Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships - Drones and Counter-Drone

About this role

Join Axon and be a Force for Good.

At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other.

Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter.

Your Impact

Axon is seeking a strategic, execution-oriented, and collaborative Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships to lead partner strategy and execution for drones and counter-drone. This includes driving interoperability between Axon products and unmanned aerial systems, detectors, and effectors from solution providers across the broader public safety and defense technology ecosystem.

In this role, you will drive partnership sourcing, development, and onboarding to materially expand Axon's drone as first responder program, accelerate adoption of DedroneTracker.AI, Fusus, and related products, and strengthen Axon's position as the platform of record for real-time operations. Working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Sales, Legal, and Privacy, you will identify, structure, and scale partnerships across the full partnership lifecycle — bringing independent ownership of complex partner relationships, strong strategic judgment, and disciplined execution.

Reports to: Director, Strategic Partnerships Location: Hybrid out of Seattle, Boston, New York, Scottsdale, San Francisco and London)

What You’ll Do

PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT & ECOSYSTEM EXPANSION

• Lead the sourcing, development, and execution of strategic partnerships that expand Axon's drone and counter-drone ecosystem, including UAS manufacturers, detection and effector solution providers, and software platform partners.

• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new partnership opportunities that materially accelerate adoption of Axon's drone as first responder program, DedroneTracker.AI, Fusus, and related products.

• Engage senior leaders at potential partners — including UAS manufacturers, C-UAS solution providers, defense technology companies, and public safety platform vendors — to structure mutually beneficial partnerships.

• Own partner relationship management, including executive alignment, roadmap coordination, QBRs, and long-term value realization.

• Negotiate commercial and strategic partnership terms, including interoperability frameworks, integration models, data-sharing arrangements, and governance structures.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COORDINATION & EXECUTION

• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to translate customer and ecosystem needs into scalable integrations and repeatable interoperability patterns across UAS and C-UAS platforms.

• Work with Sales and GTM teams to align partnerships with customer priorities, DFR program deployments, and expansion opportunities across public safety and defense.

• Collaborate with Legal, Privacy, and Policy teams to ensure partnerships meet Axon's standards for data governance, transparency, and responsible use — particularly given the regulatory sensitivity of drone and counter-drone technologies.

• Drive internal alignment on partner prioritization, investment tradeoffs, and sequencing across Product, Engineering, Sales, and executive stakeholders

ESCALATION SUPPORT & ISSUE RESOLUTION

• Serve as the escalation point for complex or high-risk partner issues, ensuring timely resolution across Product, Legal, and executive stakeholders.

• Provide clear framing, documentation, and recommendations during decision points involving technical, commercial, or policy tradeoffs — including interoperability standards, export controls, and regulatory compliance.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES & PLANNING

• Contribute to the long-term drone and counter-drone partnership strategy, including ecosystem mapping, prioritization frameworks, and build/buy/partner recommendations.

• Support leadership in evaluating new partner categories, emerging UAS and C-UAS technologies, and competitive dynamics within the broader public safety and defense technology landscape.

• Help establish scalable partnership playbooks, operating models, and governance processes as Axon's drone ecosystem grows.

Performance Measurement & Reporting

• Define and track success metrics for Vehicle Intelligence partnerships based on coverage expansion, integration milestones, partner health, and customer impact—not just near-term revenue.

• Prepare executive-ready updates, including partner summaries, dashboards, and strategic recommendations.

• Establish and maintain governance cadences (e.g., QBRs, executive reviews) and continuously identify opportunities for optimization across the partnership lifecycle.

What You Bring

• 8–10+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, corporate strategy, or enterprise technology environments.

• Proven experience structuring and negotiating complex partnerships involving data, platforms, hardware, or integrated technology ecosystems.

• Strong ability to influence and align cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority.

• Demonstrated success managing complex partner relationships, pilots, and escalations across multiple workstreams.

• Excellent strategic judgment, communication skills, and executive presence.

• Experience in ecosystem businesses involving data sharing, networks, hardware/software integration, or IoT.

• Familiarity with public safety, mobility, video, AI, cloud platforms, or regulated data environments is strongly preferred.

• Ability to operate comfortably between high-level strategy and hands-on execution in a fast-moving environment.

Why This Role Matters

This role is central to Axon's strategy to build the leading public safety drone and counter-dron

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