The Opportunity: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Seattle Area, WA | Full-Time Onsite

Company Overview:

Our client is a profitable, growing aerospace and defense services business supporting mission-critical programs across highly regulated and technically demanding end markets. The company has built a strong reputation for quality, reliability, and technical expertise, supported by longstanding customer relationships and an experienced workforce. It operates within a specialized segment of the aerospace and defense supply chain where consistent execution, quality, and delivery performance are essential.

The business is entering its next stage of growth, with a focus on expanding existing customer relationships, developing new accounts, strengthening its commercial capabilities, and building on its established technical foundation. The incoming CEO will lead that next chapter while working alongside an experienced team and benefiting from a structured leadership transition.

Position Overview

The Chief Executive Officer will assume responsibility for the overall performance and growth of the business while leading it through an important ownership and leadership transition. This is fundamentally a commercial leadership role requiring enough technical aptitude to understand the company's capabilities, customers, and operating environment. The CEO will inherit a profitable business with strong customer relationships and an experienced team, but significant opportunity exists to professionalize the commercial function, expand existing accounts, win new customers, and build a more diversified growth platform.

The immediate priority will be continuity. The incoming CEO must establish credibility with employees and customers, learn the business alongside the current owner, and ensure the transition creates no disruption to quality, delivery, or customer confidence. The existing CEO is expected to remain involved during an extended transition period, giving the incoming leader meaningful time to absorb the technical, operational, and commercial knowledge required to lead the company independently. From there, the mandate shifts toward growth. The successful candidate will deepen strategic customer relationships, identify opportunities to expand existing programs, develop new accounts, and position the company to participate in the continued growth of aerospace, defense, and space markets.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assume full leadership responsibility for the company's strategy, operations, commercial performance, and financial results.
• Lead a disciplined transition from the current owner while protecting customer relationships, institutional knowledge, and operational continuity.
• Establish strong relationships with the company's most important customers and ensure continued confidence through the ownership and leadership transition.
• Expand existing customer relationships by identifying new programs, applications, and opportunities for additional work.
• Build a more proactive commercial strategy focused on developing new customers and diversifying the company's revenue base.
• Serve as the senior commercial representative of the business with customers, partners, and other industry stakeholders.
• Develop a strong understanding of the company's technical capabilities, quality requirements, workflows, pricing, and delivery commitments.
• Partner closely with engineering and technical leadership to translate customer requirements into executable solutions.
• Maintain an uncompromising focus on quality, reliability, responsiveness, and customer delivery.
• Own company financial performance, including revenue growth, profitability, investment priorities, and long-term value creation.
• Build the systems, processes, and organizational capabilities required to support continued growth.
• Develop and retain a high-performing workforce across technical, operational, and support functions.
• Evaluate new markets, customer segments, capabilities, and strategic initiatives that could accelerate growth.
• Work closely with ownership on strategic priorities, capital allocation, executive decision-making, and broader growth opportunities.

Qualifications:

• The ideal candidate is a commercially oriented operator who combines leadership presence, strong business judgment, technical curiosity, and the ability to build trusted relationships with demanding customers.
• This individual does not need to be the deepest technical expert in the organization. The company has experienced technical leadership and substantial institutional knowledge already in place. What matters more is the ability to understand a technical business quickly, ask the right questions, make sound decisions, and credibly represent the company with sophisticated aerospace and defense customers.
• The successful candidate should be comfortable moving between the shop floor, engineering discussions, customer meetings, financial decisions, and long-term strategy. They should possess the humility to learn an established business while also bringing the ambition and commercial instincts required to grow it.
• Most importantly, this person must want to own the outcome. This is not a narrowly defined functional leadership role. The CEO will ultimately be accountable for customers, people, operations, growth, profitability, and the long-term value of the business.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership experience within aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, industrial technology, engineering services, or another technically demanding environment.
• Strong commercial instincts with experience developing, expanding, or managing complex B2B customer relationships.
• Prior P&L ownership, general management, business unit leadership, or significant operating responsibility strongly preferred.
• Ability to build credibility with highly technical customers and employees without needing to be the company's primary technical expert.
• Experience working within environments where quality, reliability, compliance, and on-time delivery are mission-critical.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and pursue organic growth opportunities.
• Experience expanding existing customer relationships and developing new business.
• Strong financial and strategic judgment.
• Ability to operate effectively within a smaller entrepreneurial organization where leaders remain personally involved in execution.
• Experience leading through organizational change, ownership transitions, or periods of significant growth is attractive.
• Engineering, technical, or quantitative academic background preferred but not required.
• Military leadership experience is attractive, particularly when paired with strong academic, technical, operational, or commercial experience.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred.

Compensation & Opportunity:

Mid $200K's OTE + meaningful long-term equity participation tied to value creation

Work Environment & Travel:

• The position is based in the Seattle area and requires full-time onsite leadership. Regular travel should be expected for customer meetings, business development, industry engagement, and strategic initiatives.
• The environment is entrepreneurial, technically demanding, and highly accountable. The right leader will inherit a profitable company with strong capabilities and longstanding relationships—but also substantial untapped growth potential.
• For someone seeking a highly structured corporate CEO position with established infrastructure and a large executive team, this will likely be the wrong opportunity.
• For someone who wants to take ownership of a strong business, protect what has made it successful, build a more ambitious commercial engine, and create significant long-term value alongside an experienced investment partner, it is a compelling CEO opportunity.