Business Development Associate / Manager

Europe's defense industrial base cannot respond at the speed modern conflict requires. Legacy suppliers operate on month-long timelines. Tribal knowledge is retiring. Supply chains are fragile. SAEKI is building the operating system for autonomous factories — the infrastructure that lets Europe manufacture mission-critical components at software speed.

You'll be the person who turns SAEKI's manufacturing capability into commercial traction. When a hardware company needs structural components produced in weeks instead of months, you are the reason they call us — and the reason they keep calling.

As Business Development Associate / Manager, you are the CEO's right hand on sales and business development. You'll build pipeline, run outreach, prepare for and follow up on customer meetings, qualify opportunities, and move deals forward. Early on you'll do much of this alongside the CEO; over time you take more of it off his plate and own it end to end.

This is a build role, not a maintain role. SAEKI's sales function is still being set up — there is no established playbook, CRM discipline, or inbound engine waiting for you. You will help create all of it. You draft the outreach, structure the pipeline, prepare the materials, and figure out what a repeatable sales motion looks like for a company selling autonomous manufacturing into hard-tech, dual-use, and defense customers.

You report directly to the CEO and work closely with engineering and production to shape how we position what we build. This is a role with a clear path to growth — as you prove you can own the sales motion, the scope grows with you.

We are hiring at either the Manager or Associate level depending on experience. Based at our HQ in Zurich. Travel across Europe as needed.

• 2–8 years in sales, business development, or partnerships — ideally in a hard-tech, dual-use, industrial, or defense context. We're flexible on level: what matters is that you've moved deals forward and can show it. (Associate: ~2–4 years; Manager: ~5–8 years with a track record of originating and closing.)
• Hard-tech / Dual-Use / Defense Exposure: You understand — or can quickly learn — how companies building physical hardware buy, qualify, and scale. Experience selling into manufacturing, industrial, aerospace, or defense supply chains is a strong plus.
• Builder Mentality: You do not need existing structure to be effective. You are comfortable setting up the sales function from close to zero — outreach cadences, pipeline tracking, materials, process — and iterating as you go.
• CEO Multiplier: You make the CEO more effective. You can prep a meeting, draft a follow-up, chase a lead, and run a process without being told twice. When something needs to happen and nobody owns it, you raise your hand.
• Technical Credibility: You can hold a conversation about manufacturing, materials, and production without being an engineer. You're curious about how things are made and can learn to speak the language of the people building hardware.
• Startup Intensity: You're comfortable with ambiguity, speed, and the expectation that you will figure it out. You'd rather ship and iterate than wait for the perfect plan.
• Language: Fluent in English and German.

• People who need a playbook handed to them. There isn't one yet — you're here to help write it. If you need a defined territory, fixed process, and clear boundaries, this isn't the right fit.
• Pure account managers who wait for inbound. There is no inbound. You need to create demand, not capture it.
• Analysts who don't want to do the outreach. This role involves real selling — cold outreach, follow-ups, meeting prep, moving deals. The strategy matters, but so does the grind.
• Candidates who need heavy management. You report directly to the CEO, who moves fast and expects you to keep up with minimal hand-holding.

• Mission: Rebuild the industrial sovereignty of the West. Your work directly enables the production of mission-critical hardware for defense and space.
• Total Ownership: High-stakes autonomy in your domain. You own both the problems and the solutions — and have the authority to execute.
• Accelerated Growth: You'll work directly with the CEO and help build the sales function from the ground up. Where you go from here — Head of Sales, a market or vertical of your own — depends on you.
• The Environment: Access to a state-of-the-art facility featuring 5-axis CNCs, industrial robots, and industrial 3D printers. Your work runs on real hardware from day one.
• The Team: "Special Forces" model. Everyone senior, everyone ships. No politics, no bureaucracy. Direct feedback, high standards.
• Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity.
• Location: Zurich HQ

• Resume: Focus on deals you've moved, built, or closed — not just where you've worked.
• Cover letter: Why this mission? Why now? Tell us about a time you sold or built something with no structure to lean on.