Regional Head Middle East

About You and The Role 

As Regional Head — Middle East you will create and grow Zipline’s business and operating footprint across the region. You will build a portfolio of government, institutional and private-sector partnerships, identifying and testing high-potential applications for Zipline’s logistics platform across healthcare, retail, food, logistics, public services and other relevant sectors. 

Some opportunities will be government-backed networks that strengthen access to essential goods, health systems, emergency response or economic opportunity. Others will be purely commercial partnerships with customers that can use Zipline to create faster, more reliable and more efficient logistics. Many may combine both. You will pursue these pathways in parallel, then concentrate Zipline’s resources behind the markets, use cases and partners that prove most compelling commercially, strategically and operationally.

This is a hands-on, zero-to-one leadership role. Initially, you will personally define the region’s market entry strategy, establish the most important relationships, develop commercially sound network models and take complex opportunities through to launch. As markets mature, you will recruit and lead country teams, with growing responsibility for local operations, customer outcomes, business performance and expansion. You will be Zipline’s senior external representative across the region.

What You'll Do

• Build and prioritize a regional opportunity portfolio. Develop parallel government, institutional and commercial pathways; form and test hypotheses around high-value use cases; and focus investment on the opportunities with the strongest revenue, strategic and operational potential.
• Create government and institutional partnerships. Build senior relationships with governments, health systems, public agencies, development partners and other institutions. Develop partnerships that enable Zipline networks to strengthen essential logistics, public services and economic opportunity.
• Develop commercial partnerships. Originate and grow relationships with private-sector customers and strategic partners across relevant sectors, including retail, healthcare, food, logistics and other high-value applications.
• Shape viable network and business models. Translate Zipline’s aircraft and platform capabilities into locally relevant propositions; assess customer demand, operating feasibility, economics and scale potential; and develop clear cases for investment.
• Structure and close complex deals. Lead negotiations across commercial terms, procurement, financing, contracts, launch commitments, governance and expansion pathways. Maintain momentum through long, multi-stakeholder decision processes.
• Create the enabling environment for launch. Work with governments, regulators, infrastructure partners and Zipline’s central teams to establish the policy, regulatory, operational and stakeholder conditions required for deployment.
• Lead launch readiness and regional performance. Maintain accountability from signed partnership through launch, early customer performance and expansion. Coordinate closely with global operations, engineering, product and commercial teams to ensure each network is viable, reliable and positioned to grow.
• Build and lead country organizations. Recruit, develop and lead in-country commercial, government-partnership and operational leaders as markets mature. Establish clear accountability, operating rhythms and performance standards across the regional portfolio.
• Own regional business performance. Build the regional plan, manage the pipeline and investment case, and increasingly own revenue, unit economics, customer outcomes and P&L performance as operations scale.
• Represent Zipline externally. Serve as Zipline’s senior regional representative with governments, customers, partners, investors, regulators and the wider community.

What You'll Bring

• Exceptional business-development, strategic-partnership or commercial leadership experience, with a demonstrated ability to originate, structure and close complex deals.
• Strong commercial judgment and curiosity. You can develop credible hypotheses about where Zipline’s platform will create value, test them rigorously and turn the strongest into durable businesses.
• The ability to engage credibly with senior government stakeholders and navigate public-sector decision-making, procurement, policy and institutional dynamics. Direct government-relations experience is valuable, but strong relationship instincts, judgment and executive presence are essential.
• Deep practical knowledge of key markets in the Middle East who matters, how decisions are made and how to build momentum across varied political, commercial and cultural environments.
• Experience managing long, ambiguous and sometimes difficult negotiation processes involving multiple stakeholders, competing interests and novel commercial or operating models.
• A hands-on, entrepreneurial approach. You are willing to open doors personally, solve problems directly and create momentum before there is a large local organization behind you.
• The leadership range to build and develop teams over time, including country-level leaders with responsibility for commercial execution, operations and customer success.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to work effectively with global product, engineering, operations, legal, regulatory, finance and commercial teams.
• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, equally comfortable with senior government officials, C-suite executives, frontline operating partners and internal technical teams.
• Willingness to travel extensively across the region.
• Ability to be based in the Middle East and eligibility to work there.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!