Sales Lead, Sales, Business Development

Salary £70,000 - £78,000
Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

At Leonardo, we have a fantastic opportunity for a Sales lead to join our Sensors sales team with a focus on Complex Weapons in the United Kingdom (UK) and growing our export business.

The role of the Sales lead is to identify, develop and execute new business winning opportunities. You will be responsible for engaging closely with customers, industry partners and end-users in both the UK and abroad, in order to close deals that meet our sales targets.

The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of both the UK and International defence and aerospace markets, as well as experience and proven success in strategic selling of Complex Weapons or associated technology. This is a high profile role focussed on a key growth area for the organisation, with the successful applicant regularly briefing senior leadership with the opportunity to visibly excel and become a significant contributor to the organisation’s success over the next decade.

Experience of leading business capture and devising and implementing complex strategies is highly valued.

The Sales lead reports to the Head of Sales and is responsible for key stakeholder management and engagement, identifying, developing and executing multiple strategies to meet both customer and business requirements. They will be responsible for working with key industry partners and reporting all aspects of those relationships.

The Sales lead will be the main external Leonardo point of focus for the Precision Guidance business area and work closely with the Precision Guidance IPT to ensure coherence of approach and provide advice and feedback for the future direction of product development. An understanding of global Complex Weapons developments and future direction of travel would be beneficial.

The role will require considerable external engagement with customers, weapons primes and end users. Therefore, the role holder must have excellent communication skills and be credible when engaging with customers to negotiate commercial and technical solutions. The successful candidate will be required to build a detailed capture plan to secure internal pursuit, bid and resourcing approvals. They will also develop win strategies, generate the price to win for individual supporting aspects of the campaign and provide oversight and input into the drafting of proposals.

• Secure order intake to meet forecast targets for current and future years (IBP) by managing and delivering a portfolio of campaigns and sales opportunities.
• Identifying and generating new business in the UK and through exports
• Develop bespoke win strategies; generate the price to win for pursuits as part of a broader global strategy
• Be the primary Leonardo point of contact for the Precision Guidance line of business
• Provide SME knowledge into the Precision Guidance programme teams
• Develop and maintain relationships with Customers & End Users
• Develop and maintain relationships with key internal and external stakeholders including Regional and Divisional Marketing, our Capability function and other Leonardo lines of business.
• Track opportunities & present detailed prospects to SLT in order to secure pursuit, bid and resourcing approvals.
• Identify, create and validate opportunities for future sales and growth.
• Provide input to and support marketing & communications (MARCOM) events (exhibitions, demonstrations, conferences), as planned and directed.
• Assist in the preparation of private venture (PV) investment business cases to develop new capabilities.

• Relevant sector experience and commercial knowledge. In particular, knowledge of Complex Weapons.
• Self-starter and highly motivated and able to set short and long-term planning goals in line with campaign and business needs.
• Ability to…