Alta Ares
Defense Sales FR - H/F
Paris. Posted 5 months ago
The role
This person will own the sales pipeline across French MOD, procurement agencies, and armed forces. They will lead qualification, proposal management, and contract negotiations to drive multi-million programs.
What you will do
- Own the sales pipeline across French MOD, procurement agencies, and armed forces
- Lead qualification, opportunity shaping, proposal management, and contract negotiations
- Identify and drive multi-million programs across ISR, C-UAS, autonomy, and AI
- Establish a repeatable sales motion with clear forecasting and metrics
- Convert tactical demos and pilot deployments into scalable contracts
- Build trusted relationships with military users, procurement officers, and program managers
- Engage with primes, neoprimes, integrators, and defense engineering firms
- Develop and manage channel partnerships where relevant
- Conduct regular on-site visits, field demos, and customer workshops across Europe
- Map European defense markets: budgets, procurement cycles, capability gaps
Required qualifications
- 5–10 years of experience in defense sales, business development, capture management, or program engagement
- Strong track record selling to MODs, procurement agencies, or armed forces
- Experience in defense tech companies, primes, or ideally neoprimes
- Deep understanding of defense procurement cycles and bidding processes
- Demonstrated ability to close complex deals in multi-stakeholder environments
- Strong hunter profile with resilience and deal-making mindset
- Ability to translate technical capabilities into operational value
- Excellent relationship-building with military and technical stakeholders
- High integrity, discretion, and understanding of security culture
- Entrepreneurial spirit: able to operate in fast-moving, resource-efficient environments
- Bilingual English + another European language
Nice to have
- French strongly preferred
- Experience in a neoprime or high-growth defense startup
- Experience in NATO procurement or European Defence Fund (EDF) programs
- Former military service (officer or NCO)
- Knowledge of operational C-UAS, ISR, or AI workflows
- Existing network inside European MODs and procurement bodies
- Ability to support deployments and demos in live environments
- Experience working with drones, C-UAS, ISR, AI autonomy, or adjacent systems
About the company
Alta Ares is an air defense Neoprime that builds AI-guided interceptors to counter drones and cruise missiles. Founded in 2024, the company has 90 people and has raised over $60M.