Partnerships Lead, Specialty Manufacturing

Role Overview

Relling does not have a sales team. We have a partnerships function, because the specialty manufacturers we deploy into are not customers in the conventional sense — they are co-builders of the deployment layer we are constructing. The Partnerships Lead is the person who finds those partners, sits across from their operators and owners, scopes the pilots that turn into multi-cell deployments, and builds the commercial relationships that scale from one shop to dozens.

You will work with specialty manufacturers in the defense industrial base — PE-owned aerospace component shops, family-owned precision manufacturers, prime contractor Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers, industrial conglomerate portfolio companies — and with the institutional buyers above them: PE operating partners, industrial corp dev teams, prime supply chain organizations. The cycles are longer than software sales and the relationships are deeper. The wins are commensurate.

What You'll Do

• Build and run the top-of-funnel for Relling's partner manufacturer pipeline. Identify shops that meet our criteria (manual labor exposure, defense or specialty positioning, AR/AI-receptive culture, operator decision authority) and develop relationships from first contact to signed pilot.
• Scope and structure pilot engagements. A typical pilot is 60–120 days, with clear success criteria that lead to multi-cell expansion when met.
• Manage commercial relationships with PE owners, family principals, and corp dev executives sitting above our day-to-day operating contacts. Convert single-shop success into PE-portfolio access and conglomerate-wide rollouts.
• Run conferences, industry events, and direct outreach campaigns into the Tier-2/Tier-3 specialty manufacturing base. AUSA, NDIA, SOFIC, AFA, IDGA, and chapter-level versions of each.
• Develop prime contractor relationships (Lockheed, RTX, Anduril, Northrop, Howmet, Moog, Heico, Curtiss-Wright) that produce subcontract work and strategic optionality.
• Work closely with our engineering team to translate customer pain into pilot scope, and translate pilot outcomes back into refined positioning.
• Build the early version of Relling's partner playbook: the materials, references, case studies, and commercial frameworks that future hires inherit.

Competencies and Skills

We're looking for someone who combines genuine industrial fluency with the temperament to sell technology into conservative buyers. Strong candidates typically have many of the following:

• A track record of selling, partnership development, or commercial leadership in industrial automation, specialty manufacturing, defense supply chain, or industrial software. Years matter less than the texture of the deals you've closed.
• Demonstrated ability to close complex commercial agreements with multi-stakeholder buyers — operating CEO, PE board, customer of record, supply chain team — on long sales cycles.
• Comfort on a factory floor. You can walk into a shop, talk to a machinist about their cycle time, and have the conversation in their language. You are not a deck salesperson.
• Familiarity with defense industrial base procurement, prime contractor subcontracting, or PE portfolio company dynamics is highly valued. Federal capture experience (SBIR, Title III, IBAS) is a plus but not required.
• Sharp written communication. You will write pilot proposals, LOIs, partner briefs, and forwardable introduction emails that need to be tight enough that operators forward them inside their own organizations without editing.
• Operational maturity. You understand that this is partnership development with a 12–24 month horizon, not a quarterly quota sales role.

Based in San Francisco (Potrero Hill) with significant travel to partner sites across the Midwest, Northeast, and defense industrial clusters. Open to candidates based near major specialty manufacturing hubs if the operational fit is right.