Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation

Job Description:

Job Title:

Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation. 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3

Mers. This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.

The 3M Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation role is responsible for translating customer needs, industry megatrends, market applications, and voice‑of‑customer insights into actionable growth, innovation, portfolio, and commercialization priorities for aerospace airframe and structural applications. This role focuses on identifying and framing high‑value opportunities, advancing customer‑backed growth initiatives, supporting business case development, and connecting market pull with 3M capabilities across application engineering, platform teams, Corporate Labs, product teams, marketing, sales, and portfolio management.

• Define and maintain a clear understanding of aerospace and defense airframes and structures market needs, customer challenges, industry trends, priority applications, and growth spaces.
• Gather, synthesize, and represent customer pull and voice‑of‑customer insights to inform portfolio decisions, innovation priorities, new product introduction activity, and commercialization plans.
• Identify and frame new applications, cross‑selling opportunities, technology gaps, and customer‑backed growth opportunities across aerospace OEMs, tier suppliers, MROs, defense customers, and strategic accounts.
• Support development and vetting of business cases for vertical‑relevant products, technologies, strategic customer opportunities, and external collaborations.
• Partner with application engineering to create product application heat maps for lead customers, priority accounts, and vertical growth areas.
• Connect customer needs and market opportunities with internal capabilities across Corporate Labs, platform teams, product teams, application engineering, marketing, sales, portfolio teams, and partner divisions.
• Support go‑to‑market strategy, launch readiness, customer demonstrations, trade shows, and customer‑facing portfolio representation for vertical‑relevant technologies and products.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing with sales, marketing, commercial, and technical teams on market trends, customer needs, value propositions, product updates, and competitive positioning.
• Represent aerospace and defense airframes and structures priorities in portfolio reviews, venture evaluation activity, innovation workshops, cross‑functional planning forums, and collaboration initiatives.
• Execute and measure collaboration priorities and agreement metrics where applicable.
• Evaluate opportunities based on customer value, market attractiveness, technical feasibility, strategic fit, and commercial potential.
• Support progression of customer‑backed opportunities through innovation, new product introduction, stage‑gate, go‑to‑market, and commercialization readiness milestones.
• Represent the business in customer meetings, trade events, demos, industry forums, and collaboration discussions related to aerospace airframes, structures, and defense applications.

To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Materials Science, Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, or a science field (completed and verified prior to start).
• Seven (7) years of experience in business development, segment or product marketing, product management, technical sales, strategic marketing, or commercial strategy in a private, public, government or military environment.

Additional…