Strategic Business Development Lead, Continental Europe

The role

You will anchor the EMEA commercial organization by creating qualified pipeline and closing net-new deals. You will map mission needs, buyers, and procurement routes across commercial software vendors, government customers, and regulated enterprises.

What you will do

• Own opportunities from initial contact through contract signature
• Build a qualified pipeline across commercial software vendors, government entities, and regulated enterprises
• Run named-account coverage through direct prospecting, referrals, and partner channels
• Map government and defense pursuits including mission needs, buyer roles, budget cycles, and procurement vehicles
• Identify lighthouse customers in Europe to establish proof points
• Validate ideal customer profiles, pricing, and buying paths through live opportunities
• Assess routes to revenue via hyperscalers, sovereign cloud providers, primes, and systems integrators
• Coordinate with continental technical and delivery teams
• Translate quarterly business targets into regional deployment roadmaps
• Broker alignment between the sales pipeline and operations capacity

Required qualifications

• 7+ years of business development, enterprise sales, or capture experience, including complex B2B and B2G technology sales across European markets
• Demonstrated track record of personally opening accounts and creating net-new pipeline in commercial software, cloud, infrastructure, or technology deals
• Strong hunter profile with evidence of closing complex deals
• Experience selling technically demanding enterprise products to both commercial and government customers
• Commercial exposure to European defense, govtech, or regulated industries
• Ability to operate across multiple European procurement cultures
• Credible network in at least one relevant European ecosystem
• Strong CRM, qualification, account-planning, and forecasting discipline
• Fluent English
• Willingness to travel regularly across continental Europe
• EU residency with valid work authorization

Nice to have

• Existing relationships within the European defense, NATO, or allied-government ecosystem
• Fluency in an additional European language relevant to a priority continental market (e.g., French, German, Dutch, or a Nordic language)
• Prior experience as an early or first commercial hire opening a new market or region for a startup or scale-up
• Existing government security clearance or eligibility

Benefits

• Equity awards
• Discretionary bonuses

Before you apply

• Requires EU residency with existing, valid work authorization
• Second Front cannot sponsor candidates at this time

About the company

Second Front is a venture-backed company on a mission to strengthen global security by accelerating access to emerging technologies for the U.S. and our allies. They help commercial software companies get mission-critical technology into the hands of government users faster.