VP Sales - Defence in City of London

Hybrid (Plymouth or London and WFH)

Overview

Founded in 2020, ACUA Ocean is a fast-growing and dynamic start-up at the intersection of ocean autonomy and maritime security. Our intelligent and scalable uncrewed surface vessel (USV) platform supports applications including environmental monitoring, offshore infrastructure resilience, coastal protection, and marine surveillance — all with minimal human footprint.

We are now hiring a VP Sales - Defence to join our growing Commercial Team. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of advanced uncrewed vessel technology in a collaborative and innovative environment.

Who you are:

• A commercially driven, strategically-minded sales leader with +7 years experience of closing deals across the defence and maritime security sectors.
• A deal-maker who is laser-focussed on converting opportunities and driving profitability.
• A disciplined operator who brings structure, forecasting rigour, and pipeline management to an early-growth environment.
• Able to navigate long, complex sales cycles with multiple decision-makers and procurement pathways.
• A clear understanding of export controls, compliance, and sensitive customer environments.
• Able to work with teams of colleagues from diverse backgrounds, skills, knowledge, levels of experience and expertise.
• You build strong working relationships and communicate effectively with your colleagues across various functions.
• You balance commercial considerations with operational and technical principles in order to inform your decision making on pipeline prioritisation.

What you’ll do:

• Own the revenue number, forecast accuracy, and pipeline conversion across defence and offshore markets.
• Take BD-qualified opportunities and lead them through capture → bid → negotiation → contract award.
• Lead all bid and proposal activity, ensuring competitive positioning, pricing strategy, and clear win themes.
• Establish and enforce sales process discipline (CRM, gating, qualification criteria, probability weighting).
• Produce sales forecasts for allocated customers/market area.
• Support customer retention by promoting alignment between customer and ACUA Ocean.
• Continually assess the market for future opportunities and ensure that the strategic direction is still applicable.
• Monitor KPI’s for accounts in line with strategy.
• Lead commercial structuring and contract negotiation, including terms, pricing models, and risk allocation.
• Work with BD and partnerships to convert consortium opportunities into executable bids and contracts.
• Represent the company in down-selects, competitive dialogues, and final negotiations.
• Build a scalable sales function over time (process, tooling, potentially team), not just individual deal closure.
• Work with the Business Development Director to set goals and develop plans for business revenue growth.
• Generate leads through your existing network, events, marketing and cold-calling prospective clients.
• Support the proposal development process including the preparation of bids and tenders, and the negotiation for new contracts.
• Keep abreast of market trends, competitor activities, and customer needs to identify competitive advantages and growth opportunities.
• Regularly attend and present at industry, government and sector networking events.

What you’ll need:

• Proven track record of personally closing complex, high-value deals in defence and/or maritime security sectors.
• Demonstrable experience leading end-to-end capture and bid processes, from qualified opportunity through to contract award.
• Strong understanding of government and defence procurement, including RFIs, RFPs, competitive dialogue, and framework mechanisms.
• Experience converting strategically positioned opportunities into revenue — not just originating early-stage conversations.
• Credible track record in commercial negotiation, including pricing strategy, contract terms, and risk management.
• Familiarity with prime contractor environments and supply chain dynamics, including subcontracting and teaming arrangements.
• Experience implementing or operating within structured sales processes and CRM systems with accurate forecasting discipline.
• International sales experience, with working knowledge of export controls, compliance, and cross-border contracting.
• Background in maritime, autonomous systems, defence technology, or adjacent sectors (strongly desirable).
• Willing to travel internationally.
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills.
• A flexible approach and a willingness to apply yourself across the whole spectrum of this growing business.
• UK drivers licence.
• Degree qualified, or equivalent experience.
• A solid sense of humour, pragmatism, and flexibility.

Benefits/Compensation:

• +£100K salary.
• Exceptional uncapped sales-based commission.
• 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays plus Christmas closure.
• Comprehensive benefits package from Vitality - access to full health insurance including dental coverage.
• Awesome perks such as discounted gym memberships, mental health cover and global health coverage.
• A hybrid work environment.
• Life insurance to 4x your annual salary.
• Payment of professional fees.