Business Development Manager

Aureos · Colchester

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If you are looking to work for a growing business who truly value and care for their employees, then look no further!

Job Title: Business Development Manager – HV & Utilities
Reports To: General Manager
Location: East England
Department: SPM Regional Business

Role Purpose

The Business Development Manager will be responsible for identifying, developing and securing profitable new business opportunities across the High Voltage (HV), electrical infrastructure and utilities sectors.

The role will focus on building long-term relationships with key customers, identifying upcoming projects and frameworks, developing a strong and sustainable opportunity pipeline, and converting opportunities into secured revenue.

Working closely with operational, estimating, commercial and engineering teams, the BDM will ensure that opportunities pursued are strategically aligned, commercially attractive and operationally deliverable.

This is a commercially focused business development role, where success will be measured not simply by tender activity, but by the quality of the pipeline, order intake, margin and development of strategic customer relationships.

Key Responsibilities

1. Business Development & Growth

• Identify and develop new business opportunities within the HV, power distribution, utilities and electrical infrastructure markets.
• Establish a clear strategy for growth across target markets, customers and geographical areas.
• Build and maintain a robust pipeline of short, medium and long-term opportunities.
• Proactively engage with customers at an early stage to understand future investment programmes and project requirements.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing customer relationships into new services, regions and frameworks.
• Develop relationships with ICPs, IDNOs, DNOs, utilities, developers, Tier 1 contractors, renewable energy developers and major infrastructure clients.
• Maintain strong market intelligence regarding competitors, customers, investment programmes and emerging opportunities.

2. Client Relationship Management

• Develop strong relationships with key decision-makers and influencers across target organisations.
• Establish the business as a trusted delivery partner, rather than simply another tendering contractor.
• Lead strategic customer engagement meetings and account development activities.
• Develop account plans for key existing and prospective customers.
• Ensure regular engagement with customers to understand their pipeline, challenges and procurement strategies.
• Represent the company professionally at client meetings, conferences and industry events.

3. Opportunity & Pipeline Management

• Maintain an accurate and current business development pipeline.
• Qualify opportunities before significant estimating or operational resources are committed.
• Assess opportunities based on:
  • Client relationship
  • Probability of success
  • Revenue potential
  • Margin opportunity
  • Strategic fit
  • Delivery capability
  • Resource requirements
  • Contractual and commercial risk
• Lead regular pipeline reviews with senior management.
• Provide realistic forecasts for order intake and future revenue.
• Ensure opportunities are progressed through clearly defined stages from lead → qualification → tender → negotiation → award.

4. Tender & Bid Development

Work closely with estimating, commercial, operational and engineering teams to develop compelling tender submissions.

Responsibilities include:

• Coordinating bid/no-bid decisions.
• Understanding the customer's key drivers before tender submission.
• Supporting development of pricing and commercial strategy.
• Developing customer-specific value propositions.
• Ensuring tenders clearly demonstrate the company's technical capability and delivery experience.
• Leading commercial discussions and tender clarification meetings where appropriate.
• Negotiating opportunities through to contract award.
• Conducting post-tender reviews and capturing lessons learned from successful and unsuccessful bids.

5. HV & Utilities Market Development

Develop opportunities across areas including:

• HV electrical infrastructure
• HV cable installation and jointing
• Substation construction and refurbishment
• Contestable electrical connections
• ICP works
• Distribution network infrastructure
• Private HV networks
• Renewable energy connections
• EV charging infrastructure
• Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
• Solar and wind connections
• Industrial power infrastructure
• Utility diversions and reinforcement
• Major infrastructure programmes
• Electrical balance-of-plant opportunities

The BDM is not expected to be the technical authority but must have sufficient understanding of these markets to engage credibly with customers and identify commercially viable opportunities.

Commercial Responsibilities

The successful candidate must demonstrate strong commercial awareness and understand the importance of quality of revenue rather than revenue alone.

They will:

• Target opportunities capable of delivering sustainable margins.
• Understand the customer's commercial and procurement model.
• Work closely with commercial teams to identify contractual risks.
• Avoid pursuing opportunities that do not align with the company's risk profile or operational capability.
• Understand competitor positioning and market pricing.
• Support negotiations on commercial terms.
• Demonstrate awareness of cash flow, payment terms, contractual liabilities and project risk.
• Ensure a structured handover from Business Development to operational delivery following contract award.

Key Performance Indicators

Performance should be measured against a combination of financial, pipeline and relationship KPIs.

Financial

• Annual order intake target
• Secured revenue
• Gross margin of secured projects
• New customer revenue
• Revenue growth from existing strategic accounts

Pipeline

• Total qualified pipeline value
• Pipeline coverage against annual sales target
• Tender conversion rate
• Bid success rate
• Average opportunity value
• Number/value of strategic framework opportunities

Customers

• Number of new strategic customers established
• Growth within key accounts
• Customer retention
• Senior-level customer engagement
• Customer feedback

A particularly important measure should be:

Profitable order intake rather than simply tender volume or headline revenue.

Experience & Qualifications

Essential

The successful candidate should ideally have:

• Proven business development experience within HV electrical infrastructure, utilities, power distribution or a closely related engineering sector.
• Strong existing knowledge of the UK utilities and infrastructure market.
• Demonstrable track record of developing opportunities from initial contact through to contract award.
• Experience dealing with senior customer stakeholders.
• Strong commercial awareness.
• Understanding of tendering and estimating processes.
• Ability to interpret customer requirements and identify potential solutions.
• Excellent communication, presentation and negotiation skills.
• Ability to build relationships with both technical and commercial stakeholders.
• Full UK driving licence.

Desirable

• Existing network of contacts across the UK HV/utilities sector.
• Experience working with DNOs, IDNOs, ICPs, Tier 1 contractors or major infrastructure customers.
• Technical or operational background within HV electrical infrastructure.
• Experience securing framework agreements and multi-year contracts.
• Understanding of NEC and other infrastructure contracting models.
• Experience within renewable energy, BESS, EV infrastructure or grid connection projects.

Skills & Behaviours

The successful BDM should be:

Commercially driven
Understands margin, risk and value rather than chasing turnover.

Customer focused
Builds long-term relationships and understands what genuinely matters to the client.

Proactive
Creates opportunities rather than waiting for tenders to arrive.

Strategic
Can identify where the business should focus its resources to achieve sustainable growth.

Credible
Comfortable discussing HV and utility projects with engineering, operational, procurement and senior leadership teams.

Collaborative
Works effectively with estimating, commercial and operational teams.

Accountable
Takes ownership of opportunities through the full sales cycle.

Well connected
Actively develops networks across the utilities, power and infrastructure sectors.

Results orientated
Focused on converting the right opportunities into profitable contracts.

Whether you are looking for progression in your new role or for your forever job, we will happily welcome your application.

Equal Opportunities

Aureos are an equal opportunities employer, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

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