Description
Job Title: Senior Director of Business Development - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Shield AI's International Business & Strategy team is hiring a Business Development Director to accelerate growth and support the adoption of its autonomy ecosystem: X-BAT, V-BAT, ViDAR, and Hivemind in Japan.
The Director of Business Development will lead Shield AI's growth strategy, building out a team that is responsible for significant annual orders targets. The Director must have deep defense, national security, or aerospace experience in the country / region (Japanese language fluency required), established government relationships, and a track record of closing complex defense programs (ideally across both hardware and software).
Key Responsibilities:
- Own and execute Japan go-to-market strategy for Shield AI's product portfolio, including X-BAT, V-BAT, ViDAR, and Hivemind.
- Maintain direct responsibility for annual order targets, multi-year pipeline development, and order growth.
- Lead end-to-end capture and sales efforts from early engagement through contract award and follow-on growth.
- Engage directly with senior military, government, and defense industry stakeholders across the region.
- Differentiate Shield AI in competitive and regulated defense procurements.
- Provide actionable market and customer intelligence to influence product roadmap and broader international strategy.
- Work cross-functionally with product, legal, export compliance, and operations.
- Lead proposal/program development and complex product demonstrations.
- Structure and manage local partnerships, primes, and industrial participation or offset strategies.
- Represent Shield AI at senior-level engagements, exhibitions, and industry forums.
Requirements:
- 10+ years business development experience in the country or broader region within defense, aerospace, or national security.
- Specific prior defense or government-facing experience in Japan with a deep understanding of procurement processes, offset requirements, export sensitivities, local defense primes, and indigenization requirements.
- Fluency in English & Japanese (written and spoken).
- Demonstrated success closing complex defense or government programs - ideally across both hardware (aircraft/UAS) and software (autonomy/ai).
- Technical experience with autonomy, UAVs, ISR, and advanced sensing technologies.
- Strong negotiation, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent pursuits, involving technical products, in ambiguous environments.
- Proven cross-functional leadership across operations, product, and BD teams.
- Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills.
- Willingness and ability to travel frequently in country/region and internationally (~25%).
- Willingness and ability to work across multiple time zones - Based in or willing to relocate to Tokyo, Japan.
- Mastery of critical business tools (Microsoft Suite – PPT, Excel, Word, LLMs, etc.)
- Experience forecasting, tracking, and managing deal cycles using Salesforce.
Preferred Qualifications:
- U.S. Citizen (or dual national)
- Existing U.S. or allied security clearance.
- Currently based in country.
- Prior military service or operational leadership experience in Japan (++ if directly related to UAS, autonomy, or fighter jet aircraft).
- Prior experience supporting foreign military sales (via DSCA), engaging with SAF/IA, or working directly with foreign air forces.
- Direct experience with UAV operations, mission autonomy, AI-enabled C2 systems.