2075 Vice President, Sales & Business Development
Specialty Metals & Advanced Manufacturing
About the Organization
Our client is a growing commercial manufacturing organization specializing in the development and production of custom and specialty metal alloys for aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing applications.
The operation produces development-scale quantities of aluminum, nickel, titanium, refractory metals (including niobium, tantalum, and tungsten), and high-entropy alloy systems. These materials are processed into powder, wire, rod, and billet products.
Manufacturing capabilities include vacuum and open-air melting, atomization, wire and rod production, and integrated materials testing and characterization.
Purpose of the Role
Lead the organization's revenue growth by developing, pricing, and closing a pipeline of custom alloy and feedstock orders, toll-processing opportunities, and customer qualification programs.
This individual will establish and develop the commercial function from the ground up and serve as the organization's primary commercial representative with customers, executive leadership, the board, and investors.
Key Responsibilities
Revenue and Pipeline Development
- Win new business: Identify, qualify, and secure orders for custom alloys and feedstocks, including powder, wire, rod, and billet, as well as toll melting, processing services, and prototype quantities.
- Target key customers: Develop relationships with aerospace and defense prime contractors, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, additive manufacturing producers, equipment manufacturers, materials developers, and government buyers.
- Convert trials into long-term programs: Guide customers from initial material trials and first melts through qualification, specification approval, and multiyear supply agreements.
- Manage the sales pipeline: Implement and maintain a CRM system, ensuring accurate pipeline coverage, opportunity tracking, and sales forecasts.
Pricing, Quoting, and Commercial Terms
- Lead the quoting process in partnership with operations and finance, incorporating feedstock costs, yield, consumables, testing, and freight to achieve targeted margins.
- Manage raw-material pricing exposure through appropriate quote validity periods, feedstock price adjustments, and deposit requirements for custom projects.
- Ensure established terms of sale are consistently applied to quotations and order acknowledgments.
- Escalate contractual deviations and customer flow-down requirements for appropriate review and approval.
Commercial Strategy, Planning, and Reporting
- Develop the commercial strategy, including target market segments, alloy and product-format portfolios, pricing structures, and the appropriate mix of product sales, toll processing, prototypes, and licensing opportunities.
- Partner with finance to develop annual sales plans and budgets.
- Provide monthly reporting to the board on revenue, gross margin, pipeline performance, and forecasts.
- Monitor competitive activity, feedstock pricing trends, material qualification requirements, and customer development programs.
Team Development
- Recruit, develop, and lead sales and applications engineering personnel as the organization grows.
- Establish distributor relationships and channel partnerships where they provide additional market access and commercial value.
Regulatory and Contract Compliance
- Export controls: Ensure customer inquiries, technical information, and commercial activities comply with ITAR and EAR requirements, including customer and end-use screening.
- Government contracts: Identify applicable FAR/DFARS flow-down provisions and cost or pricing data requirements before quoting work associated with government contracts.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Typically 15+ years of experience selling technical metal products, including specialty alloys, castings, extrusions, wire, bar, or metal powders, into aerospace, defense, or advanced manufacturing markets. Demonstrated sales results are more important than tenure alone.
- Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales quotas and expanding strategic customer accounts, supported by verifiable examples.
- Experience pricing custom, low-volume, high-mix manufacturing work involving fluctuating raw-material costs.
- Working knowledge of aerospace and defense material qualification processes, including AMS/ASTM specifications, customer qualification requirements, and AS9100 manufacturing environments.
- U.S. person status as defined under ITAR, required for access to export-controlled technical information.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced technical degree or MBA.
- Established relationships with aerospace and defense prime contractors, Tier 1 suppliers, and additive manufacturing materials buyers.
- Experience in a growth-stage or startup organization, including profit-and-loss responsibility.
- Experience selling to Department of Defense buyers and prime contractors, including knowledge of FAR/DFARS requirements and commercial-item pricing.
Behavioral Competencies
- Customer Focus: Builds credibility and lasting relationships with technical buyers, engineers, and key decision-makers.
- Results Orientation: Demonstrates a proactive, new-business development mindset and a consistent ability to close opportunities.
- Commercial and Financial Acumen: Understands profitability and structures pricing to achieve margin objectives rather than simply increasing sales volume.
- Technical Credibility: Communicates confidently with engineering and technical stakeholders regarding melting processes, alloy chemistry, and powder characteristics.
- Learning Agility: Adapts quickly to emerging markets, technologies, and business requirements.
- Integrity and Trust: Maintains high ethical standards while navigating relationships between commercial operations and affiliated organizations.
- Builder Mentality: Thrives in an entrepreneurial environment and is comfortable developing commercial processes, systems, and organizational infrastructure from the ground up.
Compensation and Benefits
- Competitive base salary.
- Annual variable incentive compensation tied to gross margin and new-customer revenue.
- Potential eligibility for equity participation or long-term incentive programs, subject to board approval.
- Comprehensive employee benefits package.
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