Job Description, Responsibilities & Requirements
About the Position
Business Development Lead
Navi AI is seeking a dynamic and experienced Business Development Lead to join our team in San Francisco, California. This is a founding role where you will drive the expansion of our platform across the aviation market, including airlines, charter operators, and flight training centers.
Location
- City: San Francisco
- Country: United States
Employment Type
- Type: Full-time
- Location Type: On-site
About the Role
This is a pivotal role where you will own the full business development cycle from initial contact to successful deployment. You will be responsible for:
- Sourcing Relationships: Identifying and establishing connections with potential clients.
- Running Pitches: Presenting Navi's capabilities to operators, training directors, and aviation executives.
- Closing Deals: Negotiating and finalizing commercial agreements.
- Deployment Support: Ensuring every deployment is a success by partnering with the team.
- Customer Representation: Attending industry events and visiting customer sites to build and maintain relationships.
- Team Building: Hiring and developing the business development team as we scale.
Responsibilities
- Own the full business development cycle from first contact to signed deal to live deployment across airlines, private jet operators, and flight training centers.
- Build and manage a pipeline of aviation customers, identifying the right targets and moving deals to close.
- Run pitches and product demos, translating Navi's capabilities into outcomes that matter to clients.
- Negotiate and close commercial agreements, then partner with the team to ensure successful deployments.
- Represent Navi in person at customer sites, industry events, and on the road.
- Hire and build the business development team as we scale, setting the standard for how Navi sells.
Requirements
- Proven experience in closing deals in the aviation sector, including airlines, business aviation, charter, or flight training.
- Experience in a market with no inbound leads, where building a pipeline from scratch is the norm.
- Ability to run the entire sales cycle yourself, from sourcing to closing and deployment.
- Credibility in both hangars and boardrooms; pilots and training directors need to trust your expertise.
- Comfortable traveling frequently to close deals and attend industry events.
- Eager to build the function from the ground up, not inherit an existing one.
Nice to Have
- Experience as a pilot or significant time spent around flight operations.
- Sales experience in defense or government sectors.
- Experience selling products with hardware components.
- Experience in hiring and coaching sales teams.
We Offer
- Early-stage equity in a category-defining company.
- Flight training to earn your pilot's licenses and sell with true domain expertise.
- Tangible impact; the deals you close will put Navi in cockpits at airlines, flight schools, and the U.S. Air Force.
- A role that scales into commercial leadership as we grow.
How We Work
- Find a way: We don't wait for permission or perfect information. Ideas come from anywhere regardless of title. Figure it out, ship it, iterate.
- Creativity over control: First principles over process. We'd rather have a creative solution that's 80% right today than a perfect one next quarter.
- Update fast: Come in with a hypothesis, throw it away when the data says otherwise. Ego has no place here.
- Intensity with focus: We work hard because the mission demands it. Clarity on what matters is how we make that sustainable.
About the Company
Navi captures everything a pilot sees and hears and turns it into automated debrief intelligence. Our platform is live at flight schools, business jet operators, and the U.S. Air Force, and demand is accelerating. You're the person who turns that demand into deployments.