Head of Business Development & Sales - APAC in Hampshire, Romsey

Roke offers specialist knowledge in sensors, communications, cyber, and AI and ML. We change the way organisations think and act – through dynamic insights from the analysis of multiple layers of data. We take care of the innovative, technical capabilities that keeps everyone safe – that’s our mission, passion, and motivation.

We are looking for a highly motivated, proven sales leader to manage and develop the APAC Business Development and Sales Team within the International Revenue & Growth Team. This is a senior leadership role reporting directly into the Assistant Director - International, with responsibility for setting regional sales strategy, leading the APAC team, developing people and delivering sustainable revenue growth across the APAC region.

The role involves being a senior customer-facing representative of Roke and accountable for the performance, direction and governance of APAC business development and sales activity. The post holder will lead the full regional sales lifecycle through their team, ensuring high-quality pipeline is generated, progressed and converted into revenue while maintaining Roke’s position as a trusted partner to clients, partners and stakeholders.

The role will require international travel, which will require overnight stays and due to the nature of the role, there may be occasions when unsocial working hours will be required.

As Head of BD & Sales - APAC, you will lead the International Sales Team responsible for identifying, developing and successfully closing sales opportunities across the APAC region. You will set priorities, allocate focus across markets and accounts, coach and support Business Development and Sales Managers, and ensure that regional activity is aligned with Roke’s strategic objectives, growth targets and business-winning governance.

You will work closely with Campaign Leads, Business Development & Sales Managers, Field Operations Technicians and senior functional stakeholders to prioritise key trials and demonstration events, capture success criteria, secure internal alignment and ensure the product and service portfolio is positioned to maximise customer impact and conversion.

Key Responsibilities

• Department leadership – Lead, develop and performance manage the APAC BD & Sales team, setting clear priorities, expectations and standards for customer engagement, pipeline progression and sales execution.
• Regional strategy – Define and execute the APAC growth strategy, identifying routes to market, priority countries, key accounts, partner approaches and investment focus aligned to Roke’s wider international objectives.
• Pipeline and revenue ownership – Own regional pipeline quality, conversion and revenue delivery, ensuring opportunities are qualified, resourced and advanced through disciplined sales governance.
• Forecasting and reporting – Deliver accurate 5-year rolling forecasts, regional account plans, opportunity reviews and performance reporting to senior leadership, highlighting risk, upside and required interventions.
• Cross-functional leadership – Provide sales leadership across bid, engineering, commercial, legal and delivery functions to develop compelling, compliant, deliverable and winning proposals.
• Market intelligence – Monitor and interpret regional trends, budgets, programmes and competitor activity, using insight to shape strategy, anticipate customer needs and inform wider Roke decision-making.
• Partner and stakeholder management – Establish, govern and develop relationships with in-country partners, customers, government stakeholders and industry bodies to extend reach and accelerate market access.
• Brand presence – Act as a senior ambassador for Roke, representing the business at exhibitions, trade missions, strategic customer meetings and senior stakeholder engagements.

Candidate Profile

• Domain leadership - Defence and National Security sector experience with a strong understanding of customer needs, competitive landscape, procurement processes and regional operating environments.
• Growth leadership – Proven ability to create new business momentum, open senior-level access and lead teams in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Strategic drive – Proactively sets direction, removes barriers and maintains momentum across regional opportunities, ensuring consistent progression through the sales lifecycle.
• Closure focused - Demonstrable success leading full sales cycle activity into the APAC market, ideally with experience across Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and the Pacific.
• Commercial acumen – Strong commercial awareness with the ability to shape regional strategy, influence requirements, assess risk and position solutions early.

Key Skills & Experience

• Regional market leadership – Strong understanding of defence budgets, procurement cycles, geopolitical drivers and partner ecosystems across APAC.
• Complex solution selling – Able to lead the positioning of technical capabilities, operational benefits and value propositions to senior military, government and commercial stakeholders.
• Revenue accountability - Demonstrable experience of leading teams to deliver significant annual sales revenue and sustained multi-year growth.
• Sales discipline - Demonstrable experience embedding CRM discipline, forecasting accuracy, account planning, opportunity qualification and performance management across a sales team.
• Bid and proposal sales leadership – Experienced in directing sales input to bids and proposals, including competitor analysis, win themes, governance, customer strategy and price-to-win considerations.
• Cultural fluency - Experience adapting engagement style and leading teams to deliver briefings, demonstrations and proposals to diverse audiences where English may not be the first language.
• People and sales leadership - Experience building, coaching and managing agile sales teams, setting standards and delivering complexity at pace across a wide customer base.

Personal Attributes

• Leadership mindset – Highly proactive, accountable and comfortable setting direction while empowering the team to deliver.
• High integrity – Operates with professionalism, discretion and full compliance in sensitive environments.
• Resilient and persistent – Provides calm leadership through long sales cycles, competitive pressure and ambiguous regional conditions.
• Commercially astute – Quickly identifies value, risk, margin considerations and competitive positioning.
• Relationship builder – Builds trust rapidly with senior customers, partners, internal teams and direct reports.
• Adaptable – Comfortable navigating ambiguity, cultural nuance, shifting priorities and team development needs.

We offer a competitive salary and access to a number of additional flexible benefits, which will cover Health and Wellbeing, Savings and Protection & Life, Leisure and Entertainment. Roke has a great community of groups with shared interests. These enable people to share ideas and be passionate about tools, technologies & techniques, which interest them.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our working environment is friendly, creative and inclusive and support a diverse work-force and those with additional needs.

Due to the nature of this position, candidates must be eligible to achieve Security Check (SC) Clearance as a minimum and in some cases Developed Vetting (DV) clearance may be required. As such, applicants must typically have resided in the UK for: At least 5 years (for SC clearance) At least 10 years (for DV clearance)