Business Development Manager

We’re working with a well-established aerospace and defense manufacturer that is looking for someone with a strong technical background to step into a more commercial role.

This could be a good fit if you’re an Engineer, Program Manager, Applications Engineer, or similar and you’re starting to think about what comes next in your career.

Maybe you enjoy the technical side of your job, but you also find yourself enjoying the customer side, understanding the bigger picture, working out what the customer actually needs, or getting involved in how a product or program develops.

This role gives you the opportunity to build on that.

Rather than moving into a purely sales-focused position, you’ll sit between the customer, engineering, programs, operations and leadership teams, using your technical background to help win new business and grow existing accounts.

Why This Role Is Interesting as a Business Development Manager?

The previous person in this position was promoted into a senior leadership role, which is why the position is now open.

That’s important because the company has a genuine track record of promoting people internally.

The longer-term path can look like:

• Business Development Manager → Business Unit Manager → Vice President → President
• So this isn't just about managing a territory or hitting a sales number. For the right person, it can be the start of moving toward running a business of your own.
• There is also the opportunity to participate in long-term equity and stock-based incentives as you progress into senior leadership.

What You'll Be Doing as a Business Development Manager?

You'll take ownership of a group of important aerospace and defense customers and become one of their main points of contact.

You'll be involved in things like:

• Building relationships with engineering and leadership teams at customers
• Understanding upcoming programs and where the business can support them
• Identifying new opportunities and helping turn them into real programs
• Working with internal engineering and operations teams to develop solutions
• Using your technical knowledge to have credible conversations with customers
• Helping put together proposals, pricing and commercial strategies
• Following opportunities from the initial conversation through to production
• Keeping an eye on competitors, market changes and what customers are likely to need next

You'll have a good amount of freedom in the role. You're not simply being handed a list of accounts and told to make calls — you'll be expected to understand the customers, find opportunities and figure out how the business can grow with them.

Who Would Be a Good Fit as a Business Development Manager?

We're not necessarily looking for someone who has spent their career in sales.

In fact, we'd be very interested in speaking with people coming from:

• Engineering
• Program Management
• Applications Engineering
• Systems Engineering
• Product Management
• Technical Sales / Sales Engineering
• Customer-facing engineering roles

You should have a Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field and around 3+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, or a similar complex manufacturing environment.

The most important thing is that you're technically credible, comfortable speaking with customers and interested in developing the commercial side of your career.

If you've ever thought:

"I don't want to spend the next 10 years just doing the same technical role."

or

"I'd like to get closer to the customer and understand more of the business."

this is the type of opportunity worth having a conversation about.

What You Get From It

The role gives you exposure that you simply don't get in many engineering or program positions.

You'll work directly with customers, engineering, operations and senior leadership and get to see how decisions are actually made across the business.

You'll also have the opportunity to develop skills around:

• Customer management
• Business development
• Commercial strategy
• Negotiation
• Account strategy
• Product direction
• Business leadership

And because the company is part of a larger aerospace organization with more than 50 U.S. business units, there are opportunities to move into other leadership positions as your career develops.

The Opportunity

If you're technically strong but want to broaden your career, this could be an interesting move.

You get to stay in an industry you understand, use the technical knowledge you've already built, but gain much more exposure to customers, strategy and the commercial side of the business.

And if your long-term goal is to eventually run a business or move into executive leadership, there is a genuine path to get there.

The role involves approximately 40% travel and requires U.S. Person status due to export-controlled technologies.

If you'd be open to hearing more, I'd be happy to have a confidential conversation and explain the company, the role and where the position can realistically take your career.

Rabeel Imrane

RPS Recruitment

Rabeel.imrane@rps-recruitment.com

+1 (626) 630-8659