Altera (altera.com)
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Senior Director, Business Development – Physical AI, Robotics & Drones (Europe & APAC)
Senior Director, Business Development – Physical AI, Robotics & Drones (Europe & APAC)
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The Role
Owns regional business development strategy for Physical AI, robotics, and drones across Europe and APAC. Leads strategic OEM and partner accounts, negotiates major multi-year deals, drives design wins, builds executive relationships and regional partner networks, manages pipeline and forecasting, and provides market intelligence. The role requires extensive semiconductor or embedded-systems business development experience, technical fluency across robotics and autonomous systems, strong regional industry networks, and approximately 40–50% travel.
Summary Generated by Built In
Job Details:Job Description:
Senior Director, Business Development – Physical AI, Robotics & Drones (Europe & APAC)
Role overview
- Senior executive who owns business development for Physical AI, Robotics and Drones/UAS across Europe and Asia-Pacific
- Based at a Europe or APAC hub, with about 40–50% travel
Key responsibilities
- Set the regional BD strategy and account plan for Robotics and Drones in Europe and APAC, aligned with the central segment share-gain strategy
- Personally own the largest strategic accounts: robot and drone OEMs, humanoid and AMR makers, robot controller and management-platform vendors, and commercial and defense-adjacent drone makers
- Negotiate multi-year, multi-million-dollar deals: custom, NRE and strategic-supply agreements, and pricing below list through the deal desk
- Run design-win pursuits from first executive meeting to design-in, bringing in Solution Architects for the technical sell and requesting PoCs through the PoC intake process
- Build executive relationships at the CTO, VP Engineering and procurement level with regional OEMs, Tier-1s, system integrators and distributors
- Build the regional partner network: autonomy stacks, flight controllers, sensors (vision, LiDAR, radar), motor control, and board and module partners
- Lead NDA roadmap briefings with PLM to win designs before silicon ships
- Report regional market intelligence (competitor chip and GPU designs, policy, funding, standards) to the segment owners and Portfolio Planning, with requirements quantified in dollars
- Own the regional pipeline and forecast, with every number reconciled to the single source of truth before leadership reviews
- Represent Altera as its senior voice at key regional events and industry groups
- Work with regional Sales and Field Marketing to keep roles clear: BD shapes the deal before commitment, Sales books it, and Field Marketing runs demand programs
Success measures
- Design-win value and count in Europe and APAC for Robotics and Drones
- Qualified pipeline and revenue growth against plan
- Share gain in target sockets and accounts
- Conversion of strategic accounts and new lighthouse customers
- Forecast accuracy and quality of requirements fed to Planning
Key relationships
- SVP and Sr. Director, Vertical Marketing; Physical AI & Robotics and Drones/UAV segment owners
- VP, Solution Engineering, and the regional Solution Architects
- Regional Sales VPs and distribution partners
- PLM, Portfolio Planning, and the Business Management deal desk
- Regional Field Marketing (Scale)
Qualifications
- BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field; MBA preferred
- 15+ years in semiconductor or embedded-systems BD, sales or product marketing, including 7+ years at a senior level
- Proven record of large strategic design wins and major deals with OEMs in Europe and/or Asia
- Deep existing network in robotics, industrial automation or drones in at least one region, and the ability to build one quickly in the other
- Strong technical fluency: motor control, functional safety, sensor fusion, edge AI inference, real-time compute, ROS 2, flight control and datalinks, and where FPGAs win against SoCs and GPUs
- Comfortable working across time zones and cultures
- Working knowledge of export control and dual-use regulation (EAR/ITAR, EU Dual-Use Regulation)
- Fluent English; German, French, Japanese, Korean or Mandarin a strong plus
Nice to have
- FPGA or adaptive-compute background
- Experience with humanoid or AMR start-ups, or with NATO or allied-APAC defense drone programs
- Familiarity with IEC 61508, ISO 13849, DO-178C and DO-254
- Uses AI tools to speed up account planning and deal preparation
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
- 15+ years of experience in semiconductor or embedded-systems business development, sales, or product marketing
- 7+ years of experience at a senior level
- Proven record of large strategic design wins and major OEM deals in Europe and/or Asia
- Existing network in robotics, industrial automation, or drones in at least one region
- Ability to build an industry network quickly in another region
- Strong technical fluency in motor control, functional safety, sensor fusion, edge AI inference, real-time compute, ROS 2, flight control, datalinks, and FPGA versus SoC/GPU applications
- Ability to work across time zones and cultures
- Working knowledge of export control and dual-use regulations, including EAR/ITAR and EU Dual-Use Regulation
- Fluent English
- MBA
- German, French, Japanese, Korean, or Mandarin language skills
- FPGA or adaptive-compute background
- Experience with humanoid or AMR startups, or NATO/allied-APAC defense drone programs
- Familiarity with IEC 61508, ISO 13849, DO-178C, and DO-254
- Experience using AI tools for account planning and deal preparation
Altera (altera.com) Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Altera (altera.com) and has not been reviewed or approved by Altera (altera.com).
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests retirement programs are robust, with offerings such as a 401(k) and a pension. This breadth supports long-term financial security.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests time-off policies are generous, including PTO, paid sick days, and paid holidays. Wellness initiatives like gym memberships further support balance.
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Parental & Family Support — Feedback suggests parental leave is generous. Family-building support, including fertility benefits and adoption reimbursement, is highlighted as part of the package.
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The Company
What We Do
Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.
