Head of Launch (Africa)

Job description

About Us At Quartermaster AI, we leverage cutting-edge AI and robotics technology to enhance maritime domain awareness. Our mission is to become the eyes, ears, and brain of the ocean by enabling every vessel to collaboratively sense, compute, and communicate. Quartermaster is a venture-backed Maritime Domain Awareness company providing near real-time insights to government and commercial partners via our SmartMast product. SmartMast is a COTS sensor system consisting of a camera, a software defined radio, and a proprietary onboard AI component installed on vessels worldwide, and managed by Quartermaster. About the Role As Head of Launch for Africa, you will lead Quartermaster's expansion across one of the world's most diverse and fast-evolving maritime regions. This is a high-stakes, dual-mandate role: you will serve as our chief diplomat and operational strategist. You will be responsible for proactively de-risking our business across a wide range of jurisdictions and regulatory regimes, while identifying and securing the maritime partnerships that anchor Quartermaster's growth. Success in this role is measured in SmartMast™ units installed, activated, and reporting on Africa’s coastal waters. Key Responsibilities Regulatory Strategy & Market De-risking • Government & Regulatory Relations: Build and maintain proactive relationships with national maritime authorities, port authorities, and regional bodies across Africa’s varied regulatory landscape. • Policy & Compliance Mapping: Anticipate regulatory shifts, trade restrictions, and policy changes across the continent's overlapping port state control regimes, including the Abuja MoU and Indian Ocean MoU, along with continent-wide frameworks such as the African Union’s 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy, and develop strategies to neutralize risks before they impact operations. • Compliance Leadership: Partner with Legal and Compliance to ensure every market launch aligns with local labor, customs, trade, spectrum and equipment type-approval, data handling, and maritime safety requirements. Market Entry & Local Infrastructure • Market Entry Playbooks: Develop scalable, repeatable launch strategies adaptable to the political, economic, and infrastructure realities of individual African markets. • Import & Logistics Setup: Establish the import, customs, and logistics framework needed to bring SmartMast™ hardware into target markets, including initial warehousing and staging ahead of deployment. • Vendor Ecosystem Development: Identify, vet, and onboard local installers, fabricators, and port-side vendors capable of supporting SmartMast™ deployment to Quartermaster’s quality and safety standards. Maritime Stakeholder Engagement • Stakeholder Mapping & Outreach: Identify, engage, and convert commercial fleet operators, independent vessel owners, port authorities, and maritime organizations suitable for SmartMast™ deployment. • Partnership Structuring: Negotiate and close partnership and space-use agreements (the right to mount and operate our hardware on a vessel) that secure vessel capacity and long-term maritime relationships for Quartermaster. • Partner Onboarding: Oversee the transition from signed agreement to operational integration, ensuring new fleet, port, and vendor partners meet Quartermaster’s quality, safety, and performance standards from day one and that Field Operations can deploy without delay. • Relationship Management: Build durable, trust-based relationships with fleets, ports, and maritime organizations that build brand trust and reduce bureaucratic friction ahead of deployment. Regional Leadership • Team Building: Recruit, scale, and mentor a local, cross-disciplinary team spanning field operations, market support, and stakeholder relations. • Cross-Functional Orchestration: Align global product, engineering, legal, and marketing teams with the specific requirements of the African market. • Market Intelligence: Serve as the primary feedback loop to Quartermaster leadership on regional dynamics, technical requirements, and localized risks. What We're Looking For • Experience: 8+ years in senior operations, market launch, business development, or public policy roles, ideally within maritime, logistics, or other highly regulated sectors. • Regional Expertise: Deep understanding of the political, regulatory, and business diversity across Africa’s coastal regions and maritime economies. • Diplomatic Edge: Proven track record navigating government relationships, regional maritime bodies, and public-private partnerships across multiple jurisdictions. • Commercial Acumen: Demonstrated success closing complex B2B partnerships, joint ventures, or fleet agreements in emerging or frontier markets. • Execution Focus: A bias for action. The ability to draft a market entry plan in the morning and negotiate a stakeholder partnership in the afternoon. • Language Skills: Fluency in English is required. Professional proficiency in French, Arabic, Portuguese, or Swahili is highly preferred.