Strategic Development Specialist

About the role

Our Aerospace & Defense market requires a fundamentally different prospecting approach. Success comes from identifying a small number of highly strategic opportunities and helping organizations navigate complex business priorities, industry initiatives, and government incentives. The goal isn't to book as many meetings as possible. It's to help create the next large strategic opportunity. In this role, you'll work in lockstep with an Account Executive, operating as an extension of the account team rather than a standalone outbound rep. Together, you'll build account plans, map stakeholders, uncover strategic business drivers, and contribute to executive-level business cases that open doors into some of the world's largest engineering organizations. This role is part researcher, part strategist, and part relationship builder. You'll spend as much time understanding an account's business priorities as you will prospecting into it. The average person might think this job sounds too hard. If that feels energizing rather than intimidating, you'll probably thrive here.

Responsibilities

• Identify and develop high-value opportunities within Aerospace & Defense organizations across North America
• Research target accounts to understand strategic initiatives, procurement programs, innovation investments, and business priorities, then develop a clear point of view before initiating outreach.
• Build relationships across engineering, innovation, R&D, business development, government affairs, and executive leadership teams
• Identify opportunities where government programs, industry incentives, and innovation initiatives create compelling business cases for CoLab
• Execute highly personalized outreach through LinkedIn, email, phone, industry events, and warm introductions
• Partner closely with Account Executives on account planning, stakeholder mapping, and opportunity development
• Create multi-threaded engagement strategies that establish credibility across large organizations
• Maintain accurate account intelligence and engagement activity in Salesforce and other sales tools
• Continuously improve your understanding of the Aerospace & Defense industry, procurement processes, and CoLab's customers
• Our Ideal Candidate
• You do not see prospecting as only a numbers game.
• You can hold your own in conversations with senior leaders while maintaining a low ego and high respect for others.
• You won't thrive here if you're looking for a highly structured playbook with clear answers. You will thrive if you're energized by ambiguity, enjoy solving difficult problems, and are motivated by creating meaningful business outcomes.

Requirements

• Experience in Business Development, Sales Development, Account Development, or a related prospecting role
• Strong research and account planning capabilities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Confidence engaging with stakeholders at all levels, including executives
• Demonstrated curiosity and ability to learn complex industries and technical concepts
• Ability to work independently while collaborating closely with Account Executives and cross-functional teams
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM platforms
• Bonus Points
• Experience selling into Aerospace & Defense organizations
• Familiarity with government procurement programs, Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB), or defense contracting
• Experience in enterprise SaaS sales
• Experience selling to technical buyers such as engineers, product teams, or manufacturing organizations
• What Success Looks Like
• Success won't be measured by how many calls you make or meetings you book.
• Instead, you'll be evaluated on:
• Strategic pipeline value created
• Progression of

Benefits

Additional Information

About CoLab At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner. CoLab is the AI platform for driving stronger engineering decisions. Every design review in CoLab builds a knowledge repository of design feedback, decisions, and lessons learned - which AI agents draw from to flag issues on future designs before they compound. The more your team works in CoLab, the smarter it gets and the faster you arrive at the ideal design. Companies like Ford, Komatsu, and Johnson Controls use CoLab to catch issues earlier, eliminate rework cycles, and bring products to market faster. Founded in St. John's, Newfoundland, CoLab has grown quickly from our first customer in 2019 to a rapidly scaling company. We've recently been recognized on Deloitte's Fast 50™ and Fast 500™ , and named a Canadian company to watch by The Globe and Mail and Financial Post.

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at colabsoftware? Share your experience