Internship - Business Development / Sales

Details

Preferred starting date: September 2026

Weekly availability: Full-time on-site (5 days/week)

Period: Minimum 6 months

Location: Delft, the Netherlands

About the company

Fiducial is a young, fast-growing deep-tech start-up at the frontier of autonomy, perception, and defence. Our core expertise lies in 3D vision and graphics technologies, which we deploy in a dual-use context for inspection and defence. We work closely with top-tier partners ranging from government agencies and prime contractors to research institutes, start-ups, and military units.

Our projects span from rapid field‑testing and of drone autonomy to MoD funded research and development programs. The variety of our clients means we operate at the intersection of deep tech and operational field relevance. In this context, it is important to understand how different actors behave in the defence sector, especially in regard to adopting innovative capabilities from non‑legacy actors.

To complement our highly technical team, we are looking for an intern who can bring knowledge and experience in defence, technology and/or business to strengthen our existing capabilities.

Your role

You will join our business development team to help turn technical products into clear value propositions, concrete opportunities, and structured sales funnels with customers, end‑users, and funding bodies. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys combining research and writing to create leads, support proposals, and document our commercial activities in a clear and professional way.

You will play a key supporting role across the early stages of our sales and partnership pipeline: researching and qualifying prospects, mapping stakeholders, preparing proposal material, meeting customers and partners, and keeping our documentation and databases up to date.

Because we are a small and fast‑moving team, you will work across a wide range of activities, from preparing concise briefings and proposal sections to designing one‑pagers and keeping opportunity trackers structured and current. The role suits someone who is analytical and structured, has a knack for storytelling, and a strong interest in the intersection of defence innovation, deep tech, and commercial strategy.

You will likely touch multiple domains during your internship, and the exact focus will depend on your strengths and initiative. We value curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to learn quickly. If your background differs but you believe you can contribute to the mission we outline, please tell us how.

Your Responsibilities

• Lead generation and prospecting: Researching and mapping potential clients, partners, and end‑users in defence, border security, and industrial inspection, and compiling prospect lists and profiles for outreach.
• Client and stakeholder research: Analysing organisations, competitors, and clients, and maintaining structured contact and stakeholder maps.
• Competitive and market analysis: Researching competitors, alternative solutions, and adjacent technologies; summarising trends, funding initiatives, and capability gaps in concise internal briefs for the team.
• Sales and proposal support: Supporting proposal writing by drafting capability descriptions, project abstracts, and impact statements; tailoring standard texts to specific clients, calls, or programmes and helping prepare proposal packages and pitch decks.
• Documentation and CRM hygiene: Helping maintain and improve our opportunity trackers, contact databases, and CRM records; documenting meetings, events, and follow‑ups so that our pipeline and history are easy to understand and act on.
• Visual sales materials: Creating visual materials such as one‑pagers, infographics, and simple case studies for consortiums, funding calls, and marketing; assisting in maintaining a coherent visual identity and message across all outward‑facing materials.
• Client‑facing preparation and follow‑up: Preparing talking points, briefing notes, and background dossiers for events and meetings; helping draft follow‑up emails, summarise discussions, and capture new leads and actions from interactions.
• Internal reporting and presentations: Helping structure internal reports, dashboards, and presentations for the company as well as partners, investors, and agencies, with a focus on clarity, consistency, and reusability.

What we expect from you

• MSc or final‑year BSc student in Business / Management or similar. Other backgrounds are welcome to apply if they include a justification for their fit.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Comfortable with travelling for work.
• A knack for storytelling in a business, sales, or policy context: at events, you will be expected to convey our activities and value propositions attractively and truthfully, sometimes under pressure when speaking to high‑ranking experts.
• Strong research skills especially in investigating markets, competitors, and clients thoroughly and precisely without losing track of the bigger picture.
• Good command of PowerPoint / Word / Notion, and comfortable using these tools to produce polished proposals, presentations, and documentation.
• Ability to summarize technical or strategic content clearly and concisely for commercial and policy audiences.
• Genuine curiosity about technology and its effects on markets, especially regarding drones, autonomy, and border security.

Bonus

• Ability to speak Dutch or Ukrainian. Other language skills can also be a plus.
• Any prior exposure to sales, business development, proposal writing, consulting, or account management.
• Experience related to geopolitical analysis, especially regarding armed conflicts.

What we can offer

• €750 monthly compensation.
• 10 vacation days during the internship period.
• Flexible working hours and the option to work from home up to two days per week.
• Direct exposure to European defence and innovation ecosystems (DIANA, EDA, ESA NAVISP, etc.).
• A chance to work closely with engineers on products that are currently being used in the field and learn how to consistently iterate in response to feedback and field developments.
• A chance to take part in a fast‑growing company, seeing it move through funding rounds and grow to meet demand.
• Ability to travel to various events throughout Europe and gain insights into the defence industry and strategic priorities for Europe, as well as a chance to interact directly with high‑ranking people such as generals and CEOs of large companies.

The application procedure

If this sounds like a fit, send us the following:

• Your CV
• A personal project or writing sample related to military, dual‑use, or deep tech. Articles in a journal/newspaper, a university essay/project, a personal blog, etc. You may also write something specifically for this application. The idea is to show us your existing interest in the fields, and activities you’ve done in the past to reflect that.
• A motivation letter. Show us your knowledge and interest in drone dual‑use technology and how you see yourself contributing to business development and government affairs at Fiducial.

We’ll get back to you in July. If we feel you could be a fit, we’ll invite you to a case interview, followed by a final interview with our CEO if you’re successful.

If it’s a match, welcome to the team!