Business Development Lead - Radio Communications, Radar & Fire-Control Systems

Onodrim Industries; Zürich; On-site; CHF 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Onodrim Industries is building a Europe‑scale defence and industrial platform. We acquire specialised manufacturers, invest behind their growth, and drive revenue through strategic deals with ministries, primes and system integrators across Europe.

The Business Development Lead for Radio Communications, Radar and Fire‑Control Systems owns top‑line growth for our portfolio in these domains, shaping demand, opening doors, and closing signed business while representing Onodrim with credibility and

Qualifications

• A degree in engineering, business, economics, international relations or a closely related discipline; an electrical or communications engineering degree is a plus.
• 5+ years in business development, sales or capture management in defence communications, radar, electronic warfare or a closely adjacent field, selling into European ministries, procurement agencies, armed forces, primes or system integrators.
• A track record of closed business you can walk through: what you sold, to whom, for how much, and what you did to win it.
• Working knowledge of how the sector buys – programme and budget cycles, primes and supplier tiers, framework contracts, offsets, qualification, spectrum and export control – and an existing network inside it.
• Enough technical fluency to discuss radios, networks and radar credibly with engineers and military users – waveforms, spectrum, jam resistance, detection performance, integration – and to know when to bring an engineer.
• Self‑direction: you have built a pipeline from nothing, set your own targets and hit them without a sales operations team behind you.
• Excellent communication in English, written and spoken – in a proposal, in a boardroom, on a stage – and the judgement to know what not to say.
• Comfort working alongside owner‑managers and engineers at small industrial companies, and the ability to bring them with you.
• Willingness to travel extensively across Europe to customers, partners, trials, conferences and portfolio companies.
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU, and eligibility for a national security clearance in at least one of our operating countries.

Responsibilities

• Build the growth plan for each portfolio company with targets, priorities and a pipeline to get there.
• Open doors with ministries of defence, procurement agencies, signals and air‑defence users, primes, system integrators and partners across Europe; get the company into conversations and tenders it is currently missing.
• Own the pipeline by qualifying opportunities and guiding them through the sales cycle – capture plan, demonstration, proposal, negotiation, contract.
• Close by bringing in signed business and being accountable for bookings against the plan.
• Represent the company at conferences, industry bodies, customer briefings and trials with appropriate discretion.
• Shape the offer by feeding customer feedback into product, roadmap, pricing and positioning decisions.
• Run proposals and trials by leading or coordinating responses to RFIs, RFPs and framework tenders and the related demonstrations and field trials.
• Work the partner channel to build teaming, integration and distribution arrangements that speed up customer access.
• Inform what we buy next by feeding market, customer and competitor intelligence to the deal team and leadership.
• Build the function with CRM, pipeline reviews and capture processes at companies new to these practices.

Skills

Business development

Sales

Capture management

Defence communications

Ministry relations

Education

Engineering / Business degree

Tools

CRM

Job description

About the role

Onodrim is building Europe's largest defence and industrial platform. We acquire specialist manufacturers in critical defence and dual-use supply chains, then invest behind their growth with capital, technology and operating know-how.

Communications and radar are the areas where we are building real depth – resilient tactical networks, software-defined and commercial-silicon radios, low-cost sensing radar for counter-UAS and platform protection, and the companies that make them. The companies we buy in this space are usually excellent at what they build and under-invested in selling it: a few long-standing customers, a reputation inside a narrow circle, and no one whose job it is to find the next programme. The Business Development Lead for Radio Communications, Radar and Fire‑Control Systems changes that. You'll own top‑line growth for our portfolio companies in this domain: work out where the demand is, get in front of the people who control it, and bring back signed business.

This is a sales role, and a self‑directed one. You'll come with your own view on how to grow the business and the drive to go and test it – with ministries and procurement agencies, signals and air‑defence communities, primes and system integrators, and the partners who can open doors. You'll represent Onodrim and its companies externally, at a level where what you say carries weight, and you'll be measured on what you close.

What you’ll do

• Build the growth plan. For each portfolio company in your area, work out where the addressable demand is – tactical‑communications and air‑defence programmes, platform integrations, border and critical‑infrastructure protection, export markets – and write a plan with targets, priorities and a pipeline to get there.
• Open doors. Build and work relationships with ministries of defence, procurement agencies, signals and air‑defence users, primes, system integrators and partners across Europe; get the company into the conversations and tenders it is currently missing.
• Own the pipeline. Qualify opportunities hard, run them through the sales cycle – capture plan, demonstration, proposal, negotiation, contract – and keep an honest, current forecast.
• Close. Bring in signed business and be accountable for bookings against the plan.
• Represent the company. Speak for Onodrim and its portfolio companies at conferences, industry bodies, customer briefings and trials, with the discretion the sector requires.
• Shape the offer. Take what you hear from customers back into product, roadmap, pricing and positioning decisions with the company’s leadership; make sure what is sold can be built and fielded.
• Run proposals and trials. Lead or coordinate responses to RFIs, RFPs and framework tenders, and the customer demonstrations and field trials that decide them – including the teaming, pricing and compliance work behind them.
• Work the partner channel. Build teaming, integration and distribution arrangements with primes, platform makers and complementary suppliers where they get us to customers faster than going direct.
• Inform what we buy next. Feed market, customer and competitor intelligence to the deal team and the leadership: where demand is going, which capabilities customers are missing, which companies they wish existed.
• Build the function. Put the basics in place – CRM, pipeline reviews, capture process – at companies that have never had them, and help their own teams sell.

What you’ll bring

• A degree in engineering, business, economics, international relations or a closely related discipline; an electrical or communications engineering degree is a plus.
• 5+ years in business development, sales or capture management in defence communications, radar, electronic warfare or a closely adjacent field, selling into European ministries, procurement agencies, armed forces, primes or system integrators.
• A track record of closed business you can walk through: what you sold, to whom, for how much, and what you did to win it.
• Working knowledge of how the sector buys – programme and budget cycles, primes and supplier tiers, framework contracts, offsets, qualification, spectrum and export control – and an existing network inside it.
• Enough technical fluency to discuss radios, networks and radar credibly with engineers and military users – waveforms, spectrum, jam resistance, detection performance, integration – and to know when to bring an engineer.
• Self‑direction: you have built a pipeline from nothing, set your own targets and hit them without a sales operations team behind you.
• Excellent communication in English, written and spoken – in a proposal, in a boardroom, on a stage – and the judgement to know what not to say.
• Comfort working alongside owner‑managers and engineers at small industrial companies, and the ability to bring them with you.
• Willingness to travel extensively across Europe to customers, partners, trials, conferences and portfolio companies.
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU, and eligibility for a national security clearance in at least one of our operating countries.

Nice to have

• We operate our business in English; knowledge of a European language other than English is beneficial.
• Military service in a signals, air‑defence or electronic‑warfare role, or time inside a ministry of defence or procurement agency, that gives you first‑hand understanding of the customer.
• An existing national security clearance.
• Experience selling radios, networks, radar or EW sub‑systems into primes and platform programmes – the supplier side, not only the system side.
• Experience with NATO, NSPA, EDA or EU‑funded defence programmes and their procurement routes, or with counter‑UAS and border‑security buyers outside the traditional defence channel.
• Experience in a PE‑backed or acquisitive group where you grew the revenue of a newly acquired company.
• Familiarity with the commercial‑silicon and 5G ecosystem as it enters defence, and with the questions customers ask about it.
• Time in a start‑up or small team where you did whatever the business needed.
• Clearance in at least one of our operating countries.