Director, Defense

Director, Defense — Shape the Future of Maritime Autonomy

📍 San Francisco HQ or Washington DC| 🕐 Full-Time

About Ulysses

Ulysses is the ocean company. We design, manufacture, and operate autonomous vehicles for surface and subsea operations — taking on the most critical tasks across defense, commercial, and scientific missions. Our vertically integrated platform includes Mako, a modular AUV with 72-hour endurance and more onboard compute than any vehicle in its class; Leviathan, an autonomous surface vessel mothership; and Kraken, our automated launch-and-recovery system that closes the loop between surface and subsea with zero human intervention.

The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface and drives a $2.6 trillion global economy, yet it remains the least monitored domain on the planet. We're changing that — building autonomous systems that collapse the cost of ocean operations by orders of magnitude so that persistent coverage becomes the baseline, not the exception. We operate globally today across defense, ocean science, and commercial survey, working with partners including the U.S. Navy, the Government of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, Ulysses has raised $48 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Booz Allen Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Pebblebed, Lowercarbon Capital, and others. Our team is lean, hands-on, and fast — we prototype in the shop, test on the water, and ship. If you want to work at the frontier, there's no frontier bigger than the ocean.

The Role

As our Director for Defense, you’ll own Ulysses’ efforts to break into the US and allied maritime-security market, shaping requirements, unlocking early funding lanes, and converting pilots into multi-year production buys. You’ve sat across the table from program offices, hunted OTAs/SBIRs, and turned prototypes into real contracts. As our first dedicated BD hire, you’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders and a heavyweight advisory group of former flag officers and congressional insiders, building the playbook (and eventually the team) that scales our dual-domain drone fleet across defense.

What You’ll Be Driving

In the first 12–18 months, success looks like:

• Paid pilots and demos on contract – With the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, CBP, or key allies (think NATO partners).

• High-trust relationships – You’ll get in the room with the folks who actually move the needle: PAE RAS, OPNAV, NAVSEA, SOCOM, ONR, etc.

• Multi-year contracts on the horizon – You’ve taken early pilots and shaped them into bridge contracts or POA&M commitments.

• GTM motion that scales – You've helped us stand up internal systems, pricing strategy, compliance know-how, and a defense playbook we can keep running.

What You'll Own

Business Development & Contracting

• Identify and pursue fast-moving contract pathways (SBIR, OTAs, BAAs, CRADAs).

• Own the full lifecycle of pilot programs, from intro call to signed agreement.

• Help translate our tech into urgent defense mission needs (e.g., subsea infrastructure security, unmanned ISR, maritime border ops).

Customer Discovery & Relationship Building

• Build trusted relationships across users, acquisition offices, and strategic circles:

  • End Users (5th/7th Fleet, USCG, SOCOM)

  • Program Managers (PAE RAS, NAVSEA, ONR)

  • Strategy & Budget (OSD, congressional staff)

• Turn mission insight into opportunity—guide pilots, demos, and conversations toward long-term value.

Strategic Positioning & Market Insight

• Keep tabs on where the budget’s going.

• Identify the "white space" where Ulysses tech fits and competitors aren’t.

• Bring intel back to shape our product roadmap and R&D priorities.

Internal Collaboration

• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with our engineers, end users and the founders to shape defense proposals that actually work.

• Sync with senior advisors for warm intros and high-level alignment.

What You Bring

Experience (4–12 years ideal, flexible):

• You’ve been in a BD or contracting role in defense tech

• You've closed real deals such as pilots, OTAs, SBIR Phase II/III in less than 18 months.

Market Fluency:

• Strong grasp of DoW procurement (OTAs, SBIR, BAAs, etc.)

• Familiarity with maritime domain missions and unmanned systems

Network & Access:

• You know who to call (or who can get the meeting) at key orgs like NAVSEA, ONR, and USCG.

• Bonus if you’ve worked directly with congressional committees or S&T strategy shops.

How You Operate:

• Outcome-Obsessed – You don’t just build pipelines, you close.

• Creative Hustler – You’ve found money in strange places and unlocked funding most people miss.

• Builder-Mindset – You're excited to help stand up systems from scratch (with a team that wants to move fast and do it right).

• Trust-Builder – You're someone defense partners want to work with. You show up, follow through, and know when to bring donuts.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with maritime domain awareness or undersea

• Technical background in robotics, autonomy, or maritime engineering

• Familiarity with BD at an early-stage defense tech startup

What We Offer

• Big Mission, Real Impact: Shape how unmanned systems help secure our oceans—while protecting the ecosystems they operate in.

• Team of Builders: Oceanographers, roboticists, ex-military—smart, kind, and serious about doing work that matters.

• Comp Package: Competitive salary, bonus, and meaningful equity.

• Ownership & Autonomy: You'll have the room to run and the trust to make big calls.

If this sounds like you, or you’re close and hungry to grow into it, we’d love to talk.