Business Development Director (DACH)

About the Role 

Imagine this. You are the person German, Austrian and Swiss defence customers call first when they want to understand what is actually possible, and the person inside Destinus who turns that conversation into a funded programme. 

At Destinus, we are revolutionizing the defense industry with cutting-edge Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Our innovative technologies are designed to meet the unique demands of modern defense operations, delivering unparalleled speed, precision, and cost effectiveness. Destinus partners with government agencies and defense organizations worldwide to provide advanced solutions for mission-critical operations, enabling a new era of efficiency and technological superiority. Join us in shaping the future of defense with groundbreaking aerospace innovations. 

This role sits in the Future Capabilities organisation of Destinus Germany and reports to the Chief Future Capabilities Officer. You lead senior business development for the DACH region and open the doors that future capability programmes need in order to exist at all. 

You will build the DACH BD team. The measure of this role is the forces commitments that turn advanced technology into procurement-ready capability for the region. You work as one team across the company: with Commercial on pricing, contracting and pipeline, with Engineering on what is technically achievable.  

What You’ll Do 

• Build and lead senior business development for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, covering armed forces, procurement authorities, security agencies and industrial partners. 

• Open and hold senior access at BMVg, BAAINBw, Bundeswehr commands, national agencies and NATO bodies, in close coordination with Destinus government relations. 

• Shape future demand: translate what customers and users actually need into requirements input the capability teams can build against. 

• Run capture for DACH opportunities from qualification through to first customer commitment, together with Commercial on the commercial shape and with Engineering on what is technically achievable. 

• Build, lead and develop a team of business developers, and set the standard for how Destinus shows up in front of German customers. 

• Work as one commercial motion with the Commercial organisation: one CRM, one pipeline, every opportunity visible to everyone who needs it. 

• Own joint account plans for the key DACH accounts 

• Feed a clear and honest view of the DACH market back into portfolio and capability decisions. 

What You’ll Need 

• Substantial senior business development or capture experience in defence, security or adjacent deep technology, with a record of closing first commitments. 

• Deep working knowledge of German defence procurement: how requirements form, how budget lines come about, how tenders and framework contracts run, and where decisions are actually made. 

• An established senior network across BMVg, BAAINBw, the Bundeswehr, national agencies, research organisations and German industry. 

• The ability to hold your own in a technical discussion and to bring engineers into a customer conversation at the right moment. 

• Proven ability to deliver in a matrix organisation, building strong working relationships across commercial, engineering and programme teams. 

• Experience building, leading and developing small senior teams, including hiring. 

• Aerospace and defence industry experience is mandatory. 

• Fluency in English and German is required. 

Who You Are  

You are comfortable being early. This is a build role in a young organisation, and much of the structure around you will be created as you go. You are a translator by instinct, between operator and engineer, between customer need and product concept, between Germany and a European group. You qualify hard and early, and you are straight with colleagues and customers about what you see. You enjoy the matrix and you bring people from other functions with you. You hold yourself to what you promised a customer, and you travel to be in the room when it matters.