4-7+ years of experience in supply acquisition, operations management, or business development with a focus on partner recruitment.
Proven ability to build supply networks from scratch in new markets without an established playbook.
Skilled in transforming relationship-driven deal-making into a structured acquisition engine with clear metrics.
Experience in recruiting and managing acquisition specialists or sales teams, holding them accountable to performance targets.
Strong analytical skills with a focus on metrics, including funnel conversion and operational costs.
Hands-on experience in commercial negotiations and long-term account management.
Responsibilities
Target and close high-value fleets through direct outreach to shipowners and operators.
Serve as a trusted advisor to maritime executives to ensure alignment and quick contract turnaround.
Maintain a surplus of qualified vessels to prevent deployment bottlenecks.
Instrument acquisition metrics to track pipeline health and conversion rates.
Lead high-priority partner fleet negotiations while developing training for your team.
Benefits
Opportunity to shape and refine acquisition workflows from the ground up.
Work in a dynamic environment with a focus on scaling operations.
Engage with a diverse range of maritime stakeholders globally.
Potential for career growth as the company expands and evolves.
Full Job Description
The network only exists if ships join it. This role owns that mission end-to-end: enlisting the right vessels across priority ship types and regions. You will find target fleets, win over owners, close agreements, and shepherd the relationships that keep them contributing to the network long term.
This role sits at the foundation of how we scale. Rather than stepping into a rigid playbook, you will actively participate in designing and refining our acquisition workflow from day one. You'll work with the team to evolve our early outreach into an efficient, repeatable engine that brings hundreds and thousands of vessels onto the network.
What You'll Build:
Engineer vessel recruitment from initial discovery to qualification, contract close, and long-term retention into a repeatable, data-driven operational funnel.
Synchronize supply acquisition with Quartermaster's broader growth targets and regional maritime coverage demands so deployment teams are never bottlenecked by vessel availability.
Determine headcount needs by ship type, geography, and stage of acquisition; hire, mentor, and level up acquisition specialists and field leads as the company expands.
Cultivate deep subject matter expertise across key maritime segments (e.g., container, bulk, tankers, specialized craft) within the team to eliminate coverage blind spots.
Lead from the front by closing high-priority partner fleets yourself, while developing standard operating procedures and training your team to hit sustained targets.
Responsibilities:
Target & Close High-Value Fleets: Work from prioritized lists of critical vessel types, initiate direct outreach to shipowners, operators, and technical managers, and close commercial partnerships.
Own Partner Relationships: Serve as a trusted advisor to maritime executives, technical managers, and port agents globally to ensure high alignment and fast contract turnaround.
Maintain Buffer Capacity: Keep a healthy surplus of qualified, signed vessels in reserve across key maritime hubs so installation teams can deploy without idle time.
Operationalize the Funnel: Instrument acquisition metrics, tracking pipeline health, stage velocity, conversion rates, and acquisition costs.
Outcomes You'll Own
Fleet Coverage Velocity: Deliver qualified vessels to the network on schedule to meet regional and global coverage mandates.
Supply Unit Economics: Manage incentives, connectivity arrangements, and field support costs to preserve network margin.
Network Quality: Prioritize mission-critical, high-impact vessel classes over low-utility volume.
Operational Repeatability: Establish a documented, hardened acquisition playbook that new team members can run out of the box.
Qualifications
4-7+ years of relevant experience: Demonstrated track record in supply acquisition, operations management, marketplace expansion, or business development-with direct ownership of supply-side rollouts, partner recruitment, or field-based acquisition.
Proven 0-to-1 builder: Hands-on experience entering new markets, regions, or segments with no established playbook, standing up supply networks from scratch, and leaving behind repeatable processes that others can execute.
Funnel architecture & discipline: Skilled at transforming unstructured, relationship-driven deal-making into a structured, trackable acquisition engine powered by clear milestones, pipeline hygiene, and operational rigor.
Team leadership & coaching: Direct experience recruiting, onboarding, and managing frontline acquisition specialists, field teams, or sales reps-holding teams accountable to ambitious performance targets.
Metrics-driven & unit economics minded: Rigorous focus on quantitative outcomes; comfortable analyzing funnel conversion, acquisition velocity, cohort retention, and operational cost per partner.
Hands-on deal-making: Eager to lead from the front, comfortable handling end-to-end commercial negotiations, contract closing, and long-term account stewardship directly with partners.
Nice to Have
Experience scaling supply within a two-sided marketplace or distributed hardware network.
Direct familiarity with maritime supply chains, commercial shipping operations, or port-side services.
Experience working across international time zones and with cross-cultural commercial partners.
Location & Travel
Location: New York City
Travel: 25% international and domestic travel to meet with shipowners, fleet managers, and port stakeholders, as well as to stand up acquisition efforts in newly targeted hubs.
