Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager:
Pacific

Location: Washington, DC / Arlington, VA (30%+ travel to the Pacific region)

Employment type: Full-time

Reports to: Chief Growth Officer

Target start: Q3 2026

First Order Effects (FOE) is building America’s Infrastructure Prime for the robotic era. Autonomous ships, drones, and robots are rewriting how the world moves, fights, and builds - but none of them work without infrastructure to power them, connect them, and launch and recover them. That’s what we build.

Our team comes from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, Lockheed Skunk Works, Forterra, and Fuse Energy. Before founding FOE, we built satellite ground stations that closed a national comms gap in days, deployed multi-megawatt power systems at commercial speed, and shipped autonomous surface vessels into Navy fleet production. We’ve built infrastructure at lightspeed before - now we’re applying that playbook to an entire company.

FOE has multiple active international pursuits across the Pacific Rim, specifically in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Hawaii. These are ready to convert from early-stage opportunities into full captures with country-specific strategies. Our Pacific growth plan names this role as the structural precondition for that conversion. Until this hire exists, those pursuits will not move. Once you’re in the seat, they become actionable captures and you will own them.

If you are the right hire, you have done Pacific Rim defense BD for at least six years, you have personally walked an FMS case from Letter of Request through congressional notification, and you have existing relationships with at least two U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation offices in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Korea, or Australia.

• Own end-to-end capture leadership across the Pacific Rim international portfolio. This initially includes Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore, with expansion to Korea, Taiwan, and other partners as the portfolio matures.
• Select the 2026 proof-point Pacific market. This involves selecting one country, authoring a country-specific capture plan, and showing demonstrable progress toward award by the end of 2026.
• Navigate the FMS pathway, including Letter of Request development with host nation counterparts, the congressional notification process, and ITAR licensing strategy, as applicable.
• Build and hold U.S. Embassy ODC relationships in-region, Defense Attaché engagements, and country-team coordination.
• Build host nation defense ministry relationships by facilitating working-level engagements that hold beyond your tenure.
• Develop INDOPACOM J-staff working-level relationships supporting our Hawaii pursuit, which carries demands distinct from the rest of the portfolio.
• Travel for 30% or more of your time in-region. Expect quarterly trips at minimum, which may occur more often during active captures.

• Pacific portfolio progression: by the end of 2026, at least one Pacific Rim opportunity should be advanced through our capture gates to an approved bid decision.
• Country-specific capture plans authored and gate-reviewed for at least two of Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore.
• U.S. Embassy ODC engagements documented and tracked in the BD pipeline for at least three countries.
• Pacific revenue contribution by the end of 2027, with a minimum of one closed contract attributable to this role.

• Six or more years of Pacific Rim defense BD experience, including direct ownership of at least one FMS case from initial Letter of Request through congressional notification.
• Working-level relationships in at least two of: U.S. Embassy ODC Tokyo, Manila, Singapore, Seoul, or…