Founding Sales Lead

Who are we?

The sea is the physical layer of the economy: our energy, data and trade move across it and under it. It is also Europe's most exposed flank. Cheap underwater drones, divers and mines now threaten ports, naval bases, subsea cables and offshore energy sites, and most of what is funded today stops at detection: it tells you a drone has entered the harbour, not how to stop it before it reaches the hull or the cable.

Pelagon is creating the category of maritime interdiction: detection and action together. We design, deploy and operate protection zones around critical maritime infrastructure: a persistent sensing network running our own acoustic-first AI detects and classifies threats, and an underwater interceptor acts on them.

We sell to navies and coast guards, and to the civilian operators of ports, subsea cables and offshore energy.

Pelagon was founded by Aymeric de Pontbriand (serial deeptech entrepreneur, founded and exited Scortex) and Gauthier Bouxin (French Navy officer, then McKinsey). A team is already in place around them: a lead embedded systems engineer, a lead hardware engineer and an a chief of staff. We are backed by Hexa, the pioneer startup studio in Europe behind Front, Aircall and Spendesk.

⚡ What is at stake in the coming months

• Confirm the technology at sea with navies and operators.

• Deploy and sign our first paid pilots.

• Sign our first contracts.

By joining us, you'll play a key role in turning that early traction into multi-year protection contracts, and in building the sales team that follows.

🎯 Your mission

• Own every deal from first meeting to signed contract, with navies, port authorities and operators of cables and offshore energy.

• Sell interdiction, not detection alone: make the threat and the gap between alarm and response concrete for each buyer, then turn pilots into multi-year protection contracts.

• Shape requirements before the tender: work with navies and operators months ahead of an RFP so that it asks for detection and action together.

• Open our priority export markets: the Baltic and the Nordics, the Black Sea, the Gulf and Southeast Asia.

• Work as a pair with Gauthier, our Co-CEO, on key accounts, and bring Aymeric and the engineers in when the technical conversation starts.

• Build the partner channel: primes and integrators, offshore and cable operators, and local partners in each country.

• Turn every deployment into a reference the next customer can check.

• Set up the sales machine, then hire and lead the first sellers.

📈 How you will be measured

• First 3 months: you own the pipeline, have a qualified deal plan for each priority region, and a first paid pilot or LOI is signed.

• 6 months: paid pilots are running and the first contracts are signed.

• 12 months: recurring contracts in at least two countries, and your first sales hires are made and ramped.

🤩 This job is your dream job if:

• You have closed defense or government deals and want to do it again, from zero, where every contract changes the trajectory

• You like being the second half of a founder pair: the CEO brings operational credibility, you bring the deal

• You'd rather be on a plane to Tallinn, Constanța or Abu Dhabi than in a forecast meeting

• You speak engineer well enough to sell sensors, AI and C2

• You want to write the sales playbook yourself, then hire the team that runs it

🙅 This job is not for you if:

• You need a brand, a marketing team and SDRs to sell

• You have only sold short-cycle SaaS or SMB deals, never through formal procurement

• You want to manage a large team from day one rather than close deals yourself

• Sales cycles of 12 to 24 months and 40% travel put you off

• You are looking for the comfort of a large defense group

What we offer

• A founding role in a seed-stage defense tech company backed by Hexa

• Fixed salary, variable on signed revenue, BSPCE

• Offices in Paris, real deployments at sea

🧭 Our recruitment process

1. A first call to get to know each other.

2. A deep dive into two deals you closed.

3. A case study on a real Pelagon challenge, presented to the founders.

4. A conversation with the founders.

5. Reference checks, with your consent.

6. Offer.

We answer after each step.

Pelagon is committed to creating a diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment irrespective of gender, origin, identity, background and sexual orientation.