Business Development Lead Defence in Southampton

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.

Saab is a leading defence and security company with an enduring purpose, to help nations keep their people and society safe. Empowered by its 28,000 talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world. Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden and has major operations all over the world.

The Role: We are seeking an experienced business development professional to drive growth within the defence market, identifying, shaping and securing opportunities across government, military and prime contractor customers. The successful candidate will combine commercial acumen, strategic thinking and customer engagement expertise with the ability to articulate complex technical and engineering solutions aligned to operational requirements. Working closely with engineering, programme, commercial and bid teams, you will lead capture activities from opportunity identification through to contract award, developing winning strategies and fostering long-term customer relationships. You will ensure solutions are competitive, compliant and mission-focused, contributing directly to business growth and the delivery of critical defence capabilities. This role is based in Fareham, with hybrid working arrangements available, and will include occasional travel.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain relationships with customers, government representatives and authorities.
• Analyse and assess relevant development and trends with respect to BA/BU Product Portfolio.
• Create capture strategy and determine market price in cooperation with the Customer Sales.
• Perform Business Intelligence i.e. competitors' product offerings.
• Lead and coordinate the Product Sales Core Team and related activities.
• Prepare and lead signing and handover activities to ensure that export control regulations are followed.
• Responsible for the product and customer-related data in CRM tool.
• Finalise a competitive customer offer to align with customer expectations and internal requirements.

Qualifications and Skills:

Required:

• Willingness to learn and understand product portfolio.
• Communication and Presentation Skills.
• Risk Management capability.
• An ability to understand engineering products and translate them into customer value.
• Experience of working with a CRM system.
• Strong negotiation skills.
• Relationship management - internal and external.
• Strong understanding of Defence procurement.
• Stakeholder and Relationship management.

Desired:

• Contractual awareness.
• Experience within ROV, Subsea offshore energy or Defence Market.
• Product knowledge of Seaeye ROV's.
• Extensive network within the energy and/or defence markets.
• Experience with working or understanding of work-class ROV systems.

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.