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Verified active · 5h ago

Strategic Partnerships & Growth Lead — DoW / US Army

CursorCursor·Software Development

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~7 min

Ashby

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Today

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About the role

Our mission is to automate coding. The first step in our journey is to build the best tool for professional programmers, using a combination of inventive research, design, and engineering. Our organization is very flat, and our team is small and talent dense. We particularly like people who are truth-seeking, passionate, and creative. We enjoy spirited debate, crazy ideas, and shipping code.

About the role

Cursor is the AI code editor used by engineers across the defense industrial base. We're now building a dedicated motion to scale that footprint across the US Army ecosystem — through the prime contractors who build, operate, and modernize software for the Army every day.

This role owns the Army-focused prime contractor channel: standing up partnerships with defense primes, embedding Cursor into their internal development workflows and the Army programs they support, and driving enterprise agreements that put Cursor in front of every developer in the defense industrial base.

You'll be the connective tissue between Cursor's commercial GTM motion and the Army/DoD software development community — working through established prime contractor relationships rather than navigating direct government procurement from scratch.

This is a senior individual contributor role with revenue ownership, reporting directly to sales leadership.

What you’ll do

  • Prime Contractor Partnerships

    • Own and grow Cursor's relationships with defense prime contractors focused on Army programs: SAIC, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI, Peraton, and emerging Army-focused software integrators

    • Negotiate and close partnership agreements — reseller arrangements, teaming agreements, and approved vendor designations — that embed Cursor into prime contractor software delivery workflows

    • Identify program-level opportunities where primes are building or modernizing Army software and position Cursor as the developer tooling standard

    • Work with prime contractor BD and program management teams to co-sell Cursor into new Army contract awards at the proposal stage

  • Army End-User Pull-Through

    • Build relationships inside Army Software Factories (Kessel Run, Project Origen, Castle Rock) and program offices to generate bottom-up demand that pulls through prime-channel agreements

    • Engage Army CIO/G-6, PEO EIS, and Futures Command tech organizations to build awareness and preference for Cursor within Army software development standards

    • Represent Cursor at AUSA, NDIA, and Army-focused industry events; establish Cursor's presence in the Army software modernization community

  • Revenue & Pipeline

    • Own a revenue target for Army/DoD prime channel business

    • Build and manage a pipeline of prime contractor partnerships and program-level co-sell opportunities

    • Forecast and report on channel pipeline with the same rigor as direct enterprise deals

  • Cross-Functional Partnership

    • Partner with Field Engineering on technical evaluations and POCs embedded inside prime contractor development environments

    • Work with Cursor's legal and compliance teams on teaming agreements, vendor qualification processes, and FedRAMP/IL considerations relevant to prime contract requirements

    • Channel Army developer feedback and product gaps back to Cursor's roadmap team

What We're Looking For

Required

  • Active Secret clearance or above — candidates without an active clearance will not be considered

  • 5+ years of channel sales, BD, or partnership management experience inside the defense industrial base, with a focus on Army-aligned programs

  • Existing relationships at one or more major Army prime contractors (SAIC, Leidos, Booz Allen, CACI, Peraton) at the BD, program management, or technical leadership level

  • Understanding of how prime contractors evaluate, approve, and deploy software tools across their development teams and program deliveries

  • Track record of standing up or expanding channel and partner relationships that drove material software revenue ($500K+)

  • Comfortable working both the prime-facing channel layer (BD, program managers, contracts) and the end-user pull-through layer (Army software developers, Software Factory operators)

Strong Plus

  • Active TS/SCI

  • Prior active duty or civilian service in an Army software or digital modernization role (Software Factory, PEO, Army Futures Command)

  • Experience selling developer tools, AI/ML platforms, or SDLC tooling through or alongside defense primes

  • Familiarity with how Army programs evaluate and mandate developer tooling standards across prime and subcontractor teams

  • Existing Army-side relationships at Kessel Run, PEO EIS, Army CIO/G-6, or Futures Command

Why This Role

Defense primes are deploying thousands of developers on Army software programs right now. Cursor is already inside many of those organizations — but no one has systematically built the channel motion to make it the standard. You'll own that from scratch, with a product developers already choose on their own, strong existing prime contractor presence to build on, and a direct line to Cursor's GTM and product leadership.

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Aplyr's read

Cursor is revolutionizing the developer experience with its AI-powered code editor, attracting a diverse team from engineering to strategic roles across industries.

Synthesized from recent postings & public sources

What's promising

  • AI-powered tools significantly enhance developer productivity and code quality.
  • Diverse hiring across roles indicates robust company growth and expansion.
  • Focus on strategic roles suggests strong emphasis on market positioning and partnerships.

What to watch

  • Highly competitive market with numerous AI code editing solutions.
  • Rapid expansion may strain company resources and culture.
  • Success depends on continuous innovation to stay ahead in technology.

Why Cursor

  • Specializes in AI-enhanced coding, differentiating from traditional code editors.
  • Offers roles across diverse sectors, including public and healthcare.
  • Strong emphasis on strategic enterprise and regional leadership roles.

Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?

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About Cursor

Cursor is a platform designed to enhance the coding experience by providing an AI-powered code editor that assists developers in writing and understanding code more efficiently.

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