Business Development Lead – Defense

Yali Aerospace · Hyderabad, India

We are looking for a Senior Retired Defence Officer to lead and advise our defence business initiatives. The individual will provide strategic direction, help shape our defence product and business roadmap, and guide the organisation in understanding the operational and procurement requirements of the Armed Forces.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic advice and long-term roadmap for the company's defence business.
• Guide UAV product development based on real-world military operational requirements and capability gaps.
• Identify relevant defence programs, opportunities, tenders, trials, and procurement pathways.
• Advise leadership on defence procurement processes, policies, stakeholder engagement, and market strategy .
• Build and maintain institutional relationships across the defence ecosystem in an ethical and compliant manner.
• Support engagement with Armed Forces, defence organisations, government agencies, and strategic industry partners.
• Guide preparation for product demonstrations, field trials, evaluations, and technical presentations.
• Provide insights on emerging defence requirements and future applications of UAV and autonomous technologies.
• Work closely with Leadership, Engineering, Product, and Program teams on defence projects.

Requirements

• Retired senior officer from the Armed Forces , preferably Colonel/equivalent rank or above.
• Strong understanding of military operations, capability requirements, defence procurement, and acquisition processes.
• Experience interacting with defence procurement, technology evaluation, operations, aviation/UAVs, or related domains is highly preferred.
• Strong strategic thinking, leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management capabilities.
• Understanding of UAVs, aerospace, autonomous systems, surveillance, or defence technology is highly desirable.
• Ability to advise both technical and business teams from an end-user and strategic defence perspective.

Preferred

Officers with prior exposure to UAV operations, Army Aviation, Artillery, Infantry, Special Forces, Signals, Air Defence, ISR, procurement, capability development, or technology evaluation will be preferred.