Senior Business Development Manager (Defence)

My client is looking for a Capture Manager / Pursuit / Business Development Manager within the Defence industry to join and work with the Bid and Development Team. We are looking for someone with experience in Capture / Pursuit Management who thrives on working in an active, fast-paced environment to challenging deadlines. You must be self-motivated and able to work to tough deadlines, managing competing stakeholder demands. You will be aligned with the UK Capture Operations team, and report to the UK Head of Capture. The team works mainly with MoD, Homeland Security, Policing and Justice sectors and sells primarily to the Public Sector. The Capture Manager is accountable for winning a specific business opportunity and will provide the leadership to the pursuit team through to the award of the contract.

What you will be doing:

• Define the customer engagement management strategy and engage senior company executives in contact activity as required.
• Personally engage with customers and stakeholders to understand their issues, concerns, and hot buttons.
• Build and lead a high performing Capture team that brings relevant expertise and capabilities and actively drive them to achieve bid milestones within budget and schedule.
• Lead the development of winning strategies that differentiate us, are competitively focused and are compelling to the client and their requirements, as well as satisfy internal business objectives and risk posture.
• Assemble an industry team that complements capabilities to both win the opportunity and ensure execution of the program.
• Develop the business case for continuing to pursue and bidding for the opportunity including bid budget.
• Work with the Bid Manager to plan, appropriately tailor, and use relevant processes throughout the bid, ensuring that there is a process in place that develops a high-quality proposal in a timely manner with checks on the development of content.
• Lead internal stakeholder management and keep the senior leadership teams informed and engaged including timely escalation of issues needing resolution.
• Work with the bid and proposal team to ensure win themes, hot buttons, and evaluation criteria are properly addressed across all proposal elements.
• Lead any post-submission activities and support the program team as required, ensuring smooth handover to the project manager.

Our ideal candidate must have a strong track record:

• As a Capture Manager / Pursuit Lead in UK public sector winning complex services opportunities of greater than £20m.
• Be capable of developing and maintaining senior stakeholder relationships internally and with customers and industry partners.

What skills are we looking for?

• Experience and success working on £20m + deals in the UK Public Sector.
• Exceptional leadership, relationship management, and communication skills.
• Proven effective in working across organisational boundaries (e.g. between corporate divisions and/or multi-nationally based divisions).
• Strong negotiating skills.
• Ability to work at the strategic and big picture level.
• Sound commercial acumen and ability to build a compelling business case.
• Ability to manage to a challenging deadline.
• Ability to travel/ be deployed across the UK for several months at a time.

Excellent salary and package on offer – please get in touch for more information. Current SC clearance required.