Partnerships Lead, Specialty Manufacturing at Relling

Role Overview Relling does not have a sales team. We have a partnerships function, because the specialty manufacturers we deploy into are not customers in the conventional sense — they are co-builders of the deployment layer we are constructing. The Partnerships Lead is the person who finds those partners, sits across from their operators and owners, scopes the pilots that turn into multi-cell deployments, and builds the commercial relationships that scale from one shop to dozens. You will work with specialty manufacturers in the defense industrial base — PE-owned aerospace component shops, family-owned precision manufacturers, prime contractor Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers, industrial conglomerate portfolio companies — and with the institutional buyers above them: PE operating partners, industrial corp dev teams, prime supply chain organizations. The cycles are longer than software sales and the relationships are deeper. The wins are commensurate. What You'll Do Build and run the top-of-funnel for Relling's partner manufacturer pipeline. Identify shops that meet our criteria (manual labor exposure, defense or specialty positioning, AR/AI-receptive culture, operator decision authorit

Details

equity range: 0.10% - 0.30%
experience: 6+ years
job type: Full-time
job url: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/relling/jobs/U34pXE8-partnerships-lead-specialty-manufacturing
location: San Francisco, CA, US
role: Overview Relling does not have a sales team. We have a partnerships function, because the specialty manufacturers we deploy into are not customers in the conventional sense — they are co-builders of the deployment layer we are constructing. The Partnerships Lead is the person who finds those partners, sits across from their operators and owners, scopes the pilots that turn into multi-cell deployments, and builds the commercial relationships that scale from one shop to dozens. You will work with specialty manufacturers in the defense industrial base — PE-owned aerospace component shops, family-owned precision manufacturers, prime contractor Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers, industrial conglomerate portfolio companies — and with the institutional buyers above them: PE operating partners, industrial corp dev teams, prime supply chain organizations. The cycles are longer than software sales and the relationships are deeper. The wins are commensurate. What You'll Do Build and run the top-of-funnel for Relling's partner manufacturer pipeline. Identify shops that meet our criteria (manual labor exposure, defense or specialty positioning, AR/AI-receptive culture, operator decision authority) and develop relationships from first contact to signed pilot. Scope and structure pilot engagements. A typical pilot is 60–120 days, with clear success criteria that lead to multi-cell expansion when met. Manage commercial relationships with PE owners, family principals, and corp dev executives sitting above our day-to-day operating contacts. Convert single-shop success into PE-portfolio access and conglomerate-wide rollouts. Run conferences, industry events, and direct outreach campaigns into the Tier-2/Tier-3 specialty manufacturing base. AUSA, NDIA, SOFIC, AFA, IDGA, and chapter-level versions of each. Develop prime contractor relationships (Lockheed, RTX, Anduril, Northrop, Howmet, Moog, Heico, Curtiss-Wright) that produce subcontract work and strategic optionality. Work closely with our

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Relling