Vice President of Fleet Partnerships

About the role

Quartermaster is building the most comprehensive real-time picture of activity on the world's oceans. We do it by placing next-generation sensing equipment aboard commercial ships and turning the global fleet itself into a living network that illuminates the maritime domain in ways legacy AIS never could. Better maritime domain awareness means safer mariners, more secure sea lanes, and an ocean that can no longer go dark. Every vessel we bring onto the network extends that picture a little further.

But the network only exists if ships join it. This role owns that mission end to end: enlisting the right vessels across every ship type and every region we operate in. This includes: finding them, winning over their owners, closing the agreements, and stewarding the relationships that keep them contributing to the picture for the long haul.

This role is also, deliberately, a building role. Today the effort is carried by a disaggregated team scattered around the world. Your job is to forge them into a world-class recruiting organization that keeps pace as the network grows from a handful of vessels today toward the thousands we intend to field over the next few years — and to make joining Quartermaster something owners and mariners want to be part of, not just a contract they sign.

• Build the machine that scales vessel recruiting. Everything from finding vessels, to qualifying and signing them as partners, to managing the long-term relationship must be engineered into a resilient, repeatable process — not heroics.

• Proactively hire for upcoming needs: Synchronize recruiting with the growth team's push and with shifting global maritime requirements, so supply is never responsible for holding coverage back.

• 0 to 1 team build out: Determine the team you need by ship type, region, stage of recruitment etc, and iterate upon as we scale.

• Create Subject matter experts in every vessel type across the team so no segment is a blind spot and our talent bar remains high as we add new teammates.

• Act as a player/coach: Hire, onboard, and hold the team to the outcomes below. At scale these are delivered through the people you build, not by you closing every deal yourself.

What you'll actually do

• Identify and win the right vessels. Work from a prioritized list of high-value target vessels, reach out to their owners and operators, and sign them as fleet partners.

• Build and personally carry the relationships. Be the individual that owners, operators, and their technical managers trust, across commercial maritime markets worldwide.

• Negotiate and close the agreements.

• Pipeline capacity full: Ensure there are always enough signed, qualified vessels ready to go, so installations never stall waiting for a vessel.

Outcomes you'll own

• Coverage growth. The right vessels join the network at the pace our growth plan requires.

• Running cost per vessel. Support, connectivity, and upkeep that make up the network's recurring cost base.

• Recruiting quality. A fleet weighted toward the highest-value vessels, not filler.

• The team. A recruiting organization capable of delivering all of the above at scale.

The archetype we're hiring for

We care less about maritime pedigree than about a specific kind of operator. The person we want is someone who has scaled the supply side of a marketplace from 0 to 1, launched new markets on the ground, and turned chaotic, one-off deal-making into a repeatable acquisition machine.

• Zero to one market growth. You've walked into a new city, region, or segment with no template, stood up supply on the ground, and left behind a playbook others could run.

• Built the machine, not just the deals. You've turned relationship-driven, artisanal acquisition into a measured funnel — with clear metrics, tooling, and process behind every stage.

• Zero to one: Building and leading global field teams. You've hired, trained, and managed distributed acquisition or recruiting team and held them to hard targets.

• Data-driven and relentless. You run on numbers: funnel conversion, cost of acquisition, cohort economics, and you operate with urgency and total ownership.

• Maritime experience is a plus, not a prerequisite. We can teach you about the maritime industry and current playbooks; we can't teach the instinct for scaling supply. If you bring shipping-sector depth on top of the profile above, even better.

Qualifications

• A track record building 0 to 1 on the supply side of a marketplace or a field-based acquisition operation, including: driver, courier, host, seller, or carrier recruitment, including launching inaugural markets from a standing start.

• Proven team-builder, has recruited, hired, and scaled a field, acquisition, or recruiting team, ideally from zero, and led it to measurable results.

• A gift for turning ambiguous, relationship-driven acquisition into a repeatable, data-driven process.

• Comfortable owning cost and unit economics

• Maritime or shipping experience welcome but not required — we'll teach the sector.

Nice to have

• Scaled marketplace supply. You've grown the supply side of a two-sided marketplace — drivers, couriers, hosts, sellers, carriers — owning ambitious acquisition targets and hitting them.

Location & travel

New York City. Expect significant international travel (50-75%) to owners, ship managers, and ports around the world, and to stand up recruiting in new markets as they open.