Commercial Lead - Ornata
Description
About Ornata
Ornata is building the remote operations platform for agriculture.
We help farms operate machinery without a human in the cab, using the equipment they already own. Our service combines retrofit autonomy hardware, remote operators, AI, and operational systems to unlock the benefits of autonomy for every farm.
We are working with some of Australia’s leading broadacre farming businesses and are now building the commercial and operational foundations required to scale safely, reliably, and repeatably.
About the role
We are looking for a Commercial Lead to take Ornata from founder-led sales to a repeatable, scalable commercial function.
This is a senior, company-building role with the potential to grow into a CCO position as Ornata scales.
Today, Ornata’s commercial work is led by the founders. We have live deployments, strong customer interest, and growing demand from private farmers, large private farms, corporate farms, dealers, and strategic partners. The next stage is about turning that demand into a structured sales function with clear ownership, disciplined qualification, strong customer relationships, and a repeatable path to revenue growth.
You will lead sales and commercial strategy for Ornata. You will own the pipeline, build customer relationships, shape the sales process, and help define how we take remote operations and autonomy-as-a-service to market.
This role requires someone commercially ambitious, operationally grounded, and disciplined in how they sell. Ornata operates real machines, in real paddocks, for real customers. What we sell must match what our product, operations team, and customers can safely and reliably deliver.
You will need to work across the broad range of customer profiles and personality types in agriculture: from private owner-operators and farm managers through to executive teams at large corporate farms, dealership networks, and strategic partners. The right person will be able to build trust in the paddock, in the boardroom, and everywhere in between.
The role will include a significant amount of travel to spend time with customers, participate in demonstrations, support the sales cycle in person, and attend industry events.
What you’ll do
In this role, you will:
Take ownership of the sales pipeline.
Convert founder-led demand into a repeatable sales process.
Lead sales with private farmers, large private farms, corporate farms, dealers, and strategic partners.
Qualify the right customers and use cases.
Shape pricing, packaging, and commercial terms.
Build sales materials, proposals, and customer-facing collateral.
Set up CRM, forecasting, and reporting discipline.
Work closely with operations and engineering so commercial commitments are deliverable.
Feed customer insight back into product, operations, and strategy.
Structure a plan, including resourcing requirements, to achieve revenue targets.
Define the future commercial team.
What success looks like
In the first 90 days, success will look like:
Understanding Ornata’s product, service model, customer narrative, and current commercial pipeline.
Building strong working relationships with the founders, operations, and engineering teams.
Reviewing existing customer segments and defining a clear ideal customer profile.
Establishing a practical qualification process for customers, use cases, and deployment readiness.
Creating a structured sales process from first conversation through to proposal, contract, deployment, and expansion.
Improving proposal and sales materials.
Taking ownership of key founder-led opportunities.
Structuring a plan, including resourcing requirements, to achieve revenue targets.
Building trust with customers across private farms, corporate farms, dealer networks, and strategic partners.
Over the first 12 months, success means:
High-quality new contracted revenue.
A repeatable commercial process.
Clearer customer segmentation.
Stronger conversion of qualified opportunities.
Disciplined pricing and commercial terms.
A scalable dealer and partnership strategy.
A stronger market narrative for Ornata.
A clear plan for the future commercial team.
Requirements
What we’re looking for
We are looking for a senior commercial leader who can combine sales execution, commercial structure, and executive judgement.
This person will need to win customers, but also build the commercial foundations that allow Ornata to scale. That means creating a disciplined sales process, qualifying opportunities carefully, shaping commercial terms, and working closely with product and operations to make sure customer commitments are aligned with what we can safely and reliably deliver.
The right candidate will be comfortable selling into a pragmatic, operations-focused market. They will understand how to build trust with customers who are making practical decisions about machinery, labour, risk, timing, and operational performance.
They will also have the maturity to operate as part of the executive team: contributing to company strategy, translating customer insight into product and operational priorities, and helping define the team and systems required to achieve Ornata’s revenue targets.
Agriculture experience is valuable, but not mandatory. Relevant backgrounds may include agriculture, agtech, machinery, industrial technology, fleet systems, mining technology, logistics, robotics, SaaS, equipment-as-a-service, or another complex B2B environment.
If you do not come from agriculture, you will need the technical curiosity and learning ability to build credibility quickly. Our customers operate complex machinery in real working environments, and you will need enough technical competence to discuss machinery, automation, and technology applications with them. This does not require being an engineer, but it does require an engineer’s mindset: curiosity, structured thinking, humility, and the ability to ask good questions and learn from customers.
What you’ll bring
You should bring:
Credibility with senior executives, farm managers, dealers, private farmers, and operational teams.
Experience selling complex B2B products or services.
A track record of winning strategic or enterprise customers.
Strong commercial judgement.
The ability to build a sales process from early traction.
Comfort working directly with founders and contributing at executive level.
Discipline around qualification, pricing, forecasting, and commercial terms.
The ability to simplify complex technology without overselling it.
Enough technical competence to discuss machinery, automation, and technology applications with customers.
Curiosity and humility to learn from customers and build rapport across different customer types.
Respect for product, operations, and safety constraints.
The ability and willingness to travel regularly for customer meetings, demonstrations, and industry events.
A long-term company-building mindset.
Benefits
Why join Ornata
This is an opportunity to help build the commercial function of a company creating a new category in agriculture.
Farms are under pressure to do more with fewer people. Labour shortages, long operating windows, and increasing complexity are making it harder to get critical jobs done on time.
Ornata gives farms a practical way forward. We help customers use the machines they already own, run their standard operations, and access the benefits of autonomy today.
The company has strong early traction, live customer deployments, and institutional investor backing. We are building from a foundation of real customer demand, not a theoretical market opportunity.
You will be joining a team with deep experience deploying robotics technology into some of the most remote and operationally demanding environments in the world. The founding team has demonstrated capability in building, deploying, and scaling robotics systems that deliver critical services day in and day out, and in growing venture-backed robotics technology businesses.
This role is a chance to shape not only how Ornata sells, but how the market understands the future of remote operations and autonomy in the paddock. You will have the opportunity to build the commercial function from the ground up, work directly with the founders, and help define a new category in Australian agriculture.
Compensation
We expect to offer a competitive senior package with base salary, performance upside, and equity/options.
We are open to meaningful commission or bonus upside for the right person, provided incentives are aligned to high-quality revenue, strategic customer wins, and long-term company value creation.
- Division
- Black Nova Portfolio
- Department
- Ornata
- Locations
- Melbourne Portfolio Companies