Business Development Manager for Services, Africa & Middle-East

Airbus; Dubai; On-site; AED 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic professional to spearhead business development initiatives in the Africa & Middle-East region. This role involves managing strategic projects, analyzing market trends, and proposing innovative service offerings tailored to local needs. The ideal candidate will possess strong project management skills, an engineering background, and a deep understanding of the aerospace industry. This position offers the opportunity to work collaboratively with diverse teams, influence key business decisions, and contribute to the growth of the company's services portfolio. If you're passionate about aviation and ready to make an impact, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Qualifications

• Experience in project management and understanding of aeronautics.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to work with multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Manage strategic business development projects in Africa & Middle-East.
• Analyze market needs and propose evolutions of Airbus services portfolio.
• Support local business development initiatives and maintain stakeholder communication.

Skills

Project Management

Aeronautics Engineering

MRO and OEM Aftermarket Activities

Contract Negotiation

Leadership Skills

Communication Skills

Negotiation Skills

Financial Drivers Understanding

Multicultural Teamwork

Stakeholder Management

Education

Engineering Degree in Aeronautics

MBA

Job description

Job Description:

Accountabilities

In consonance with the strategic importance and long-term growth of aviation traffic and aircraft orders from carriers in the region, Airbus has identified Africa & Middle-East as a strong prospect for the growth of its Services business. The jobholder will be accountable for managing strategic business development projects in the Africa & Middle East region, maintaining a full understanding of the services business ecosystem, needs and trends in the region, and supporting the Head of Business Development & Strategy in deploying the regional strategy for Airbus Customer Services in alignment with the corresponding Business Lines strategy and objectives, and providing local support for all services partnership-related activities launched by Services Business Development central teams. This will include working upfront in the identification of the business opportunities and partnership targets, developing the partnership scope and business set-up.

Main responsibilities

Business Development in Africa & Middle-East:

1. Support the management of a strategic regional project.
2. Collect, analyze and share the market needs/trends and the competitive landscape on integrated services packages or on ad-hoc basis to proactively propose evolutions of Airbus services portfolio in line with local market expectations and potential;
3. Ensure that information on the evolution of the competition with focus on MRO and training ecosystem is kept up to date;
4. Contribute to building a vision for Customer Services activities development in the region, aligning business lines strategies with local priorities and opportunities through the development of a regional tactical plan, and ensure that it is updated, followed through and agreed with all relevant stakeholders;
5. In line with the strategic priorities defined by Airbus for Africa & Middle-East, identify and propose new business opportunities and associated partners adapted to the market in the region.

Service definition:

1. Represent Business Development & Strategy function in the relevant Multi-Functional Teams. Based on a set of scenarii defined in Multi-Functional Team, propose business opportunities and the associated Service offer for Africa & Middle-East.
2. In link with S business lines and commercial teams, ensure consistency and completeness of the Service offer, delivering the best value proposal to the customer and maximizing Airbus profitability whilst ensuring alignment with Airbus Aftermarket Strategy.
3. Optimize Airbus NPV/ROI over the full lifecycle of the Service through appropriate business modeling and associated business cases.

Partnership Projects:

1. By delegation of the Central Business Development function, manage some partnership projects (in accordance with internal processes) including:

• Establish the most appropriate project structure,
• Ensure validation of projects objectives and associated resources,
• Follow-up project progress and deliverables, propose and set project indicators (KPI) including link with M&A team when required,
• Organize and animate project management in a structured and agile way;
• Organize progress reviews with the different project or work package leaders across Services business lines;
• Liaise with the Central Business Development function to define the business model and business case for the partnership and get it validated;
• Ensure that the required contractual set-up is in place (NDA, LoI, MoU, contractual agreement, JV, …);

Bring to the Central Business Development & Partnership teams local expertise on any business development project;

Ensure consistency of local projects with the Customer Services project portfolio and with Airbus Customer Services transformation platform;

Report to the Strategic Planning & Business Development team and to the sponsors of the projects on the progress and deliverables of the projects under your responsibility.

Local support to Business Development initiatives:

1. Support all members of the Central Business Development & Partnership teams engaged with Africa & Middle-East as needed to secure efficient business meetings with their relevant counterparts;
2. Provide contextual information to Central Customer Services Strategy teams when needed for their respective projects in relation with political, economic, environmental, regulatory, market situation;
3. Provide cultural awareness to the Central Business Development team members as required for their respective business related activities in Africa & Middle-East;
4. Support the Central Business Development team in escalating topics to the Airbus management in Africa & Middle-East;
5. Support and ease the communication between Central Business Development team and the Airbus colleagues in Africa & Middle-East.

Organization structure:

The job holder reports to the Head of Business Development & Strategy for Customer Services, Africa & Middle-East. This role will involve some travel for business, sometimes on short notice, and as such you must be able to travel accordingly.

Interfaces and transverse management:

The jobholder will work in close coordination with the Head of Business Development & Strategy for Customer Services Africa & Middle-East and its team, the local Strategy & GAM teams, the International Cooperation stakeholders, and with all the central business development teams, in particular the Business Development and Partnership managers.

Skills:

As the successful candidate you will be able to demonstrate some of the following competences & skills:

1. Experience in project management (LBIP)
2. Educated to engineering degree level, specializing in aeronautics. An MBA would be a plus.
3. Experience in MRO and/or OEM aftermarket activities.
4. Experience negotiating and working on contracts.
5. Good knowledge of Airbus Customer Services portfolio.
6. Strong network in Customer Services overall, but also in the industry regionally.
7. Good understanding of financial drivers and business cases.
8. You are recognized for your leadership, communication and negotiation skills.
9. You are autonomous and able to work within a team and in a multicultural environment.
10. You are recognized for your ability to work with multiple stakeholders and your ability to work with short deadlines.

This job requires an awareness of any potential compliance risks and a commitment to act with integrity, as the foundation for the Company’s success, reputation and sustainable growth.

Required Competencies:

1. Business & Company portfolio understanding (2 - Autonomous Level)
2. Business case building (2 - Autonomous Level)
3. Business Development Techniques (3 - Advanced Level)
4. Business opportunities analysis (3 - Advanced Level)
5. Business Thinking (3 - Advanced Level)
6. Customer expectations & needs (3 - Advanced Level)
7. Develop business (3 - Advanced Level)
8. Export Control Basics GE_-00021> (1 - Basic Level)
9. Interact and Influence (3 - Advanced Level)
10. Master market trends (3 - Advanced Level)
11. Sustainability fundamentals (1 - Basic Level)

This job requires an awareness of any potential compliance risks and a commitment to act with integrity, as the foundation for the Company’s success, reputation and sustainable growth.

Company: Airbus Africa and Middle East FZE

Employment Type: Fixed term

Experience Level: Professional

Job Family: Customer Account and Service Management

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