training centers that produce the next generation of pilots. You own the full cycle: sourcing the relationship, running the pitch, closing the deal, and standing up the deployment that follows. Navi is deployed at Embry-Riddle, Purdue, UND, Sling Pilot Academy, and the United States Air Force. The market is wide open and the product is proven. What we need now is someone to go take it. You won't be handed a playbook. You'll write it — and then build the team that runs it. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own the full business development cycle from first contact to signed deal to live deployment — across airlines, private jet operators, and flight training centers - Build and manage a pipeline of aviation customers — identify the right targets, get in the room, and move deals to close - Run pitches and product demos for operators, training directors, and aviation executives — translating Navi's capabilities into outcomes they care about - Negotiate and close commercial agreements, then partner with the team to make every deployment a success - Represent Navi in person at customer sites, industry events, and on the road — this is a relationship business and you'll be where the customers are - Hire and build the business development team as we scale, setting the standard for how Navi sells ABOUT YOU - Have closed deals in aviation — airlines, business aviation, charter, or flight training — and know who signs, who quietly blocks, and how long it actually takes - Have carried a number in a market with no inbound and hit it; pipeline out of a target list and a phone is a familiar starting point, not a red flag - Run the whole cycle yourself — sourcing, discovery, demo, pricing, redlines, close, and the deployment that makes it stick - Credible in a hangar and in a boardroom; pilots and training directors decide fast whether you know the work, and you do - On the road most weeks by choice — you close in person, and you already know which conferences, ops centers, and campuses are worth the trip - Want to build the function, not inherit one; you're here to write the playbook and then hire the people who run it NICE TO HAVE - You're a pilot, or you've spent enough time around flight ops to speak the language without translating - You've sold into defense or government and know how a program office buys - You've sold a product with hardware in it — installs, IT reviews, and safety sign-offs don't scare you - You've hired and coached sellers before, and want to do it again from scratch   WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS Aviation adopts by reference. Every deal you close is more than revenue — it's the proof that moves the market and makes the next conversation easier. The product is already trusted by the most demanding operators in the world. Whether Navi becomes the standard for how pilots debrief, or stays a very good product that a few people know about, depends entirely on how fast this function gets built.   WHAT YOU'LL GET - Early-stage equity — real ownership in a category-defining company - Flight training — earn your pilot's licenses and sell with true domain expertise - Impact you can see — the deals you close put Navi in cockpits at airlines, flight schools, and the U.S. Air Force - A role that scales into commercial leadership as we grow HOW WE WORK - Find a way. We don't wait for permission or perfect information. Ideas come from anywhere regardless of title. Figure it out, ship it, iterate. - Creativity over control. First principles over process. We'd rather have a creative solution that's 80% right today than a perfect one next quarter. - Update fast. Come in with a hypothesis, throw it away when the data says otherwise. Ego has no place here. - Intensity with focus. We work hard because the mission demands it. Clarity on what matters is how we make that sustainable.