Vice President

The Military Veteran•Los Angeles, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Vice President will lead the development and commercialization of an emerging portfolio of advanced products for high-performance aerospace and defense applications. This is a unique role sitting at the intersection of technical leadership, product strategy, and commercial growth. The VP will work closely with technical teams to understand emerging capabilities, determine where those capabilities create meaningful customer value, and build the strategy required to bring them to market. The right candidate will have enough technical depth to establish credibility with engineers and scientists while also possessing the commercial judgment and relationship skills to engage customers, senior executives, and strategic partners. Ultimately, this individual will serve as the business owner for an emerging product category—helping take promising technology from development into a meaningful, scalable business.

Requirements

The ideal candidate is a technical-commercial operator who can move comfortably between engineering discussions, customer conversations, strategic planning, and business execution.
They will likely have started their career in engineering, science, or another technical discipline before moving into broader product, program, strategy, commercialization, or business leadership responsibilities.
The successful candidate must understand the technology deeply enough to earn credibility with technical teams while also being able to evaluate markets, understand customers, build relationships, and make sound business decisions.
Most importantly, this person should be energized by the opportunity to build something that does not yet have a finished playbook.
5+ years of meaningful technical experience within advanced materials, thermal protection, propulsion, high-temperature systems, composites, or a closely related aerospace or defense field.
Additional experience in product development, program leadership, commercialization, strategy, engineering leadership, or business development.
Strong understanding of high-performance materials, components, or systems used in demanding aerospace and defense environments.
Experience supporting missile, propulsion, hypersonic, space, or other advanced aerospace applications strongly preferred.
Experience taking a new product, material, component, or technical capability from development toward qualification, commercialization, or production.
Demonstrated ability to translate technical capability into customer and commercial value.
Experience building relationships with both highly technical and executive stakeholders.
Ability to work effectively across R&D, engineering, product, manufacturing, customers, and senior leadership.
Strong strategic judgment combined with a bias toward action.
Experience within aerospace, defense technology, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, or another highly technical operating environment.
Technical master's degree or PhD strongly preferred.
Military leadership experience is attractive, particularly when combined with a technical or engineering background.
U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

Build and own the commercial and product strategy for an emerging advanced technology portfolio.
Identify the highest-value markets, applications, customers, and opportunities for the company's technical capabilities.
Translate customer needs and market requirements into clear product and development priorities.
Serve as a critical bridge between customers, R&D, engineering, product development, and executive leadership.
Build strategic relationships across the aerospace and defense ecosystem.
Partner closely with technical teams to prioritize development efforts based on commercial opportunity and customer demand.
Lead the transition of new technologies from development through customer qualification and commercialization.
Identify and pursue new customer, program, and partnership opportunities.
Develop the business model, organizational structure, resources, and capabilities required to support long-term growth.
Present market strategy, investment requirements, and execution plans to executive leadership.
Evaluate strategic partnerships and other opportunities that could accelerate growth.
Remain personally engaged in important technical, customer, and business challenges while building the organization around the opportunity.