Business Development Director, Military/Defense Job in Van Buren Twp. 48111, Michigan US
The Position
Located at our office in Van Buren Twp., Michigan, the Business Development Director is responsible for Developing and securing a growing stream of profitable engineering consulting business from the military/defense market. In accordance with Ricardo’s strategic plan, will execute and coordinate the business development process. Will lead high-impact sales and marketing efforts and develop/maintain the Ricardo business relationship within the military/defense market and clients, focused on engineering consulting business and large programs. Also supports other Ricardo Divisions, Software, and Strategic Consulting. Working in a matrix organization, this position:
- Orchestrates and coordinates the Ricardo selling team (including chief engineers, product managers, and operations) in assigned markets and clients, keeps them informed of latest client and market developments
- Defines market drivers within the military/defense sector
- Identifies and develops new business opportunities proactively that support corporate and business segment objectives and capabilities
- Identifies gaps between market requirements and corporate capabilities
- Develops and executes market sector and client plans that support attainment of corporate and business segment goals, and coordinated globally where applicable
- Markets Ricardo as a high-value, high-leverage technical partner for clients, differentiated from competitor North American consultants/engineering services suppliers
- Promotes strategic outsourcing and Ricardo USPs; defines, quantifies and sells value (benefits) associated with Ricardo offerings in a way that effectively differentiates Ricardo from competitors and creates client preference for Ricardo
- Develops and manages long term client business relationship effectively and in a manner that maximizes client value and R-US profitability
- Oversees and coordinates Ricardo cross-functional selling initiatives
- Develops rapport and relationships with client senior management that allows early identification of opportunities for Ricardo to uniquely add value (perhaps in new ways) to the business relationship, a total solution approach, a pro-active approach, a business partnership approach, an approach that delivers bottom-line results for clients
- Acts as primary liaison with client purchasing and resolves commercial issues in a proactive, professional, timely and Ricardo-favorable manner that maximizes client goodwill, proactively escalates issues within client hierarchy and within Ricardo as appropriate to remove roadblocks; proactively develops client commercial frameworks that allow for growth, client satisfaction and profitability with limited risk to Ricardo
- Maintains strong knowledge of assigned market/client business strategy, new product plans and organization charts; regularly disseminates such information to the Ricardo organization and converts such intelligence into market/client strategy and tactics
- Develops, supports and manages key events at assigned clients
- Achieves annual goals, identifies opportunities to achieve fiscal year business plan order targets and stretch order targets as assigned
- Develops annual fiscal year order forecast and assumptions for assigned market sector
- Represents Company at industry trade shows, seminars and associations to promote Ricardo and establishes credibility as an industry/market leader
- Provides proactive, appropriate and timely marketing support for creation of value selling and competitive differentiation tools, competitor analysis, market analysis, mailing lists, promotional material creation, presentations, special events, advertising, and PR campaigns
- Produces professional presentations and written materials to support selling initiatives
- Provides timely and accurate department reports as appropriate and requested
- Delivers superior levels of client service to both internal and external clients while demonstrating Ricardo’s core values of respect, integrity, creativity and innovation, and passion
- Performs other job-related duties as assigned
Position Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering or business; Master’s degree preferred
- Ten years experience in business development within military/defense market, including demonstrated ability in effectively delivered strategy and value (feature/ benefit) selling
- Strong business and commercial skills with an understanding of financial drivers and shareholder value; solid knowledge of industry-standard legal and business language, including familiarity with contracts, NDAs, IP, payment terms, proposals, pricing, margins
- Established industry/market network
- Five years leadership experience; highly professional in appearance and approach; exudes expertise and credibility
- Sound strategic thinker; possesses vision of what could be; ability to identify opportunities; nimbleness in thinking; initiator of improvements
- Strong but customer-aware negotiation skills; track record of building high-performing teams; ability to influence
- Demonstrated ability to effectively multi-task
- Excellent presentation and communication skills; ability to condense complex issues into succinct messages for both internal and external communication
- Strong problem solving, analytical and listening skills
- Ability to excel in a fast-paced, dynamic and matrixed local and global organization
- Proficient knowledge of Microsoft Office suite
About the Organization
Ricardo is a leading provider of technology, product innovation, engineering solutions and strategic consulting to the world's automotive, transport and energy industries. We are successful because we combine business, product and process strategy with fundamental technical research and the implementation of large-scale new product development programs. Ricardo is able to take on the greatest challenges including business strategy and restructuring, process re-engineering, product design, development, engineering, testing and systems integration.
We have been growing steadily for over 80 years and employ 1,500 professionals worldwide. Our US operations include our Detroit Technology Campus located in Van Buren Township, Michigan and Chicago Technical Center in Illinois.
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