Balfour Beatty plc
Business Development Lead – Civil Engineering
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About The Role
Job Title: Business Development Lead – Civil Engineering
Location: Flexible across Central, Eastern and South East England, including Northampton, Cambridge, East Anglia, London and Kent.
Company: Regional Civils
Project: Internal Drainage Board (IDB)
Build relationships. Develop opportunities. Help protect agricultural land and communities.
Balfour Beatty is looking for an entrepreneurial and commercially focused Business Development Lead to help grow our presence across the water management, agricultural drainage and pumping infrastructure sectors.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced technical sales, business development or account management professional with knowledge of water pumps, pumping stations, agricultural irrigation, land drainage or wider water management solutions.
A key part of the role will involve working directly with farmers, agricultural landowners, Internal Drainage Boards and other rural stakeholders. You will build trusted relationships, understand their water management and irrigation requirements, and help develop practical solutions that protect agricultural land, manage water levels and improve the resilience of rural communities.
You will take ownership of identifying and developing opportunities from the earliest stages, working closely with our technical, operational, commercial, design and estimating teams to turn customer requirements into successful and deliverable projects.
What you'll be doing
Key Responsibilities
As Business Development Lead, you will:
- Build strong, long-term relationships with farmers, agricultural landowners, Internal Drainage Boards, consultants, suppliers and other water industry stakeholders.
- Understand customers’ requirements relating to irrigation, land drainage, flood management, water movement and pumping infrastructure.
- Identify, develop and convert new business opportunities across the agricultural and wider water management sectors.
- Develop opportunities involving water pumps, pumping stations, irrigation systems, drainage networks and associated civil engineering works.
- Visit customers and project locations to understand operational challenges and identify suitable technical solutions.
- Use a key account management approach to develop trusted relationships and understand future investment programmes.
- Work with regional business development and operational teams to build and maintain a visible and prioritised opportunity pipeline.
- Lead early customer engagement and support the development of opportunity and work-winning strategies.
- Coordinate technical, commercial, planning, estimating and design input throughout the pre-construction process.
- Help shape practical, value-adding solutions that meet customer requirements and remain commercially viable.
- Support bids, proposals, presentations, negotiations and governance approvals.
- Maintain ownership of opportunities from initial engagement through to contract award and handover to the delivery team.
- Represent Balfour Beatty at customer meetings, agricultural events, industry conferences and networking opportunities.
- Bring an entrepreneurial mindset, identifying new customers, markets, partnerships and ways to expand our water management offering.
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Who we're looking for
We Are Interested In Candidates With Experience In Technical Sales, Business Development, Account Management, Pre-construction Or Work Winning Within Areas Such As
- Agricultural irrigation and land drainage.
- Water pumps and pumping systems.
- Pumping stations.
- Internal Drainage Boards.
- Flood and coastal erosion risk management.
- Water management and water infrastructure.
- MEICA or mechanical and electrical water systems.
- Civil engineering, drainage or environmental infrastructure.
- Agricultural engineering, pump manufacturers, specialist suppliers or engineering consultancies.
You Will Ideally Have
- Experience working with farmers, agricultural businesses, rural landowners or Internal Drainage Boards.
- A strong technical understanding of water pumps, pumping stations, irrigation or land drainage systems.
- A successful track record in technical sales, account management or business development.
- The ability to understand customers’ operational challenges and translate them into practical technical solutions.
- Experience developing relationships and opportunities during the early stages of a project.
- An understanding of pre-construction, estimating, design development or bid management.
- Strong commercial awareness and the ability to identify viable business opportunities.
- Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation and influencing skills.
- The confidence to work with agricultural customers as well as technical, commercial and operational teams.
- A proactive, entrepreneurial and solutions-focused approach.
- The ability to manage several customer relationships and opportunities simultaneously.
Experience within civil engineering or construction would be beneficial, but we are equally interested in candidates from water pump manufacturers, agricultural irrigation businesses, drainage specialists, engineering consultancies or other technical sales environments.
Why join us?
This is an opportunity to take a leading role in developing a growing part of our Regional Civils business.
You will have the freedom to build relationships, explore new markets and influence our future water management strategy. You will work directly with customers to develop solutions that support farming, protect valuable agricultural land, manage flood risk and improve the resilience of communities.
You will be supported by the technical expertise, delivery capability and national reach of Balfour Beatty while having the autonomy to bring new ideas and opportunities to the business.
Apply today and help us develop the water management, irrigation and pumping solutions needed to protect land, support agriculture and create a more resilient future.
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Why work for us
Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.
Benefits
As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:
- Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
- 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
- Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
- Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…
About Us
With a strong track record of delivery, our civils teams connect communities through infrastructure projects in the highways, public realm, rail, flood and coastal defence, and industrial sectors across England and Wales.
Diversity and inclusion
At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion.
To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/
We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: candidaterecruitmentqueries@balfourbeatty.com
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