Senior Manager, Strategic Customer Collaboration

Position: SENIOR MANAGER, STRATEGIC CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
Location: Derby / Birmingham

SENIOR MANAGER, STRATEGIC CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
DERBY / BIRMINGHAM - PERMANENT - EXCELLENT BASIC SALARY DOE PLUS BONUS AND BENEFITS PACKAGE - REMOTE WORKING WITH TRAVEL
 
Part of an international and highly respected business, GRW Talent's client integrates leading-edge technologies into fuel, combustion, fluid, actuation, and electronic control systems for the aerospace and industrial markets.  This role reports into the Sales Director and General Manager for Europe.
 
Our client is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategic Customer Collaboration to drive early technical engagement and collaboration with large OEM commercial customers. This role is critical in enabling the company to actively participate in technology trade studies, support future engine architecture decisions that may require product capability, and position the business to ensure customer key performance indicators are met for future aircraft.
 
This position bridges the gap between Sales, Strategy, and Engineering by focusing on collaboration rather than transactional processes. The successful candidate will help guide early decision-making throughout the engine lifecycle, ensuring any product solutions align with customers' long-term goals and requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

Customer Relationship Development
 
Act as the primary liaison with the customer.
Build and maintain trusted relationships with key decision-makers, engineering leaders, product development leaders, procurement leaders, and program leaders.
Position the business as a strategic partner in the aerospace industry, influencing customer requirements through demonstrated expertise in airframe control systems.  Technology Interchange Facilitation
 
Develop a Technology Interchange framework with the customer to share insights on emerging technologies, industry trends, and areas of mutual interest.
Develop, drive, and communicate tactical plans that facilitate the Technology Interchange framework throughout the organization.
Organize and lead regular technical discussions, workshops, and collaborative sessions to explore potential technical solutions that address customers' future needs.  Early Engagement in Trade Studies
 
Identify opportunities to participate in customer engineering trade studies and technology evaluations before Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are issued.
Provide insights into customer long-term strategies, pain points, and upcoming developments to ensure alignment.  Market and Customer Intelligence
 
Collaborate with Marketing to monitor and report on customer technology roadmaps and funding priorities to inform internal strategy and decision-making.  Internal Collaboration
 
Serve as the voice of the customer ensuring Engineering, Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales Management teams remain aligned with customer needs.
Collaborate with subject matter experts to develop tailored solutions for customers.
Participate in proposal development activities to ensure previously established key performance criteria are addressed effectively.

The ideal candidate will possess:
 
Previous experience with a large commercial OEM customer, ideally in a product development, procurement, or technical leadership role.
Deep understanding of the large commercial OEM technology development lifecycle.
Deep understanding of large commercial OEM processes.
Suited to a candidate from engineering, programme management or procurement who understands contracts   
This is a unique opportunity to influence future aerospace technologies, build strategic customer partnerships, and help shape early-stage engine and aircraft development decisions. You will work across functions and organizations to ensure the company remains a trusted technical partner and industry leader in delivering innovative aerospace solutions.  The successful candidate will work out of a Derby or Birmingham customer location so will need to be based within this area.

This role also involves some travel to other sites internationally.
 
Our client operates an excellent integrated culture centred on your wellbeing, learning, ongoing professional development and work life balance. An excellent base salary is supplemented by a bonus scheme and an extensive benefits package to include; a company wide bonus scheme, 33 days leave, 9% company pension contribution, salary sacrifice schemes, income protection and life insurance.

To apply for this role please contract our recruitment partner Katie Hydes at GRW Talent