# Senior Director of Business Development - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

**Company**: Shield AI
**Location**: Tokyo
**Work arrangement**: onsite
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/14f30de4-a7ee-4b86-bb27-d60f3aceb678
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_bb63f53b-169

## 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.

## Skills

### Required
- Business Development
- Defense
- National Security
- Aerospace
- Autonomy
- UAVs
- ISR
- Advanced Sensing Technologies
- Negotiation
- Relationship-Building
- Stakeholder Management
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Microsoft Suite
- Salesforce

### Nice to have
- U.S. Citizen
- Existing U.S. or Allied Security Clearance
- Prior Military Service
- Operational Leadership Experience
- Foreign Military Sales
- UAV Operations
- Mission Autonomy
- AI-Enabled C2 Systems