Director of NATO Programs

Composite Energy Technologies Inc•Bristol, RI

4d•Remote

About The Position

Composite Energy Technologies (CET) is an emerging defense technology company in Bristol, Rhode Island, developing scalable autonomous underwater vehicles and subsea energy systems. Our HADALUS platform is designed to make long-range, heavy payload subsea autonomy more affordable, adaptable, and manufacturable at scale. CET is under contract to deliver a HADALUS-L variant to the U.S. Marine Corps for subsea resupply in contested environments and has been selected for NATO DIANA's Phase 2 Mission Track. CET is seeking a Europe-based Director of NATO Programs to convert allied interest and successful demonstrations into enduring programs, partnerships, and production capacity. This is a hands-on leadership role at the intersection of program execution, government business development, and market entry. The Director will own CET's NATO DIANA Mission Track engagement, coordinate activity across CET's U.S. team and European partners, and build the relationships and capture plans required to move HADALUS from evaluation to procurement and deployment. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable leading a NATO program review, planning an at-sea demonstration with engineers and operators, briefing senior defense stakeholders, and developing a country-specific procurement strategy.

Requirements

Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in defense, national security, dual use technology, government programs, or a closely related field.
Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs across government, military, industry, and technical teams.
Meaningful experience with NATO organizations, allied defense ministries, armed services, acquisition communities, or major defense partners.
A track record of moving a technology from pilot, exercise, or demonstration toward a funded program, procurement decision, or operational deployment.
Working knowledge of allied defense acquisition, contracting, security, and export-control environments, with the judgment to involve specialists when required.
Enough technical fluency to engage credibly on autonomous systems, maritime operations, sensing, communications, energy, integration, and testing.
Excellent written communication, executive briefing, relationship-building, negotiation, and follow-through skills.
Ability to travel regularly across Europe and to the United States and other allied locations, sometimes on short notice.
Legal authorization to work in the selected employment location and the ability to satisfy applicable customer security and site-access requirements.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with NATO DIANA, NATO procurement or capability-development organizations, or multinational exercises and test programs.
Experience in maritime autonomy, uncrewed systems, undersea warfare, subsea sensing, naval systems, contested logistics, or a closely adjacent domain.
Experience establishing a European industrial partnership, localization strategy, sovereign production capability, or in-country sustainment model.
Existing relationships across NATO member governments, navies, research and test organizations, primes, or maritime technology companies.
Prior military, civil-service, acquisition, program-management, or defense-industry leadership experience; an active security clearance is advantageous but not required.

Responsibilities

Lead NATO DIANA Mission Track execution: Own the integrated program plan, schedule, budget, milestones, reporting, deliverables, risks, and stakeholder map for CET's Mission Track participation. Serve as CET's primary day-to-day interface with NATO DIANA leadership, accelerators, test centers, mentors, and participating organizations. Coordinate technical, operational, commercial, and communications workstreams across CET so commitments are clear, decisions are timely, and deliverables are high quality. Translate evaluation results, operational feedback, and technical evidence into a credible transition and deployment plan.
Build the NATO and allied opportunity pipeline: Develop and maintain account and capture plans for NATO organizations, national defense ministries, navies, innovation organizations, test establishments, and strategic primes. Identify and prioritize acquisition pathways, funded trials, exercises, demonstrations, and partner-led opportunities where HADALUS can solve validated operational needs. Lead or coordinate proposals, white papers, briefings, requests for information, and follow-up actions from initial engagement through award and transition. Cultivate durable relationships with operators, requirements owners, acquisition leaders, technical authorities, and industry partners across allied nations.
Turn demonstrations into deployment evidence: Help plan and execute customer-facing trials and operational demonstrations in maritime autonomy, undersea sensing, maritime security, and contested logistics. Define the customer question, success criteria, participating stakeholders, evidence plan, and post-event transition actions for each demonstration. Coordinate CET engineers, operators, suppliers, range partners, and customers so events are operationally relevant, safe, and decision-useful.
Develop CET's European partner and production ecosystem: Identify and develop European manufacturing, integration, supply-chain, training, and sustainment partners capable of supporting sovereign production and local delivery. Evaluate potential partner roles, capabilities, incentives, risks, and commercial structures in collaboration with CET leadership, engineering, contracts, and legal advisors. Support CET's phased plan for a durable European presence, including local infrastructure, talent, and industrial partnerships as demand develops.
Create a disciplined internal operating rhythm: Translate market and operator insight into clear product priorities, program requirements, investment decisions, and executive recommendations. Maintain a transparent opportunity pipeline, action register, stakeholder map, forecast, and concise executive reporting cadence. Coordinate export-control, security, contracting, data-rights, and communications considerations with the responsible CET functional leaders. Represent CET at NATO, government, industry, investor, and partner engagements with credibility and sound judgment.