Director of Strategy & Market Development (Taiwan Focus)

NODA is a veteran-owned, venture-backed technology company specializing in autonomous systems for defense, intelligence, and commercial sectors. Their mission is to enable the orchestration of unmanned systems across air, sea, land, and space in complex environments.

The Role

NODA is seeking a Director, Taiwan Strategy & Market Development to lead market strategy and position the company within Taiwan’s defense and national security ecosystem. This senior individual contributor role requires developing deep insights into Taiwan’s defense priorities, acquisition environment, operational requirements, geopolitical dynamics, and stakeholder landscape. The ideal candidate will translate these insights into actionable strategy, build trusted relationships across Taiwan’s government and defense community, and align NODA’s technology with emerging operational needs.

The role sits at the intersection of strategy, government engagement, market intelligence, and business development. Responsibilities include:

• Developing and refining NODA’s Taiwan market strategy based on defense priorities, operational requirements, acquisition trends, budgets, policy developments, geopolitical dynamics, and competitive intelligence.
• Building and maintaining trusted relationships with key stakeholders across Taiwan’s defense, national security, government, and broader defense ecosystem.
• Growing relationships across the broader U.S./Taiwan defense ecosystem, including U.S. government, security cooperation, industry, research, and regional stakeholders.
• Developing a comprehensive stakeholder map across ministries, military services, acquisition organizations, research institutions, industry partners, and U.S. government organizations.
• Identifying emerging mission needs and capability gaps where NODA’s autonomous orchestration technology can create operational value.
• Maintaining a deep understanding of Taiwan’s mission requirements, operational problems, and workflows, translating these into recommendations for NODA’s product development, demonstrations, deployments, and regional strategy.
• Monitoring Taiwan’s evolving security environment, defense strategy, modernization priorities, budgets, and acquisition activities, assessing implications for NODA’s regional strategy.
• Providing leadership with timely market intelligence and strategic assessments regarding Taiwan’s defense priorities, procurement environment, competitive landscape, policy developments, and evolving opportunities.
• Conducting competitive and market analysis to understand the regional defense technology landscape, identify partners and competitors, and inform NODA’s positioning and investment decisions.
• Translating in-market intelligence into clear recommendations regarding where NODA should invest time, resources, partnerships, and technical engagement.
• Engaging stakeholders early in the requirements development process to help NODA understand and inform future concepts, requirements, acquisition strategies, experimentation efforts, and programs.
• Developing a strong understanding of acquisition, funding, security cooperation, and government-to-government pathways for NODA technologies to be evaluated, procured, and fielded in Taiwan.
• Navigating security cooperation authorities and international acquisition pathways, including Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), hybrid acquisition approaches, and international armaments cooperation.
• Identifying and developing strategic pathways for NODA technologies to move from demonstrations and evaluations toward operational adoption and scaled deployment.
• Developing and executing strategic engagement plans to strengthen NODA’s credibility, visibility, and positioning within Taiwan’s defense and national security ecosystem.
• Partnering closely with Business Development and Capture to identify and qualify strategic opportunities, providing market intelligence, stakeholder context, and positioning for successful pursuit strategies.
• Partnering with Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, Finance, and executive leadership to align Taiwan market priorities with NODA’s broader company and product strategy.
• Translating customer and market insights into actionable feedback for Product and Engineering, ensuring NODA’s technical roadmap remains informed by Taiwan’s evolving operational requirements.
• Supporting the development of market entry, positioning, engagement, and capture strategies for priority Taiwan opportunities.
• Identifying strategic partnerships and ecosystem relationships to strengthen NODA’s ability to operate, integrate, and scale within Taiwan.
• Engaging with research institutions, think tanks, industry associations, and organizations influencing defense policy, technology adoption, and national security dialogue.
• Developing strategic materials such as market assessments, executive briefings, white papers, presentations, and positioning materials.
• Representing NODA at government engagements, defense forums, industry events, exercises, demonstrations, and strategic discussions in Taiwan and across the region.
• Positioning NODA as a credible thought partner on autonomy, unmanned systems, multi-domain orchestration, and emerging defense technology within Taiwan’s defense modernization ecosystem.
• Maintaining a disciplined view of the Taiwan opportunity landscape, including stakeholder priorities, program timelines, funding pathways, acquisition mechanisms, competitive positioning, and strategic risks.
• Synthesizing market developments, engagement activity, strategic opportunities, and risks into clear, decision-oriented reporting for NODA’s executive leadership.
• Serving as a trusted internal advisor on Taiwan’s defense market, providing candid assessments of opportunities, risks, and recommended actions.

Required Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, or an adjacent field.
• 10+ years of experience in defense, national security, government, military, strategy, international business development, or a related field.
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations and the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.
• Significant experience working within or alongside Taiwan’s defense, national security, or government ecosystem.
• Demonstrated understanding of Taiwan’s defense priorities, military structure, acquisition environment, defense modernization efforts, and regional security dynamics.
• Established ability to build trusted relationships with senior government, military, industry, and other national security stakeholders.
• Experience developing market, defense, or regional strategies and translating complex geopolitical, operational, policy, and market dynamics into actionable business recommendations.
• Strong understanding of defense acquisition processes and how operational requirements progress from identified mission need through experimentation, funding, procurement, and fielding.
• Working knowledge of U.S. defense policy, budgeting, security cooperation, and acquisition processes and their implications for international defense partnerships and technology adoption.
• Experience navigating or working alongside international defense acquisition, security cooperation, Foreign Military Sales (FMS), or related government-to-government defense mechanisms.
• Ability to understand complex defense technologies and translate technical capabilities into operational relevance for government and military stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex market, policy, operational, and stakeholder information into concise recommendations for executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently in a highly dynamic environment with limited day-to-day oversight.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief senior executives and government stakeholders.
• Ability and willingness to travel throughout Taiwan and internationally as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• An MBA or relevant graduate-level defense/policy education.
• Prior military service with operational time in the INDOPACIFIC or APAC AO, or senior civilian experience within Taiwan’s defense, military, national security, or government organizations.
• Active security clearance.
• Experience working with the Ministry of National Defense, military services, defense research organizations, acquisition organizations, or other stakeholders involved in Taiwan’s defense modernization.
• Experience working with or alongside relevant U.S. national security organizations, including the Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and other regionally focused organizations.
• Experience working with partner nation militaries, security cooperation organizations, or allied defense and national security stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific.
• Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy, command and control, robotics, AI/ML, mission systems, or other defense technology domains.
• Experience working with U.S. defense technology companies, U.S./Taiwan defense cooperation, security cooperation organizations, or international defense programs.
• Familiarity with Taiwan’s defense industrial base and relevant technology, integration, manufacturing, and strategic partners.
• Experience supporting experimentation, exercises, demonstrations, or R&D initiatives designed to evaluate and transition emerging defense technologies into operational use.
• Experience supporting the transition of emerging technologies from demonstration or experimentation into programs, procurement, or operational use.
• Familiarity with Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), hybrid acquisition approaches, international armaments cooperation, or other international defense acquisition pathways.
• Understanding of U.S. export controls, including ITAR and EAR, and their implications for international defense engagement.
• Existing senior-level relationships within Taiwan’s defense and national security ecosystem.
• Experience engaging with defense-focused research institutions, think tanks, industry associations, or policy organizations.

Skills & Attributes

• Strong strategic judgment with the ability to connect defense policy, budgets, regional dynamics, operational needs, and acquisition activity to NODA’s market strategy.
• Proven ability to build credibility and trusted relationships with senior government, military, industry, and defense stakeholders.
• Operational mindset and the ability to understand customer problems, mission needs, and workflows, then connect them to NODA’s capabilities.
• Comfortable working ahead of formal requirements and identifying where early engagement can influence future priorities and opportunities.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to make sense of complex market, competitive, policy, and geopolitical information and turn it into practical recommendations.
• Clear, concise communicator who can brief senior government, military, and company leaders and adapt effectively to different audiences.
• Highly self-directed and comfortable operating with ambiguity, building structure, and moving priorities forward without significant oversight.
• Sound judgment and willingness to provide a candid assessment, including when an opportunity is not viable or does not align with NODA’s priorities.
• Collaborative and able to work effectively across Growth, Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, Finance, and executive leadership.
• Strong understanding of the relationship-driven nature of doing business across the U.S. and Taiwan defense environments.
• Mission-oriented, pragmatic, and focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for NODA and its customers.