Head of Commercial (Defence) - Future CRO

Stax are excited to be representing an early stage Deeptech company developing next-generation battery technologies born out of 15 years of research at the University of Cambridge. Backed by top-tier venture capital investors, they are at a critical stage of growth following a successful close of a major fundraising round.

Our client is looking to appoint a Head of Commercial (Future Chief Revenue Officer) to steer their go-to-market trajectory. They are about to go through a significant period of scaling with purchase orders received.

Based in Cambridge, our client develops cutting-edge, highly technical products tailored for a small, known universe of national security, defence, and strategic industrial customers. Operating with immediate access to the CEO, this role is designed for a high-octane operator who wants to own the entire commercial lifecycle and scale a business from early traction to a category-defining enterprise.

The Mission

You will lead day-to-day discovery, needs analysis, solution shaping, and deal execution with a dedicated universe of government buyers, primes, and OEMs. You will treat early customers as true design partners, bridging the gap between sophisticated operational requirements and internal engineering teams to secure 6-to-7+ figure long-cycle contracts.

• End-to-End Account Ownership: Take over conversations post-CEO introduction to drive deals through qualification, negotiation, and closing.
• Ecosystem Mapping: Engage key decision-makers and influencers within MOD units, government buyers, integrators, and strategic primes.
• Technical Value Selling: Host structured technical workshops and product demonstrations alongside the engineering team.
• Commercial Cadence: Build a clean, rigorous CRM pipeline and establish a lightweight commercial operating system from scratch.
• Defence Domain Credibility: Deep familiarity with UK/European defense procurement, rank structures, and complex buying dynamics (ex-military, ex-civil service, or deep-tech defence sales background) (pp. 2, 4).
• B2B Deal Execution: Proven track record of independently driving high-value, multi-stakeholder technical sales cycles (pp. 1-2).
• Technical Fluency: Ability to comfortably translate complex concepts between deep tech engineers and non-technical stakeholders (pp. 2-3).
• Startup Mindset: A self-starting execution focus; this is a hands‑on operator role, not an advisory or purely managerial position (pp. 2-3).

What This Role Is Not

• This is not a high-volume outbound lead generation or SDR/BDR role.
• This is not a passive, Rolodex-delegator or purely administrative role.