Director or Strategic Relationships, Pacific

UFORCE • Hawaii, HI

13d • Onsite

About The Position

UFORCE is seeking a Director of Strategic Relationships, Pacific to establish and lead its persistent presence in the Indo-Pacific. Based on Oahu, the role serves as the company’s senior regional representative, building trusted relationships across Pacific commands, translating customer insight into actionable opportunities, and ensuring personnel and equipment are ready to support customers.

This hands-on position combines business development with field operations. The Director works with Navy, SOCOM, and Army sales leaders, the Head of US Exercises, Capture, and Delivery teams to advance opportunities, deliver customer engagements, and build the operating foundation for a growing Pacific presence. Exercises are a central part of the work: the role supports live capability demonstrations alongside customers and turns those engagements into follow-on opportunities. The position begins as a senior individual contributor with autonomy to build the theater presence and a path to leading a small Pacific team as the footprint grows.

Requirements

• Recent experience working in or alongside Pacific military commands, with demonstrable customer access and credibility across the rank spectrum from action officers to senior military leaders.
• Strong relationship-building skills, including the ability to earn trust, secure meaningful meetings, and sustain long-term stakeholder engagement.
• Experience collecting, validating, and communicating business or operational intelligence in concise, actionable leadership updates, with sound judgment about ethical and legal boundaries.
• Ability to operate independently in a matrixed organization, influence senior stakeholders without direct authority, and prioritize competing demands.
• Experience managing field or expeditionary logistics, including equipment storage, transport, accountability, maintenance scheduling, and vendor coordination.
• Experience planning and executing live capability demonstrations or supporting military exercises, including familiarity with planning cycles, access approvals, safety requirements, and contingency planning.
• Experience hosting senior executives or distinguished visitors, including agenda development, military protocol, installation access, briefing materials, and follow-up.
• Working knowledge of defense acquisition and funding pathways, including the ability to distinguish customer interest from a fundable requirement and hand opportunities to the appropriate sales or Capture lead.
• Resourceful, hands-on approach to unfamiliar problems, with good judgment about when to act independently and when to escalate.
• Ability to work on-island on Oahu, travel approximately 25–40%, and accommodate irregular hours around exercises, demonstrations, and customer visits.

Nice To Haves

• Active or recently lapsed SECRET clearance; TS/SCI eligibility is a strong plus.
• Existing Hawaii residency and established personal and professional networks on-island.
• Maritime experience, such as small boat operations, harbor operations, or familiarity with marine maintenance.
• Experience with unmanned surface vessels, unmanned aircraft systems, or command-and-control and autonomy systems.
• Experience building processes and operating independently in a startup or scaling defense technology company.
• Working knowledge of ITAR/EAR requirements related to equipment movement and foreign-national engagement in multinational exercises.

Responsibilities

• Establish and deepen relationships across PACOM, USARPAC, PACFLT, SOCPAC, and MARFORPAC, including with requirements owners, acquisition teams, capability developers, and exercise planners.
• Produce a weekly Pacific intelligence update covering customer requirements, funding signals, competitor activity, and exercise developments; validate information, explain business implications, and maintain stakeholder and opportunity records in the CRM.
• Partner with service sales and Capture leaders to qualify and progress opportunities, clarify funding paths and next steps, and contribute toward a target of $10M+ in qualified Pacific pipeline and at least one award within the first year.
• Serve as the Head of US Exercises’ permanent forward presence by supporting planning conferences, site visits, access, equipment movement, and local execution; set customer engagement objectives and capture follow-on opportunities.
• Develop a repeatable Hawaii demonstration playbook covering water and range access, permissions, safety requirements, and lead times, and coordinate customer-facing demonstrations and activities.
• Coordinate leadership visits by arranging substantive command meetings, attendees, objectives, read-aheads, installation access, transportation, and follow-up.
• Identify and cost local storage, security, transport, and maintenance options that can be activated within 30 days of a company decision; manage asset accountability, vendor coordination, and maintenance scheduling after assets arrive.
• Act as the default UFORCE point of contact for Pacific visits, customer requests, exercises, and operational issues; balance priorities and communicate trade-offs.
• Document stakeholder relationships, access procedures, vendor networks, and operating playbooks to create a scalable operating model for future teammates.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed