Commercial Director

Ontic$180K — $220K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Marketing, or related field; MBA preferred.
  • 10+ years in commercial roles within aerospace, aviation, defense, or similar industries.
  • Proven track record in leading commercial strategy for profitable growth.
  • Strong grasp of aerospace aftermarket and MRO environment.
  • Skilled in pricing strategies and complex negotiations.
  • Experience in managing strategic customer relationships and contracts.
  • Competent in sales planning, pipeline forecasting, and performance tracking.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive commercial strategy aligned with business objectives.
  • Identify opportunities for organic growth across various market segments.
  • Maintain detailed customer account and growth plans.
  • Leverage market intelligence to uncover new business opportunities.
  • Evaluate trends and competitive activities to refine commercial focus.
  • Oversee sales operations and ensure effective lead management.
  • Cultivate executive-level relationships for strategic account management.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical insurance
  • Competitive PTO, holiday pay, and sick leave
  • 401K plan with up to 4% company match
  • Annual bonus program tied to performance
  • Flexible working arrangements
  • Paid volunteering opportunities
  • Access to mental health support
  • Focus on employee development
  • Referral program incentives
Full Job Description

Our team is looking for a Commercial Director at our Chatsworth Location. The Commercial Director will provide strategic and operational leadership across the commercial function, with responsibility for driving profitable organic growth, strengthening key customer relationships, maximizing the value ofOnticsportfolio, and developing a high-performance commercial organization.

This position will lead commercial strategy acrosssales, business development, pricing, customer and key account management, commercial operations, forecasting, and market intelligence, while partnering closely with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, and other functions to ensure commercial commitments are executable and aligned with business objectives.

The successful candidate will bring significant aerospace, aviation, defense, and/or MRO commercial experience and combine strong customer and market knowledge with data-driven decision-making, commercial judgment, and senior leadership capability.

Commercial Directors Responsibilities:

Commercial Strategy & Growth

  • Develop and execute the commercial strategy in alignment withOnticsstrategic and financialobjectives.
  • Identifyand pursue opportunities for profitable organic growth across existing customers, new customers, markets, products, and MRO services.
  • Develop andmaintainrobust customer account plans, market development plans, and growth program plans.
  • Utilize market intelligence, customer insights, competitive information, data, and analytics to proactivelyidentifynew business opportunities.
  • Evaluate market trends, customer requirements, competitive activity, and emerging opportunities to inform commercial priorities and investment decisions.
  • Ensure large, strategic, and complex sales, distribution, and commercial opportunities are appropriately evaluated, modeled, and approvedin accordance withcompany policies.
  • Partner with senior leadership toestablishannual commercialobjectives, sales targets,bookingsexpectations, and long-term growth plans.

Sales & Business Development

  • Provide leadership and oversight of sales and business development activities, ensuring opportunities are effectively qualified, prioritized, pursued, and converted.
  • Maintain visibility of the global sales pipeline, bookings, revenue outlook, and book-to-bill performance.
  • Lead regularpipelines, bookings,forecast, and opportunity reviews with sales teams, key account managers, and business leaders.
  • Establish disciplined processes for assigning and managing new leads and opportunities, including assessment of timing, win probability, commercial value, and resource requirements.
  • Lead and support major customer negotiations and strategic business opportunities.
  • Develop methodologies and processes to improve forecasting accuracy and provide meaningful short- and long-term visibilityofcommercial performance.
  • Monitor sales effectiveness and implement actions to improve win rates, customer retention, revenue growth, and profitability.

Customer & Key Account Management

  • Provide executive oversight of key customer relationships with a strong focus on customer satisfaction, retention, advocacy, and long-term value creation.
  • Build andmaintainstrong relationships with key customers, OEMs, operators, distributors, and other strategic stakeholders.
  • Serve as a senior commercial escalation point for major customer accounts and strategically important commercial matters.
  • Ensure key account strategies and customer engagement plans are aligned with company growth objectives.
  • Develop andmaintaincustomer dashboards and performance measures to provide visibility of account health, opportunities, risks, commitments, and customer satisfaction.
  • Work with Marketing and other functions to develop customer insight and competitive intelligence processes, including win/loss analysis and relevant customer relationship measures.

Pricing, Proposals & Contracting

  • Provide strategic leadership for pricing and ensure pricing decisions support growth, competitiveness, profitability, and long-term customer value.
  • Support the development of pricing strategies, commercial models, service packages, and value propositions.
  • Lead or support negotiations for major commercial agreements, contracts, long-term agreements, and strategic customer opportunities.
  • Ensure contractual and commercial risks are appropriatelyidentified, evaluated, communicated, and mitigated.
  • Provide oversight of the RFQ and quotation process, including opportunity qualification, pricing strategy, quote governance, follow-up, and closure.
  • Establish processes to understand the reasons behind wins, losses, and unresponsive quotations and use these insights to improve future commercial performance.
  • Ensure major commercial opportunities are appropriately modeled and approvedin accordance withcompany approval policies.

Commercial Operations, Data & Analytics

  • Develop andmaintainglobally consistent commercial and sales processes, tools, governance, and reporting standards.
  • Implement andoptimizesales reporting platforms that providetimelyvisibility ofpipeline, bookings, forecasts, conversion rates, book-to-bill, and other critical commercial KPIs.
  • Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of CRM and other commercial systems, including process design, rollout, adoption, governance, and training.
  • Ensure the quality and integrity of commercial and sales data throughappropriate governance, audits, mapping, and reconciliation of conflicting data sources.
  • Analyze commercial and sales performance trends and translate data into actionable recommendations for senior leadership.
  • Develop dashboards and reporting that enable effective decision-making and accountability across commercial organization.
  • Establish andmonitorleading andtrailingcommercial performance indicators.

Cross-Functional Leadership

  • Play an active role in the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, ensuring commercial forecasts and customer requirements are effectively communicated and aligned with operational capacity.
  • Partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and other functions to ensure customer commitments can be successfully delivered.
  • Work with Finance tomonitorrevenue, bookings, margins, budgets, forecasts, and overall commercial performance.
  • Ensureappropriate resourcesare aligned to execute commercial plans and strategic customer commitments.
  • Collaborate across functions to resolve customer issues, improve service delivery, and strengthen overall customer experience.
  • Lead and support strategic commercial projects, transformation initiatives, and other business priorities asrequired.

Leadership & Team Development

  • Lead, coach, mentor, and develop commercial leaders and team members, creating clear accountability and high performance.
  • Build a commercial culture centered on customer focus, commercial discipline, collaboration, accountability, and measurable results.
  • Establish clearobjectivesand performance expectations across the commercial organization.
  • Identifycapability gaps and provide coaching, training, and development opportunities to strengthen commercial effectiveness.
  • Foster strong collaboration across sites, functions, and geographies.
  • Act as a visible senior leader within the organization and contribute to broader business strategy and decision-making.

Commercial Director Qualifications:

  • Bachelors degree in business, Engineering, Marketing, Business Administration, or a related disciplinerequired;MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
  • 10+ years of progressive commercial, sales, business development, key account management, or commercial operations experience, withsignificant experiencewithin aerospace, aviation, defense, MRO, or a closely related highly regulated industry.
  • Demonstrated experience leading commercial strategy and delivering profitable revenue growth.
  • Strong understanding of the aerospace aftermarket and/or MRO environment, including customer requirements, market dynamics, competitive landscape, and commercial models.
  • Strong pricing experience, preferably involving manufactured aerospace or defense products and/or aftermarket/MRO services.
  • Proventrack recordin sales, business development, strategic account management, and complex commercial negotiations.
  • Experience negotiating significant customer contracts, commercial agreements, and complex technical and contractual matters.
  • Strong understanding of sales planning, pipeline management, forecasting, bookings, revenue, margin, and commercial KPIs.
  • Experience with CRM platforms and the implementation or optimization of commercial systems, tools, and processes.
  • Strong analytical capability withdemonstratedability to use data, market intelligence, and financial information to develop commercial recommendations and make informed decisions.
  • Experience working collaboratively with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, and other business functions.
  • Demonstrated experience building, leading, coaching, and developing successful commercial teams.
  • Exceptional communication, presentation, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with customers and senior executives.
  • Excellent negotiation skills with the ability to manage complex commercial, technical, and contractual discussions.
  • Commercially creative and strategically minded, with the ability toidentifyopportunities and translate them into executable growth plans.
  • Results-oriented with a strong focus on measurable outcomes, customer satisfaction, profitable growth, and operational execution.
  • Ability tooperateeffectively in a fast-paced, dynamic, cross-functional, and geographically dispersed organization.

Preferred Experience:

  • Experience within an aerospace OEM, aftermarket,componentMRO, aviation services, or aerospace manufacturing environment.
  • Experience with commercial and government contracting.
  • Knowledge of applicable U.S. and international import/export requirements and trade compliance considerations.
  • Experience working across multiple sites, business units, or international markets.
  • Experience developing or transforming commercial operations, CRM, sales processes, analytics, and reporting capabilities.
  • Demonstrated experience managing strategic OEM, airline, defense, government, distributor, or other major aerospace customer relationships.

Our Benefits:

  • Comprehensive medical insurance
  • Competitive PTO, holiday pay, and sick leave
  • Company 401K plan with up to 4% matched contribution
  • Annual bonus program (varies by level and discretionary based on company and individual performance)
  • Flexible working arrangements
  • Paid volunteering opportunities
  • Access to mental health champions across our sites
  • Commitment to development
  • Employee referral program

#LI-Onsite

Compensation Pay Range

$180k-$220k

Please click here to review Ontics .

About Ontic

Ontic is a security management platform that helps companies identify and mitigate physical security risks. The platform provides a centralized location for security teams to manage incidents, track assets, and communicate with stakeholders. Ontic's technology is used by companies in a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Learn more about Ontic
Size
100 employees
Industry
Founded
2017

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Ontic

More Aerospace & Defense Jobs

Find similar Commercial Director jobs: