Defense Sales – French Market (H/F)

About the role

Alta Ares is seeking a seasoned Defense Sales professional to lead the French market pipeline. You will be responsible for driving business with the French Ministry of Defence, procurement agencies, and armed forces, turning technical demos into multi‑million contracts.

Key responsibilities

• Own end‑to‑end sales cycle for French defence customers, from lead qualification to contract negotiation.
• Identify and develop multi‑year programs in ISR, C‑UAS, autonomy, and AI‑enabled systems.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with military users, procurement officers, and program managers.
• Collaborate with primes, neoprimes, integrators and engineering firms to shape channel partnerships.
• Map European defence budgets, procurement cycles and capability gaps to inform market expansion.
• Provide competitive intelligence and product feedback to engineering and founders.
• Represent Alta Ares at major defence exhibitions such as Eurosatory, DSEI, MSPO, and IDEX.

Required profile

• 5–10 years of experience in defence sales, business development or capture management.
• Proven track record selling to ministries of defence, procurement agencies or armed forces.
• Experience with defence‑tech companies, especially neoprimes (e.g., Anduril, Shield AI).
• Deep understanding of defence procurement cycles and bidding processes.
• Ability to close complex, multi‑stakeholder deals.

Required skills

• Knowledge of drones, C‑UAS, ISR and AI autonomy technologies.