Business Development Manager

Position Summary:

The Business Development Manager is a highly visible member of the AVEKA business development, sales, and marketing team supporting a broad range of initiatives to develop and expand new opportunities in particle processing. Daily activities involve direct contact with existing and potential customers to provide solutions, secure business, negotiate pricing, and manage projects. Requires the ability to learn highly technical and often complex processes to assess new opportunities for technical and strategic fit. Manage accounts with highly technical knowledge and understanding of our processes. Requires very strong communication and negotiation skills.

Responsibilities / Duties:

• Drive growth by seeking and identifying new business opportunities through networking, cold calling, responding to incoming leads, and researching viable customers and business
• Work with marketing team and offer insight into strategies that attract new customers
• Evaluate the viability of current and potential customers’ requirements
• Master and present the critical elements of company’s technology processing platforms to secure new opportunities that fit capabilities and infrastructure
• Become highly effective at operating the AVEKA ERP and CRM system (Deacom)
• Determine AVEKA processes, equipment, and plant capacity required for potential sales
• Lead the negotiation and execution of contracts and pricing with current and potential customers
• Prepare detailed proposals and customer presentations
• Communicate with Quality department prior to moving ahead with new or updated projects
• Determine resources including human, mechanical, technological, and scientific needed to effectively run the product within Good Manufacturing Practices and Quality requirements
• Team with Project Managers, Quality Managers, Engineers, Operators, and other staff as necessary to ensure high quality product outcomes as liaison to the customer
• Plan, schedule, and manage resources to maintain ongoing projects
• Liaison between production, quality, business development, and customers
• Track and prioritize opportunities for resource allocation
• Facilitate execution of Non-Disclosure Agreements, Intellectual Property Agreements and Joint Development Agreements
• Ensures projects are completed on time, within budget, and to customer’s specifications
• Keeps customer informed of all pertinent information from start to finish
• Work with a great amount of flexibility in a constantly changing environment
• Conduct research on competitors, potential clients and industry trends
• Requires travel between Iowa sites and occasional overnight travel

Job Qualifications:

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in a technical field
• 5+ years’ experience in sales, business development, project management, engineering, or science
• OR Equivalent Education and Experience
• Experience handling large projects from start to finish within a technical and/or manufacturing environment
• Prefer background in manufacturing technology, chemistry, food science, or mechanical / chemical engineering

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Very strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Ability to work well in teams and communicate across multiple functions
• Ability to manage large technical projects from start to finish
• Robust Excel and PowerPoint skills
• Scientific knowledge of particle processing, chemistry, and manufacturing technology
• Strong conflict resolution skills
• Creative and flexible
• Ability to identify and qualify opportunities to expand the business

Physical Requirements:

• 80% office work with ability to sit for extended periods of time, able to operate a keyboard and computer, use a telephone, communicate by email and internet team applications, and stand, sit, bend, stoop, twist, reach, push, and pull
• Up to 20% walking and observing on the manufacturing floor to communicate with employees, assess specific plant situations, quality processes, and related. May require climbing stairs or ladders, reaching, bending, twisting, and working with machinery and processes that requires use of the arms, hands, and fingers, with occasional lifting of up to 25 pounds and/or moving heavier objects with mechanical assistance

Reasonable accommodations will be considered per ADA requirements to enable an incumbent to perform the job if any of the above physical requirements are limited