Strategy Operations Associate, Growth

Gallatin•Washington, DC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Gallatin AI is hiring a Strategy & Operations Associate to serve as the principal execution arm for our Head of Growth. This is a rare opportunity for an ambitious, early-career operator to work shoulder-to-shoulder with a senior commercial leader across the full surface area of go-to-market — business development, sales operations and CRM, market and competitive analysis, and partnership development — inside one of the fastest-moving companies in defense tech. You will stand up and run the operating systems that make the commercial function scale: pipeline instrumentation, account dossiers, competitive intelligence, partnership infrastructure, and the playbooks the rest of the team plugs into. You will be the connective tissue that turns commercial strategy into executed motion — closing the gaps the Head of Growth doesn’t have time to close, and freeing executive bandwidth for the largest strategic and customer-facing moves. You will lean heavily on modern AI tooling (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and emerging agentic systems) to do the work of a much larger team. This role is built for someone who wants the responsibility curve of an early-stage operator: ambiguous problems, high autonomy, real customers, and a direct line into how a defense AI company gets to scale. The right candidate sees this as a launchpad — not a back-office support function.

Requirements

Minimum 3 years of professional experience for candidates with an MBA or U.S. military service; 6+ years of defense technology experience for candidates without an MBA or military background.
MBA from a top program, U.S. military veteran status, or 6+ years working inside the defense technology ecosystem — ideally a combination.
Track record of operating with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments — startup, consulting, defense tech, military staff role, or similar.
Strong commercial instincts — comfortable in front of customers, partners, and senior stakeholders; able to qualify opportunities and move them forward.
Hands-on fluency with CRM systems (HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar) and the broader sales-operations toolchain — enrichment, sequencing, intelligence, BI.
Demonstrated comfort with modern AI tools (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT) as part of daily work; able to build prompts, workflows, and lightweight automations that compound output.
Sharp analytical and structured-thinking skills — can size a market, model a pipeline, or pressure-test a partnership thesis without hand-holding.
Exceptional written and verbal communication; able to produce decision-grade briefs, customer-facing materials, and internal updates with minimal editing.
High agency, low ego, and a strong service orientation toward the Head of Growth and the broader commercial team.
Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time, including to government and customer sites.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience at a Series A–C defense or dual-use technology company.
Direct exposure to DoW acquisition processes, OTAs, SBIRs, or non-traditional contracting vehicles.
Background in management consulting, investment banking, corporate development, or a top-tier BD/strategy function.
Existing relationships across primes, defense innovation organizations (DIU, AFWERX, SOFWERX, etc.), or relevant program offices.
Demonstrated history of building AI-powered workflows that materially changed the output of a team.

Responsibilities

Support the Head of Growth in identifying, qualifying, and advancing opportunities across DoW, allied government, and enterprise defense customers.
Build account dossiers, capture briefs, and customer-specific value narratives that arm the commercial team for high-stakes conversations.
Drive follow-through on commercial commitments so no thread, request, or follow-up falls through the cracks between meetings.
Represent Gallatin in early customer conversations, conferences, and partner forums as the role matures.
Own the day-to-day health of the CRM — pipeline hygiene, opportunity stages, contact data, and activity instrumentation.
Build dashboards, forecasting views, and pipeline reports that give the Head of Growth and senior leadership a clear, real-time view of commercial performance.
Design and continuously improve sales processes, playbooks, and workflows as the commercial team scales.
Stand up and maintain the tooling stack (CRM, enrichment, intelligence, outbound) and own the integrations between systems.
Conduct structured market analysis across defense technology, AI, and logistics segments — sizing opportunities, mapping competitors, and surfacing the signals that should shape Gallatin’s commercial posture.
Track program-of-record activity, budget cycles, RFIs/RFPs, and primes / non-traditionals relevant to Gallatin’s roadmap.
Synthesize findings into crisp written briefs and decision-grade memos for the Head of Growth, CEO, and Board.
Help build and operate Gallatin’s partner ecosystem — primes, systems integrators, technology partners, and channel relationships across defense and adjacent markets.
Manage the partnership pipeline end-to-end: sourcing, structuring, contracting support, joint pursuits, and ongoing partner enablement.
Coordinate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Legal to translate partnership intent into executed agreements and joint motion.
Treat modern AI tools (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and emerging agentic systems) as a default extension of your workflow — from research and synthesis to outreach, modeling, and CRM automation.
Continuously identify where AI can compress cycle time on commercial work and rebuild those workflows so the function scales without proportional headcount.
Codify the prompts, workflows, and patterns that work so the rest of the commercial org compounds on your wins.