Head of Growth and Business Development – Defence

Head of Growth and Business Development – Defence

Full-Time No working from home possible
Sopra Steria

Help shape the future of Sopra Steria’s growth in UK Defence. This is a high‑impact leadership role at the heart of our Aerospace, Defence and Security business, responsible for driving growth across the UK Defence digital market. From setting strategy and identifying opportunities, through to shaping investment‑ready propositions and handing them into the strategic sales process, this role owns the front end of the growth agenda. Working closely with senior stakeholders across the MoD, industry and internal leadership teams, you will turn market insight into a clear, prioritised growth roadmap and build the relationships, pipeline and momentum needed to deliver long‑term success.

What you’ll be doing

  • Define and lead a 3–5 year Defence growth strategy and roadmap, aligned to wider ADS and corporate objectives, and drive early‑stage shaping activity across the strategic account.
  • Build and maintain senior relationships across Defence (MoD, military, civil service and industry) to strengthen market access, insight and influence.
  • Own stakeholder mapping and engagement plans, coordinating activity across sales, marketing, delivery and partners to maintain strong momentum.
  • Translate market, policy and competitor insight into clear, prioritised opportunities and growth initiatives within the Defence sector.
  • Qualify and shape priority opportunities through internal governance, ensuring they are investment‑ready with defined propositions, commercial approach and win strategy ahead of sales handover.
  • Lead alignment across internal teams and partners, ensuring propositions, pre‑sales investment and pipeline development are focused on Defence priorities and support successful bid outcomes.

What you’ll bring

  • Deep knowledge of the UK Defence sector, ideally with a focus on digital transformation and technology‑led solutions.
  • Proven experience operating in a strategic sales, business development or client leadership role within complex, high‑value environments.
  • Strong strategic thinking capability, with experience developing and delivering multi‑year growth plans and opportunity pipelines.
  • Ability to build and influence senior stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally, including at executive level.
  • Broad technical understanding to support solution shaping and credible engagement across consulting, delivery and sales teams.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to align stakeholders, drive collaboration and influence outcomes.

Employment Type: Full‑time, Permanent

Location: London/Corsham

Security Clearance Level: Minimum MOD SC (with no impediments to Developed Vetting), DV preferred

Internal Recruiter: Amy

Salary: Competitive

Benefits: Bonus, £6,600 car allowance, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy additional days, private medical, life assurance, pension, and generous flexible benefits fund.

Although this role is advertised as full‑time, we believe that flexibility at work can promote work/life balance, increase motivation, reduce stress and improve performance and productivity. We support different ways of working and can offer a range of flexible working arrangements. If you’re interested and need to work flexibly, we encourage you to apply and talk to us about what might be possible.

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client’s goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK’s most complex safety‑ and security‑critical markets.

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.

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Sopra Steria

Contact Details:

Sopra Steria Recruitment Team