Head of Sales and Business Development - Aviation

Saab UK is part of Scandinavia's largest defence company, bringing together the best of Swedish and British innovation. Saab offers world-leading solutions and services in defence, aviation, space, and civil security to keep people and society safe. Our UK presence has been growing at pace, meaning we can offer a wide range of opportunities for personal fulfilment and career growth. We currently employ over 600 people across eight sites in the UK, and our specialisations include software engineering, underwater robotics, radars, AI, and armed forces training.

The Head of Business Development (BD) & Sales leads on Customer engagement in their market sector and is responsible for creating, identifying, validating and pursuing business leads and opportunities within the United Kingdom Operational Country (OpC). The responsibility covers various elements of Saab's Air portfolio, as assigned by the Director of BD and Sales, with particular focus but not exclusively on Air products and services for the RAF and occasionally RN air requirements.

The Head of BD & Sales position acts as the Customer Sales Responsible (CSR) for their prospects. Working closely with the Head of BD and Sales for Naval and also BlueBear, your responsibilities include the key account management of the customer relationships and responsibility for the relevant parts of the Winning Business (WB) process for their assigned prospects. The CSR leads the business realisation in accordance with the WB process from Market Appraisal up to and including Deliver and Follow Up Tender, and for the customer relationships throughout and beyond the WB process.

This is a key role within the BD and Sales team and will represent Saab's continued relationship building with the RAF and wider MOD. Therefore, the individual will be required to have an intricate understanding of the Air environment and be capable of establishing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, creating a narrative and having the capability to identify opportunities for the business across campaigns and sales.

The ideal individual will have come from an RAF or other similar Air background, of OF3 or above, with a demonstrable understanding of how the RAF develops and delivers capability. Experience working with DE&S, procurement as well as some wider commercial, business development or sales experience would also be advantageous. Stakeholder engagement at all levels within the MOD is essential to this role. Therefore, applicants will need to have had prior involvement in running large campaigns and stakeholder management.

Key Responsibilities:

• Deliver order intake and gross margin in accordance with set budget
• Establish and maintain customer relationships
• Lead on marketing and sales prospects for part of Saab's Surveillance product portfolio
• Act as a customer-facing Saab ambassador
• Deliver on KPIs in accordance with annual goals set during the IPM process
• Identify, prioritise and qualify new business opportunities and leads
• Update all qualified cases in the CRM tool
• Create business-winning strategies for each opportunity
• Conduct market, customer and competitor analysis in order to develop business
• Develop and maintain relevant product knowledge
• Establish and maintain relevant Business Unit networks
• Collaborate with the PSR for respective projects
• Maintain, evaluate and develop relations with other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) for Business-to-Business opportunities
• Participate at exhibitions and other customer-facing events
• Other tasks within the Country Unit as deemed relevant from time to time

Qualifications and Skills:

Essential:

• Evidence of Air Domain experience in the defence environment
• Experience and understanding of the UK Defence, acquisition process and budgets
• Experience of working at or with DE&S
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English
• Developed social skills and a positive attitude
• Documented experience of marketing and sales or other relevant sectors

Desirable:

• Integrated Air and Missile Defence knowledge
• Electronic Warfare (EW) knowledge
• Command and Control (C2) knowledge
• Radar systems and sensor knowledge
• Air Training and Simulation knowledge
• ISTAR knowledge
• Space & SDA knowledge
• Knowledge of business and planning processes
• Have sufficient product knowledge in terms of technical base specifications and commercial aspects in order to be able to assume the CSR role

Saab UK Company Benefits:

• ~30 days annual leave
• ~ Workplace pension scheme with 8% company contribution
• ~ Private medical insurance
• ~ Group income protection scheme
• ~ Death in service insurance
• ~ Up to 5% share matching scheme
• ~ Company enhanced Maternity/Adoption & Paternity leave
• ~+ Much more

By submitting an application to Saab UK you consent to undertaking workforce screening activities that may include but are not limited to: Baseline Personnel Security checks, National Security Vetting, reference checks, verification of working rights and in all circumstances preferred candidates will be placed through a security interview.