Director, Market Strategy

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Evaluate new markets, customers, and mission opportunities across government and commercial aviation.
• Research customer needs, requirements, budgets, policy developments, competitors, and procurement pathways to identify where Merlin has a credible opportunity.
• Develop and compare strategic options, including potential market size, investment required, technical fit, timing, and probability of win.
• Build concise recommendations and business cases that make assumptions, tradeoffs, and open questions clear to leadership.
• Run the cadence for opportunity reviews: establish evaluation criteria, bring the right teams into the discussion, and drive decisions to resolution.
• Work with Business Development, Engineering, and Programs to test whether proposed opportunities fit Merlin’s capabilities and development priorities.
• Track the assumptions behind major strategic decisions and revisit them as customer needs and market conditions change.

Job requirements

• 7+ years in market strategy, defense market analysis, business development strategy, consulting, or a related role involving consequential growth or investment decisions.
• Experience researching complex government or regulated markets and drawing useful conclusions from incomplete information.
• Ability to assess an opportunity beyond its headline market size, including customer demand, competitive position, resources required, and likelihood of winning.
• Strong analytical judgment and the ability to develop distinct, actionable options rather than a single predetermined recommendation.
• Clear writing and presentation skills, especially when explaining complex findings to senior leaders.
• Ability to work credibly with technical, program, and commercial teams.