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Navi AI

Business Development Lead

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Recruitment began on August 10, 2026
and the job listing Expires on September 10, 2026
Full-time
Apply Now

This is a founding business development role. You own how Navi expands across the aviation market — airlines, charter operators, and the training centers that produce the next generation of pilots. You own the full cycle: sourcing the relationship, running the pitch, closing the deal, and standing up the deployment that follows.

Navi is deployed at Embry-Riddle, Purdue, UND, Sling Pilot Academy, and the United States Air Force. The market is wide open and the product is proven. What we need now is someone to go take it.

You won’t be handed a playbook. You’ll write it — and then build the team that runs it.

What you’ll do

Own the full business development cycle from first contact to signed deal to live deployment — across airlines, private jet operators, and flight training centers

Build and manage a pipeline of aviation customers — identify the right targets, get in the room, and move deals to close

Run pitches and product demos for operators, training directors, and aviation executives — translating Navi’s capabilities into outcomes they care about

Negotiate and close commercial agreements, then partner with the team to make every deployment a success

Represent Navi in person at customer sites, industry events, and on the road — this is a relationship business and you’ll be where the customers are

Hire and build the business development team as we scale, setting the standard for how Navi sells

About you

A track record in aviation sales — you’ve sold into airlines, business aviation, flight schools, or training organizations and you know how the industry buys

Demonstrated ability to own deals end to end, from sourcing through close, with minimal direction

Strong commercial instincts — you can read a room, build trust fast, and move a complex deal forward

Comfortable in ambiguity and moving fast without a defined roadmap — you’ve built pipeline from zero

Willing to travel extensively and meet customers in person, while spending some time each month with the team in San Francisco

Excellent communicator who can speak credibly to pilots, training directors, and C-suite executives alike

You want to build, not just sell — you’re excited to stand up a team and a function, not inherit one

Nice to have

An existing network across airlines, charter and fractional operators, or collegiate and military flight training programs

Experience selling technical or hardware-plus-software products into regulated industries

Background as a pilot, or deep familiarity with flight operations and training workflows

Early-stage or founding go-to-market experience

Why this role matters

Navi only changes aviation if it gets into cockpits. The product is built, proven, and trusted by the most demanding operators in the world. The bottleneck now is reach. This role is how Navi goes from a category-defining product to the aviation standard — and the person who owns it will shape how the entire company grows.

What you’ll get

Early-stage equity — real ownership in a category-defining company

Flight training — earn your pilot’s license and sell with true domain expertise

Impact you can see — the deals you close put Navi in cockpits at airlines, flight schools, and the U.S. Air Force

A role that scales into commercial leadership as we grow

How we work

Find a way. We don’t wait for permission or perfect information. Ideas come from anywhere regardless of title. Figure it out, ship it, iterate.

Creativity over control. First principles over process. We’d rather have a creative solution that’s 80% right today than a perfect one next quarter.

Update fast. Come in with a hypothesis, throw it away when the data says otherwise. Ego has no place here.

Intensity with focus. We work hard because the mission demands it. Clarity on what matters is how we make that sustainable.

Apply Now

Contact & Location

Phone
(610) 328–8352
Email
career@swarthmore.edu
Address

500 College Ave.
Parrish Hall 135
Swarthmore, PA 19081

Career Service Hours

M Monday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
T Tuesday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
W Wednesday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
TH Thursday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
F Friday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Office closed daily from 12–1pm for lunch.

Meet the Team

Claire Klieger Meet Claire Klieger
Erin Massey Meet Erin Massey
Kristie Beucler Meet Kristie Beucler
Jennifer Barrington Meet Jennifer Barrington
Pattie Kim-Keefer Meet Pattie Kim-Keefer
Kelly Dougherty Meet Kelly Dougherty
Talia Barnes Meet Talia Barnes
Carina Shandy Meet Carina Shandy
Phone
(610) 328–8352
Email
career@swarthmore.edu
Address

500 College Ave.
Parrish Hall 135
Swarthmore, PA 19081

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