Business Development Manager - UK Defence Sector

Overview

In this role you drive multi-million-pound opportunities in UK Defence by opening doors, building strategic partnerships, and shaping value-led solutions. You will work across engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing to turn complex customer needs into winning bids. You’ll develop and manage relationships with the UK MoD, defence primes, and industry stakeholders while learning advanced B2B sales methods.

This high-visibility path includes coaching to grow into a future Business Development Director.

• 1-on-1 coaching for career acceleration
• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Full UK remote-working flexibility
• Enhanced pension contributions
• Life assurance and income protection

• Identify and qualify high-value opportunities and manage a target account list aligned with our Customer of Choice strategy
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate customer requirements into competitive solutions across Plexus’ value chain
• Build and nurture relationships with UK MoD, Tier 1 primes, and other industry stakeholders at multiple levels
• Monitor UK Defence funding cycles, market trends, and competition to inform capture strategy
• Apply strategic selling techniques to uncover pain points and articulate compelling value propositions
• Own and progress long sales cycles with minimal supervision to close opportunities

• Bachelor’s degree with sales or business development experience
• Demonstrated ability to generate sales pipelines and manage complex B2B relationships
• Experience or strong exposure to UK Defence/Aerospace sector is highly preferred
• Security Clearance (SC) advantageous; willingness to undergo vetting
• Ability to operate in a high-growth, high-visibility environment

• Relentless hunter with self-motivation
• Curious and coachable, open to feedback and new methodologies
• Strong communicator with executive presence
• B2B selling methodologies (e.g., Shipley, Challenger)
• Long-cycle sales management
• Strategic account development