Fortress Recruit Ltd
Head of Business Development
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Head of Business Development
Fortress Recruit is supporting a successful and growing maritime defence manufacturer with the appointment of a Head of Business Development in Dorset. This is a newly restructured leadership position, reporting directly to the BD Director and responsible for leading and developing an established Business Development function across UK and international markets.
As Head of BD, you will take ownership of the day-to-day leadership of the team, providing direction, accountability and cohesion while remaining hands on with business winning activity.
This is not a purely strategic leadership position. You will lead major campaigns and complex capture opportunities, working across engineering, business units, programme management, commercial and bid teams to bring the right resources together and drive opportunities through to contract award. You will also play a key role in developing existing customer relationships, identifying new opportunities and supporting the company's expansion into new markets and applications.
Key Responsibilities
- Leading, developing and bringing together the Business Development team
- Owning BD targets, sales processes, forecasting and performance
- Identifying, qualifying and prioritising strategic opportunities
- Personally leading significant and complex capture campaigns
- Developing capture strategies and coordinating multidisciplinary internal teams
- Working with the BD Director and wider SLT to translate business strategy into practical BD activity
- Developing long term relationships with customers, Defence Primes, shipyards, government organisations, agents and international partners
- Identifying opportunities to grow existing accounts and introduce products into new markets and applications
- Supporting international business development, particularly across North America and other strategic markets
- Working closely with engineering and technical teams to develop compelling customer solutions
- Representing the business at customer meetings, exhibitions and industry events in the UK and internationally
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Requirements
To be successful in this role, you will have:
- Proven experience leading and developing a Business Development, Sales or commercial team
- Strong people leadership skills and the ability to bring together different personalities and working styles
- A strong track record of business growth and successful business development
- Proven experience leading complex capture campaigns through to contract award
- Experience coordinating engineering, technical, commercial, programme and bid teams
- Strong commercial understanding including forecasting, pipeline management and negotiations
- Experience selling complex engineered products, systems or solutions
- Strong customer relationship and account development experience
- International sales or Business Development experience
- Excellent communication, influencing, presentation and negotiation skills
- The ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels
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Experience within maritime defence, UK MOD, Royal Navy or Defence Primes would be advantageous but is not essential. Experience within nuclear or another highly regulated or safety critical engineering environment would also be beneficial.
Job Details
- The role is permanent, 37 hours per week and based in Dorset on a hybrid basis, with an expectation of around 2-3 days in the office where required, particularly during the initial period of joining and team development.
- The role includes around 40–50% UK and international travel.
- A competitive base salary, car allowance and bonus structure are on offer.
- Eligibility to gain ITAR and SC clearance is required (5 years' UK residency with no requirement for visa or sponsorship)
This is an opportunity to join a business with an established international customer base and significant growth ambitions, with genuine autonomy to influence how the business identifies, prioritises and wins future opportunities while developing the BD team.
For more details or a confidential discussion, click apply with your up-to-date CV or get in touch with Becki directly.
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