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Salary: USD 136,032 - 199,514 / annual
Entrust is seeking a Director of Business Development & Category Definition to establish and scale an emerging market category around Agentic Trust—identity-centric security solutions for enterprise AI agents. This is a hands-on, market-making role focused on turning a nascent customer problem into a recognized, commercially viable category.
You will work cross-functionally with Product, Architecture, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Strategy, and Executive Leadership to define the category narrative, validate buyer problems and use cases, secure lighthouse customers and partners, and build repeatable commercial plays.
Key responsibilities include:
**Category Definition & Market Creation:** Define customer problems, category boundaries, buyer urgency, value drivers, and Entrust's competitive differentiation. Refine category narrative with customers, partners, analysts, and internal teams. Position Agentic Trust against adjacent markets (AI governance, agent security, non-human identity, trust infrastructure). Convert market evidence into strategic recommendations on where Entrust should lead, partner, integrate, or invest.
**Market Discovery & Commercial Validation:** Run structured discovery to test use cases, personas, budgets, procurement paths, barriers, and willingness to pay. Lead executive workshops and design-partner engagements. Prioritize opportunities by impact, repeatability, strategic fit, ecosystem leverage, and speed to evidence.
**Lighthouse Customers:** Originate and lead focused pursuits with account teams from discovery through agreement. Define mutual success plans, measurable outcomes, learning goals, expansion paths, and reference criteria. Codify winning use cases, objections, proof points, and qualification standards for wider sales adoption.
**Ecosystem & Partnerships:** Prioritize hyperscalers, AI platforms, model providers, systems integrators, identity and security vendors, and industry alliances. Create joint value propositions, reference architectures, commercial frameworks, and co-innovation or co-sell motions.
**Product & Commercial Model Influence:** Convert buyer evidence into prioritized product, solution, and integration requirements. Test packaging, pricing, services, partner economics, and contracting models. Define minimum sellable and scalable offers.
**Go-to-Market Incubation:** Build initial playbook covering target accounts, personas, triggers, discovery, value hypotheses, competitive framing, and qualification. Partner with Marketing on thought leadership, analyst engagement, and demand creation. Coach strategic pursuits and establish hand-off criteria to scaled sales.
**Operating Rhythm:** Maintain scorecards covering learning velocity, lighthouse progress, evidence maturity, qualified pipeline, and scale readiness. Run cross-functional governance and provide executive updates separating facts, hypotheses, risks, and decisions required.
Success is measured by category traction (customers, partners, and analysts recognize the problem and Entrust's differentiation), market validation (evidence confirms priority buyers, use cases, urgency, and willingness to invest), lighthouse progress (strategic engagements advance through explicit milestones), commercial creation (qualified opportunities and partner routes show paths to scalable revenue), repeatability (proven plays and assets can be executed by field teams), and strategic influence (market evidence changes roadmap, partnerships, packaging, pricing, or investment decisions).
Entrust is headquartered in Minnesota and serves over 150 countries with identity-centric security solutions. The company offers flexible workplace options (remote, hybrid, or on-site), comprehensive health and well-being programs, 401(k) matching, paid time off, parental leave, and education reimbursement.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years in business development, category creation, market development, strategic partnerships, product strategy, or enterprise technology growth
- Demonstrated success creating or scaling an emerging technology category, new market, platform proposition, or ecosystem-led business
- Experience leading ambiguous, zero-to-one initiatives and converting market learning into repeatable commercial motions
- Proven ability to engage senior executives, shape new demand, and secure sponsorship for first-of-kind initiatives
- Experience structuring complex partnerships, design-partner programs, co-innovation agreements, or new commercial models
- Experience in enterprise software, cybersecurity, identity, cloud, SaaS, AI, or adjacent technology markets
- Core capabilities: category thinking, commercial judgment, market sensing, executive communication, operating discipline, and technical fluency across AI agents, identity, authentication, authorization, governance, assurance, cryptography, evidence, and trust architectures
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Experience with agentic AI architectures, non-human identity, delegated authorization, AI governance, Zero Trust, interoperability, or enterprise trust infrastructure
- Experience with hyperscalers, systems integrators, AI platforms, major software providers, analysts, or standards bodies
- Experience in regulated industries (financial services, insurance, government, healthcare, critical infrastructure)
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, or related field; advanced degree preferred
