DESCRIPTION

We are seeking a Director of Automotive Business Development to originate, develop, and execute partnerships with automotive manufacturers in Germany and across Europe.

This is a highly strategic, hands-on role with end-to-end ownership of the business development lifecycle. You will identify unmet customer needs, co-develop opportunities with OEM partners, build compelling business cases, negotiate commercial agreements, and drive partnerships through execution and expansion.

Success requires a combination of product thinking, commercial creativity, automotive industry expertise, and disciplined execution. You must be comfortable developing opportunities where the solution and commercial model are not yet fully defined, and working across organisations to turn those opportunities into viable business.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define and execute account and partnership strategies for priority automotive OEMs.

• Identify customer challenges and develop compelling use cases for our road data and AI capabilities.

• Build trusted relationships across engineering, ADAS/autonomous driving, product, procurement, and executive leadership.

• Navigate complex OEM organizations, identify key decision-makers, and build internal champions.

• Own the full commercial cycle, from qualification and business case through proposals, negotiation, and closing.

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Finance, and Legal to define feasible solutions, pricing, and partnership models.

• Drive pilots and technical evaluations toward clear commercial outcomes and adoption.

• Own partnerships after signing, ensuring commitments are delivered and identifying opportunities to expand use cases, adoption, and recurring revenue.

• Maintain accurate opportunity plans and bring customer insights into product and business planning.
  

REQUIREMENTS

Technical skills & qualifications 

• Demonstrated success originating, structuring, negotiating, closing, and executing complex technology partnerships with automotive OEMs.

• Deep understanding of German automotive organizations, decision-making processes, development cycles, and procurement.

• Strong product and commercial judgment, with the ability to turn ambiguous customer needs into feasible, valuable opportunities.

• Evidence of finding innovative approaches within established OEM structures.

• Technical fluency sufficient to engage credibly with engineering and product leaders on software, data, AI, or ADAS applications.

• Experience working independently in a technology company or startup, with strong cross-functional leadership and execution skills.

• Based in Munich or willing to relocate, with availability for regular customer travel.

• Professional fluency in German and English.

WHAT WE OFFER

• The chance to have a meaningful and positive impact on roads and cities’ safety

• Flexibility in schedule, work location, benefits

• Competitive compensation

• A fast-paced work environment full of kind, smart, and highly driven people

• Great professional and personal growth opportunities

• Regular team-building events and well-being initiatives/facilities

WHO WE ARE

Empiric Earth holds a record of how the physical world behaves. 300M+ real-world miles are captured every month across 98% of US roads and 50 or more countries, built on more than 10 billion miles of driving history and 60 million edge cases, de-identified. Because Empiric Earth does not build vehicles, pick winners, or compete with the systems it measures, developers, automakers, fleets, insurers and public agencies can rely on it as independent ground truth. Empiric Earth was formed in 2026 through the merger of Nexar and Nauto.