Fleet Partnerships Lead

Quartermaster•New York, NY

About The Position

Quartermaster is building a real-time picture of activity on the world’s oceans by placing sensing equipment aboard commercial ships. The Fleet Partnerships Lead owns vessel recruitment end-to-end, enlisting vessels across priority ship types and regions by identifying target fleets, winning over owners, closing agreements, and managing relationships so vessels continue contributing to the network. The role helps build and refine the company’s vessel acquisition workflow from its early stages into an efficient, repeatable engine capable of adding hundreds or thousands of vessels. It leads high-priority fleet deals directly while establishing processes, team capabilities, and operational discipline for acquisition at scale. The position is based in New York City and involves 25% domestic and international travel.

Requirements

4–7+ years of relevant experience in supply acquisition, operations management, marketplace expansion, or business development, with direct ownership of supply-side rollouts, partner recruitment, or field-based acquisition.
Hands-on experience entering new markets, regions, or segments without an established playbook, building supply networks from scratch, and creating repeatable processes.
Ability to turn relationship-driven deal-making into a structured acquisition funnel with clear milestones, pipeline hygiene, and operational rigor.
Experience recruiting, onboarding, and managing frontline acquisition specialists, field teams, or sales representatives, and holding teams accountable to performance targets.
Quantitative focus and comfort analyzing funnel conversion, acquisition velocity, cohort retention, and operational cost per partner.
Ability and willingness to lead commercial negotiations, close contracts, and manage partner relationships end-to-end.

Nice To Haves

Experience scaling supply within a two-sided marketplace or distributed hardware network.
Familiarity with maritime supply chains, commercial shipping operations, or port-side services.
Experience working across international time zones and with cross-cultural commercial partners.

Responsibilities

Build a repeatable, data-driven vessel recruitment funnel spanning discovery, qualification, contract close, and long-term retention.
Align vessel acquisition with company growth targets and regional maritime coverage needs.
Determine staffing needs by ship type, geography, and acquisition stage; recruit, mentor, and develop acquisition specialists and field leads.
Build team expertise across maritime segments such as container, bulk, tanker, and specialized craft.
Personally close high-priority fleet partnerships and develop standard operating procedures and training for the acquisition team.
Identify priority vessel types and conduct direct outreach to shipowners, operators, and technical managers to close commercial partnerships.
Manage relationships with maritime executives, technical managers, and port agents to support alignment and timely contract turnaround.
Maintain a surplus of qualified, signed vessels across key maritime hubs so installation teams can deploy without idle time.
Track pipeline health, stage velocity, conversion rates, and acquisition costs.
Deliver qualified vessels on schedule to meet regional and global coverage requirements.
Manage incentives, connectivity arrangements, and field support costs to preserve network margins.
Prioritize high-impact vessel classes and establish a documented acquisition playbook that new team members can use.