Director, Market Strategy

Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.

About You:

• You will help leadership make informed decisions about where to pursue growth across defense and commercial aviation.
• You will investigate potential markets and mission opportunities, turn fragmented information into a clear set of options, and lead the process for evaluating those options.
• This role requires someone who enjoys doing the research as much as presenting the recommendation. You will work closely with Business Development, Engineering, Programs, and executive leadership, but your central responsibility is to bring rigor and clarity to strategic choices.

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.

Qualifications:

• 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.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in autonomous systems, aviation, or AI-driven platforms
• Familiarity with FAA certification, DoD procurement, or mission-based program development
• Background in management consulting, corporate strategy, or high-growth startups
• Experience scaling strategy in a venture-backed or rapidly growing company
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and build structure in evolving environments
• Operator mindset with a track record of driving strategy through execution