As the Director of Growth & Partnerships – UK, you will take full ownership of identifying, shaping, and securing high-value strategic opportunities across customers, partners, and ecosystems. You will be a core leader in driving revenue growth, establishing and nurturing long-term commercial partnerships, and translating market needs into strategic business outcomes.
This senior role requires a strategic thinker and operator who thrives in high-ambiguity, high-impact environments, has excellent stakeholder credibility, and navigates complex B2B sales cycles with confidence. In this role, you will navigate evolving priorities, incomplete information, and shifting business needs - turning ambiguity into clarity. You’ll be the driving force behind defining problems, identifying solutions, and ensuring our customers achieve their objectives.
Responsibilities- Develop and execute a UK growth plan aligned with broader business goals, focused on new customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and revenue expansion
- Identify, qualify, and drive high-value business opportunities from early engagement through contracting and delivery
- Build and manage strong relationships with executive-level stakeholders across enterprise, defence, public sector, and partner ecosystems
- Drive and implement Auterion’s UK strategy, aligning it with the Government, MOD and allied national security requirements to accelerate the adoption of its autonomous systems software and platforms.
- Establish and grow strategic partnerships with OEMs, technology partners, systems integrators, distributors, and channel partners to accelerate market access and revenue
- Lead negotiation and closure of complex commercial agreements, terms, and partnership structures
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, marketing, engineering, operations) to align value propositions, refine offers, and support customer onboarding
- Serve as a trusted commercial advisor: understand customer needs deeply and translate them into compelling proposals and solutions
- Represent the company externally at industry events, briefings, and customer engagements
- Continuously monitor market, competitor, and regulatory dynamics to refine strategy and positioning
- Deliver against outsized growth and partnership KPIs, including pipeline, bookings, revenue, and strategic alliance targets.
- 8+ years of relevant experience, including senior leadership roles in partnerships, business development, or strategy within defense or dual-use technology companies.
- Business development or partnerships leadership with 6+ years’ experience operating in technology, aerospace, defence, or related high-tech sectors
- Demonstrated success leading complex B2B sales cycles and closing multi-stakeholder, enterprise-level opportunities
- Deep understanding of the UK commercial landscape — enterprise, government/public sector, defence and regulated markets
- Strong network across relevant UK industries and ecosystems
- Experience structuring strategic partnerships and commercial terms
- Excellent negotiation skills and commercial acumen
- Ability and willingness to travel within the UK and occasionally internationally
- Understanding of Drone Market or UAV flight control systems (e.g., PX4), with hands-on UAV piloting or flight testing experience preferred.
- Exceptional communication skills with the ability to interface effectively at both executive and engineering levels.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor and lead cross-discipline teams.
- Master’s degree (MSc) or equivalent in a relevant technical or business discipline (e.g., engineering, robotics, computer science, or related field).
- UK Citizenship required, with eligibility for security clearance.
Benefits
- Flexible working hours & hybrid workplace
- Stock Options
- Generous holiday allowance
- Pension plan
- Mental health and wellbeing support
- Regular team social
About Auterion
We are building the leading software platform for AI-powered autonomous systems for enterprise and government customers. Our team is supporting the most important missions and solving the most challenging problems.
At Auterion, we bring together the sharpest minds who love to solve the hardest problems. Join a vibrant team built on innovation, openness, and excellence, where you’ll be empowered to develop ideas, collaborate across all levels, and make an impact that matters.
Top Skills
What We Do
At Auterion we care about providing enterprise with an ecosystem of software-defined drones, payloads, and third party applications within a single easy to use platform based on open-source standards. We’re leaders in an open-source movement bigger than ourselves and we’ve been on the same mission for over a decade, since our co-founder Lorenz Meier created Pixhawk, MAVLink, QGC, and PX4 (the world’s most widely used open-source drone autopilot operating system). Our mission is to be the drone platform of choice for enterprise, government, and drone manufacturers while accelerating the drone industry by driving forward open standards to create a common, future-proof roadmap in a thriving, open ecosystem of buyers and vendors. At Auterion, we bring together the sharpest minds who love to solve the hardest problems. Join a vibrant team built on innovation, openness, and excellence, where you’ll be empowered to develop ideas, collaborate across all levels, and make an impact that matters.
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