Business Development – Domestic Surface Ship Sonar in Crawley

Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust.

Location: Can be based at a convenient local Thales site but will need to attend Bristol, Crawley, Templecombe and Portsmouth as well as international travel when required, you should expect to be on site or with Customers 50% of your time. Thales has a hybrid working model that enables home working when this is suitable for the activities being conducted.

Role overview:

The Business Development – Domestic Surface Ship Sonar is a strategic role responsible for securing both sole source and competed sonar outboard equipment on the UK frigate and airborne fleets direct to MoD and through 3rd party industry (BAES / Babcock / Leonardo). It is key to achieving the Order Intake identified within the agreed budget forecasts which you will also be responsible for putting in place. The candidate will be responsible for stakeholder management in the customer community, as well as pan BL stakeholder management within Thales.

The role will require extensive liaison with UK government organizations involved in the surface fleet and airborne enterprises to secure additional opportunities that enable the growth of the UWS business line. The successful candidate will demonstrate strong leadership qualities to lead strategic captures / campaigns.

The Business Development – Domestic Surface Ship Sonar is a key member of the UWS sales team and wider business line, the submarine based ASW opportunities in this sphere are worth over several hundred million pounds over the next 10 years for supply of towed array, specialist sonars (airborne dipping / processing) and special fit upgrades to the current fleet and future platforms.

Primary Purpose of the role:

This is a multi-focused role with 50/50 split (on average) between external stakeholder management, positioning for sonar into UK MoD / NCHQ, BAES Maritime / Naval Ships, as well as Thales’ stakeholder management.

Main products / systems covered are currently:

• Towed Array
• Airborne Dipping Sonars
• Airborne Processing Systems
• Special project fits

Travel through the UK, and internationally will be required to facilitate the above.

Responsible for reaching business objectives, specifically order intake by managing people, influencing customers and engaging key stakeholders.

Development of a robust OI pipeline through sales, capture leadership, and Business Development activities.

Working with the BL sales team to ensure right skillsets are deployed on the right opportunities at the right time.

Establish and own the strategic relationship with senior members of customer organisation.

Present the whole of the product/capability to the customer on a regular basis.

Identify new business opportunities related to the ASW activities and ensure other elements of the business (within and outside UWS) are aware of programme status (such as T26 export opportunities where UK Gov / BAES is route to market).

Main Duties of the role:

• Develop campaigns and strategies to enable business winning and growth.
• Capture leadership including sharing capture information with relevant Businesses within Thales.
• Improve P2 (Thales chance of winning the opportunity) through customer knowledge.
• Engage and establish relationships across other industrial companies that work within the specific account and analyse their capabilities.
• Gather and own customer information to support business forecasts and bid planning.
• Establish regular meetings with key customer contacts.
• Develop messages and themes for relevant shows and events.
• De-conflict any issues in internal positioning and strategy to ensure good partnering behavior is followed.
• Provide customer technical requirements and capability gaps to inform the R&D and Product Line Management process.
• Build relationships with relevant Account Managers in other countries (notably Norway) in the particular context of Towed Arrays to their T26 programme.
• Produce and present relevant capture plans and progress through Thales internal governance as required for applicable phase of opportunities.
• Share experiences with wider UWS Sales team to encourage group development.

Candidate specification:

• Strong understanding of the military maritime environment, specifically surface ships / airborne.
• Experience of major maritime military export and domestic sales.
• Has successfully led £50m+ captures or has experience of procurement within a military environment of programmes of a similar size in the UK and/or export.
• Degree or equivalent level qualification (although not essential).
• A proven track record of developing trusted senior level relationships.
• Holding or able to achieve Security Clearance, to DV level (therefore sole UK national).

Personal Attributes:

• Has a strong sense of personal accountability and creates a highly accountable, high-performance culture at all levels.
• Comfortable in highly ambiguous situations and able to shape solutions out of complexity; able to ‘shape the fog’ for themselves and others.
• Builds and orchestrates complex multifunctional teams across organisational boundaries.
• Seeks out responsibility for the most challenging and high profile assignments.
• Always delivers what is promised; takes extraordinary steps to achieve major goals; pursues everything with energy, drive and need to finish.
• Makes significant timely, high-quality decisions in uncertain and ambiguous contexts.
• Is an entrepreneurial risk taker; prepared to take significant calculated risks to achieve significant outcomes.
• Collaborative style, which builds close and trustful relationships both internally and externally.
• Quickly understands how organisations operate and can read complex political environments; leverages power relationships to optimum effect.
• Handles highly sensitive situations assertively, prepared to push back and challenge at senior levels and customers.
• A very high level of integrity and strong moral compass.
• Ability to listen and communicate with customers, technical personnel, sales staff, project managers and board members with equal skill.
• Creative, confident, self-driven and inventive, able to originate complex commercial solutions, yet patient and tenacious as required.

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK National and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a Non-ITAR country may be considered. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance.

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring.