Senior Director Of Account Management, Navy

About Us
At Saildrone, we sustainably explore, map, and monitor the oceans to understand, protect, and preserve our world. We provide real-time access to critical data from any ocean on earth, 24/7/365, and use proprietary software applications to transform that data into actionable insights and intelligence. Our fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), powered by renewable wind and solar power, have a minimal carbon footprint and operate without the need for a crewed support vessel. Saildrone works with governments, civil agencies, foundations, universities, and private companies around the globe to drive better information about our oceans and seas—from sailing into the eye of a category 4 hurricane to obtain new data about how storms intensify, collecting new CO2 data in hard-to-reach areas, and counting fish biomass to inform sustainable fishery management, to mapping the ocean floor and reducing illegal fishing and drug trafficking. As a result of our work, Saildrone has been included on Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, earned an Ocean Awards’ Innovation Award, won Best Tech For Good from the Timmy Awards, and was recognized by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism 50 list of the Top 50 Companies Kickstarting American Renewal. Our first-annual Atlantic hurricane mission with NOAA was included as one of The New York Times’ 21 Things That Happened for the First Time in 2021 and Popular Science's 100 Greatest Innovations of 2021.
We are based in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, FL, and operate our missions worldwide. Saildrone is backed by top-tier investors in the frontier tech and sustainability sectors, including Social Capital, Capricorn, Lux Capital, BOND Capital, and Emerson Collective.
This is an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing team at the cutting-edge intersection of climate, defense and autonomous systems.
The Role
Reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer, Saildrone’s Senior Director of Account Management for Navy will serve as the critical external connection point between Saildrone and its Navy customers in both the United States and partner nations. This individual will be the face of the company to all our Navy partners and therefore needs to be respected, networked, and visible. This individual will also ensure “the voice of the customer” is reflected in Saildrone’s decision-making regarding everything from product development to mission delivery.
The account management function plays a critical role in the larger Saildrone organization. The purpose of account management is to own the customer relationship of Saildrone’s existing accounts, ensuring continued customer satisfaction and ultimately, growth of the account. The account management team owns the full lifecycle of the customer’s experience, from initial contract, to onboarding, setting mission objectives, annual account planning, and successful mission delivery. By serving as the voice of the customer in internal forums, account management ensures the customer perspectives and requirements is heard throughout the company and informs technical roadmaps and new product development.
Responsibilities:

• Define appropriate account metrics (ranging from utilization rates and quality issues to uptime, coverage, and detections) and provide regular, periodic score cards and business health checks to senior stakeholders, both internally and externally
• Identify new business opportunities among existing customers, and grow existing business programs across those customers, working with Government Relations as needed to ensure that US government appropriation needs for such programs is accurately represented
• Maintain accurate client records, keeping track of any contract updates and renewals as well as the exercise of options on existing accounts. Provide regular pipeline and forecast updates to internal Saildrone teams related to such contractual outlooks in order to drive financial, production and operational schedules
• Build trust among flag officers and SES-level officials by abstracting from the technology to explain the core business benefits of Saildrone services, in a way that is easily understood by public sector executives
• Develop annual and quarterly Account Plans detailing key account targets, milestones, deliverables, and financial metrics
• Ensure customers’ needs and concerns are addressed as quickly and effectively as possible, either via direct intervention or in concert with program delivery teams
• Ensure precise delivery of customer mission requirements to the program delivery team, ensure that updates to these requirements (whether driven by Saildrone-led circumstances or by customer-led requests) are disseminated to all relevant parties and clearly understood
• Serve as the key leader responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction, by measuring and owning customer satisfaction metrics.
• Own and understand customer requirements for both current and future business and translate these into business, product, and operational requirements for internal delivery teams.
• Collaborate with the sales team to identify and grow opportunities within assigned territory. Collaborate with the sales team to meet quotas while keeping customers satisfied and engaged with our products and services in the long-run
• Serve as the lead point of contact for customers–overall responsible for all customer communications, delegating to program, or account, managers as appropriate

Required Skills And Experience

• Deep familiarity and extensive relationships with US and partner navies and national security establishments
• High energy, focused tenacity, sense of humor with a desire to eliminate ambiguity.
• Demonstrated ability to develop strategic go-to-market plans in the defense and security space
• Ability to identify and solve problems in a collaborative and cross-functional manner
• A passion for national security and defense related technologies.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher
• Intellectually curious, interested in data analysis and results-driven
• Demonstrated business acumen and ability to run forecasting and pipeline management within assigned accounts
• Must have an active TS/SCI Security Clearance
• Ability to influence & direct multi-functional teams without formal authority
• 10+ years professional experience working with or for the US Department of Defense
• The ability to travel up to 20% of the time
• Proven private-sector track record successfully managing multi-million dollar government contracts for the DoD, Intelligence Community, Homeland Security, etc

Location: This position is based in Washington, D.C. Saildrone’s DC office is conveniently located at Metro Center in downtown Washington, D.C., between the White House and Capitol Hill. Only candidates with proper permits to work in the United States and a willingness to report to the office in-person will be considered.
Physical Requirements: Work is performed on a computer and requires ability to operate a keyboard and other peripheral devices. Required travel can include vehicle, train, or airplane as modes of transportation.
Benefits:

• Competitive benefits including excellent medical, life insurance, 401k plan
• Enhanced Parental Leave Programs
• Medical, dental and vision plans for you and your dependents.
• Short and relaxing ferry ride from the Ferry Building for SF residents

A reasonable estimate of the current range is $200,000-$240,000 annually.
Catch up on the latest news about us:
The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea – The New York Times
Saildrone Takes the Wraps Off its Voyager Autonomous Research Vehicle – TechCrunch
An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle
The Quest for CO2: You Can’t Capture What You Can’t Find – Inside Unmanned Systems
Hacking the Anthropocene with Survivalist Robots [VIDEO] – Freethink
Here’s What Hurricane Fiona’s Surf Looked Like, from Atop a 50-foot Wave – The Washington Post
An Unprecedented View Inside a Hurricane – EOS
Meet the sailing robots trying to solve climate change – The Hill
They Sailed Into a Hurricane, Now These Unmanned Saildrones are Seeking Data on Our Carbon Uptake – CNN
Saildrone Featured Videos Playlist
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, relevant experience, and the ability to deal with complexity and problem solve within our organization, among other factors
Individuals who require employer sponsorship to remain employed in the United States now or in the future will not be considered for hire for certain positions.
Any unsolicited resumes/candidate profiles submitted through our website or to personal email accounts of employees of Saildrone are considered property of Saildrone and are not subject to payment of agency fees.