--- title: 'Director of Business Development at Tagup' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-business-development-tagup-new-york-4af7h4khpmtr' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-15' --- # Director of Business Development at Tagup - **Company:** Tagup - **Location:** New York, NY - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2025-10-14 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/tagup/d58d9629-eff3-487d-a57f-1a45871ce5a8 ## Job description Tagup is passionate about providing our customers with technical solutions that satisfy their business needs. Through collaborative interactions with customers, team members, subject matter experts (SMEs), technical leaders, and partners we design practical solutions that solve real problems for major government and business organizations. The Director of Business Development will drive Tagup’s growth across the Department of War (DoW) logistics ecosystem—shaping and executing go-to-market strategy across service components and innovation organizations; building and sustaining senior stakeholder relationships; and managing a robust opportunity pipeline. This leader owns opportunity identification, pursuit strategy, and proposal execution to shape and win AI-driven logistics, predictive maintenance, and supply chain optimization programs. The ideal candidate brings defense acquisition expertise, technical fluency in data and AI, and a record of winning DoW contracts while running multiple pursuits in parallel. ## Responsibilities - Lead BD, Capture, and Proposal from early qualification through award; conduct competitive analyses, probability-of-win assessments, and teaming strategies; shape RFIs/RFPs/OTAs via solution alignment; develop win themes, discriminators, and value propositions. - Manage capture budgets, progress reviews, color-team reviews, proposal schedules, and compliance. - Own pricing in partnership with finance/leadership to ensure compliant, competitive, profitable bids, including price-to-win inputs and rationale. - Maintain a proposal content library (past performance, resumes, corporate qualifications, technical write-ups, boilerplate) with version control for rapid, high-quality submissions. - Build and manage a multi-year pipeline (e.g., GovWin, [SAM.gov](http://SAM.gov)) and maintain accurate CRM hygiene (e.g., HubSpot) for prospecting, forecasting, and contact management. - Develop and sustain senior relationships with DoW program offices and partner firms; collaborate with operations, engineering, manufacturing, and program management to guide product and delivery strategy. - Represent Tagup at industry events, trade shows, and working groups. - Drive teaming strategy and formal agreements (e.g., NDAs, data-sharing) to maximize PWIN and delivery success. - Align capture strategy and delivery approach with program leadership and engineering; translate customer needs into product roadmaps and transition-to-production plans. - Ensure on-time, compliant, high-quality proposal submissions. ## Requirements - BA/BS required; Master’s degree preferred. - 15+ years of relevant acquisition/business development experience in defense technology, including capture and proposal leadership. - Proven wins in logistics, sustainment, AI/ML, analytics, or related domains; strong understanding of FAR/DFARS, OTA authorities, and SBIR/STTR transitions. - Ability to establish and leverage senior-level DoW relationships; working knowledge of logistics/sustainment organizations (e.g., LOGCOM, DLA, NAVSUP, AMC, AFMC). - Technical acumen to align advanced technology with customer strategy and acquisition plans. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive presentations and clear technical narratives. - Success leading cross-functional teams in fast-paced, ambiguous environments. - Ability to travel and to obtain/maintain a TS/SCI clearance. - Prior exposure to defense logistics information systems and enterprise sustainment data flows (preferred). - Experience managing BD/proposal staff or leading proposal teams in a growth-stage startup (preferred). Salary The estimated salary range for this position is between $170,000 and $200,000 annually. We strive to provide a competitive salary and benefits package that aligns with our employees’ experience and qualifications. Our primary objective is to attract and retain top talent, and we firmly believe in compensating our employees fairly for their invaluable contributions. As a rapidly expanding technology company, we extend part-ownership to all team members through an Employee Stock Option Plan. Additionally, we offer comprehensive health insurance benefits, access to the company’s 401K plan, and foster a team-oriented work environment with regular company outings! ## Why Join Tagup Join a mission-first defense tech company and own growth end-to-end. As Director of Business Development, you’ll lead capture across the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and defense innovation orgs—turning operational needs into programs powered by Tagup’s AI logistics platform. Work directly with leadership and engineering to shape campaigns and partnerships, close multiyear deals, and steer product—while earning competitive pay, meaningful equity, and contributing to national security. Tagup is an equal opportunity employer and individuals seeking employment with us are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. ## About Tagup ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Tagup provides an AI-powered logistics decision engine, Manifest, that helps defense and enterprise organizations simulate, optimize, and execute logistics courses of action under uncertainty. - **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped with grant funding) - **Headquarters**: New York, New York, USA (with offices in Boston, San Francisco, and Somerville, MA) - **Founded**: 2017 - **Founders**: Jon Garrity (CEO) and Will Vega-Brown (CTO), affiliated with the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Defense technology / AI-powered logistics for military and enterprise - **Target Customers**: U.S. military branches (Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Navy), defense organizations, and enterprise logistics operations - **Mission**: Deliver logistics decision advantage to sustain readiness in contested and degraded environments ## Products & Services - **Manifest®**: An AI decision engine that simulates and optimizes logistics courses of action. It unifies data across systems of record, sensors, and telematics; builds a living world model of assets and rules; uses proprietary Generative Reinforcement Learning™ to simulate millions of possible scenarios; and autonomously implements optimized plans through existing systems. Includes Argus®, an LLM-based conversational interface for natural language mission input. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Total funding of $215K (grants from ACRE and others in 2016 and 2017) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: U.S. Marine Corps (active contracts, including Marine Aircraft Group 39 and MARFORPAC), U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy; SOC 2 Type II, IL5, CMMC Level 2 compliant - **Growth Signals**: 31 employees with +53.6% year-over-year headcount growth; 24 active job postings (+700% YoY); $2.1 million contract modification (Aug 2026) to expand Manifest for U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific; founded at MIT CSAIL ## Competitive Advantages - **AI-native logistics decision engine**: Proprietary Generative Reinforcement Learning explicitly reasons about uncertainty and tradeoffs under incomplete information, a capability traditional logistics tools lack. - **Closed-loop execution**: Not just a dashboard—Manifest autonomously implements optimized courses of action within existing military systems of record, accelerating decision cycles. - **Deep defense partnerships**: Trusted partner of the U.S. military with active contracts at tactical, operational, and theater levels, providing a strong moat in the defense tech space. - **MIT CSAIL affiliation**: Founders and technology originate from a top-tier AI research lab, lending credibility in both technical and defense communities. ## Strategic Focus - **Expand defense contracts**: Recently won a $2.1M expansion with MARFORPAC, moving from tactical to theater-level sustainment. Actively hiring business development leads (Director of Business Development, Air Force Lead, Foreign Military Sales Lead) to capture more Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps contracts. - **Scale the team**: Rapid hiring (+700% YoY job postings) indicates aggressive scaling to meet contract demand and product development. - **Product innovation**: Continued development of Manifest’s world model, Generative Reinforcement Learning, and Argus conversational interface, with a focus on contested and degraded environments where data is sparse. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven impact**: Directly contributes to U.S. military readiness and logistics decision advantage in critical theaters like the Indo-Pacific. The work has tangible national security implications. - **Rapid growth trajectory**: 53.6% headcount growth YoY, 24 open roles, and significant contract wins signal a company on a steep upward trajectory—opportunity for career growth and impact. - **Strong technical culture**: Founded at MIT CSAIL; tech stack includes Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Kubernetes, MLOps tools, and generative AI. Employs Lead ML Engineers and Data Scientists, indicating a deep engineering focus. - **Office locations**: HQ in New York, with additional offices in Boston, San Francisco, and Somerville—offering geographic flexibility. - **Current hiring focus**: Forward Deployed Industrial Engineer, Defense Logistics AI; Product Manager; Partnerships Lead; Air Force Lead; Director of Business Development—roles that combine technical depth with mission impact. ## Sources 1. [tagup.ai](https://tagup.ai) 2. [tagup.ai/about](https://tagup.ai/about) 3. [tagup.ai/careers](https://tagup.ai/careers) 4. [tagup.ai/platform](https://tagup.ai/platform) 5. [linkedin.com/company/tagup](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tagup) 6. 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