Strategic Market Development Manager

Strategic Market Development Manager – Industrial Markets

Our client is seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial, and strategically minded sales professional with significant experience in the industrial bearing or engineered components marketplace. This position will be responsible for identifying and developing new business opportunities, expanding relationships with existing customers, and creating sustainable, profitable growth within assigned industrial markets.

The Strategic Market Development Manager will work closely with the sales organization, engineering, operations, and senior leadership to develop and execute market-growth strategies. The successful candidate will conduct market and competitive analysis, identify high-potential target accounts and applications, develop customer and product strategies, and establish long-term growth plans. The position requires a commercially driven individual who can combine analytical thinking with strong customer-facing and relationship-building skills. Travel will be required as necessary to support customers, strategic initiatives, and business-development activities.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze market data, customer trends, competitive activity, and industry developments to identify new markets, applications, customers, and growth opportunities.
• Develop and execute short- and long-term business-development strategies designed to increase revenue, market share, and profitability.
• Partner with the sales organization to establish target-account strategies and increase penetration within existing strategic customers.
• Develop strong relationships with customer procurement, engineering, technical, and management personnel, becoming a trusted resource and strategic partner.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of company products, technologies, applications, competitive advantages, and strategic business objectives.
• Identify emerging customer requirements and translate them into product road maps and market-development strategies that support sustained growth.
• Develop business plans, market-development initiatives, sales strategies, and action plans for prioritized opportunities.
• Lead efforts to secure new programs and major business opportunities, coordinating internal resources and providing direction throughout the sales-development process.
• Monitor and report key business-development metrics, including bookings, forecasts, quotations, order backlog, delivery performance, new-program activity, and opportunity pipelines.
• Maintain accurate visibility into major customer opportunities, including current status, historical activity, anticipated milestones, and required next actions.
• Prepare forecasts and business analyses covering projected sales, bookings, proposals, costs, and new-business opportunities by customer and program.
• Present market intelligence, opportunity pipelines, business-development progress, and strategic recommendations to senior management.
• Work cross-functionally with Engineering, Operations, Sales, and other internal teams to ensure customer strategies are aligned with organizational capabilities and objectives.
• Travel periodically to customer locations, industry events, and other business-related activities.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Management, or a related discipline preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in Business Development, Sales Engineering, Strategic Sales, or Sales Management within an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience in the industrial bearing, engineered components, or related precision-manufacturing marketplace strongly preferred.
• Proven history of developing new business, expanding strategic accounts, and achieving measurable revenue growth.
• Strong understanding of industrial customers, technical applications, procurement processes, and engineered products.

Core Competencies

• Strategic business development and market expansion
• Customer and strategic account management
• Market segmentation and competitive analysis
• Pricing and profitability analysis
• New-program acquisition
• Product/application strategy and road-map development
• Forecasting and pipeline management
• Executive-level presentation and communication
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate is a self-directed, energetic, commercially aggressive, and analytically strong business-development professional who enjoys creating opportunities rather than simply managing an existing book of business. This individual should possess the credibility to engage with senior executives as well as engineering and procurement professionals, while having the persistence and strategic discipline necessary to turn market opportunities into profitable, long-term customer programs.

Location: Waterbury, CT
Travel: Moderate, as required

Our client is an exceptional, technically advanced Aerospace manufacturing organization specializing in the precision production of highly complex, tight-tolerance components for some of the world’s most demanding commercial and military aerospace programs. With deep expertise in multi-axis CNC machining, advanced engineering, exotic materials, EDM, grinding, inspection, and aerospace-certified special processes, the company has earned a reputation as a trusted Tier-One supplier where quality, innovation, and on-time performance are paramount. Its investment in modern technology, employee development, continuous improvement, and advanced manufacturing capabilities creates an outstanding environment for talented professionals who want to work on challenging, high-value aerospace products, expand their technical expertise, and build a meaningful long-term career in a sophisticated manufacturing operation.