a16z Senior Director of Business Development - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (R4831)
Job Description:
Shield AI’s International Business & Strategy team is hiring a Senior Director Business Development to accelerate growth and support the adoption of its autonomy ecosystem: X-BAT, V-BAT, ViDAR, and Hivemind across Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
The Senior Director of Business Development will lead Shield AI’s regional growth strategy, building out a team that is responsible for significant annual orders targets. The leader must have deep defense, national security, or aerospace experience in the country / region (Japanese language fluency preferable), established government relationships, and a track record of closing complex defense programs (ideally across both hardware and software).
You will operate with significant autonomy and ownership, shaping country strategy, leading major pursuits, and building long-term defense partnerships. You will report to the Vice President of International Business & Strategy (Middle East & Asia Pacific) and work closely with international business development colleagues around the globe, as well as product, engineering, and operations teams, to deliver mission-relevant autonomy capabilities at scale.
What you'll do:
- Own and execute regional (Japan/South Korea/Taiwan) 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.
Required qualifications:
- 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/South Korea/Taiwan with a deep understanding of procurement processes, offset requirements, export sensitivities, local defense primes, and indigenization requirements.
- Fluency in English & Japanese preferable (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
- Willingness and ability to work across multiple time zones
- Based today in 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:
- Existing U.S. or allied security clearance.
- 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.
As published by lever
Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website
- Are you local to or willing to relocate? choose one · optional
- What office(s) would you be willing to relocate to? (Select all that apply) yes / no · optional
- If you selected international, what location(s)? written answer · optional
- Please select all languages that you are at minimum business conversational or fluent in choose one
- Shield AI provides technology, services, and support to the United States military and allied forces with their various missions. If selected for employment with Shield AI, your contributions will directly relate to and/or support these missions. Are there any reasons why you would not be able to fully contribute in support of the U.S. military and allied forces? choose one
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