Business Development Manager (Defence Sales - Maritime)

West Sussex.info; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Upskilling apprenticeship training

Cycle to work

Social and wellbeing events

Job summary

West Sussex.info is seeking a Business Development Manager with a focus on defence sales in the maritime sector. The ideal candidate will have strong knowledge of the industry and commercial drive. You will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities and building relationships with key stakeholders.

This permanent position offers a salary of £35,000 to £75,000 per annum, including uncapped commission. You'll thrive in a collaborative team environment, driving revenue growth while maintaining a balance between new business acquisition and account growth.

Qualifications

• Experience in business development, sales, or Defence (Maritime) environment.
• Ability to generate new business through networking and outreach.
• SC clearance required, which can be supported.

Responsibilities

• Identify and pursue new business opportunities.
• Maintain pipeline visibility and forecasts using CRM tools.
• Develop relationships with key stakeholders across defence.

Skills

Knowledge of the maritime defence sector

Commercial drive

Relationship-building skills

Negotiation skills

Consultative sales skills

Job description

Helping people find jobs in the local area since 2008

Business Development Manager (Defence Sales - Maritime)

Salary £35,000 to £75,000 per annum Including realistic OTE within first 2 years of employment

Location Portsmouth

Contract Permanent

Hours Full Time- 39.5 Hours per week - Monday to Friday

At Novatech, we deliver cutting-edge technology solutions. With defence as one of our core sectors, we’re looking for a Business Development Manager to join our defence sales team to support our growth strategy, focussing on the Maritime domain.

This is a consultative, collaborative and solution-led business development role focused on driving revenue growth. You’ll be supported by the Head of Defence Sales, Business Development colleagues (specialising in land and air domains), as well as sales support specialists and technical experts, enabling you to focus on high-value sales activity.

What you’ll be doing:

• Identify, qualify, and pursue new business opportunities to convert into sales, building a strong and sustainable pipeline
• Maintain accurate pipeline visibility and forecasts using CRM tools
• Develop high-value relationships with key stakeholders across defence, intelligence, and industry partners
• Act as a trusted advisor, understanding customer challenges and delivering tailored, value-led solutions
• Collaborate with internal technical and support teams to shape realistic, customer-centric propositions
• Balance new business acquisition with account growth, expanding into new areas within existing customers
• Stay ahead of defence market trends, procurement routes, and customer priorities

What We’re Looking For:

We’re looking for someone who combines strong knowledge of the maritime defence sector with commercial drive and excellent relationship-building skills. You’ll bring experience in business development, sales, or a Defence (Maritime) environment, along with an understanding of procurement processes, frameworks, and tendering.

You’ll have an ability to generate new business through proactive networking and outreach, as well as building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders. With a results-driven mindset, you’ll be confident working towards targets and using your communication, negotiation, and consultative sales skills to turn opportunities into orders.

This role would suit either a former member of the Armed Forces with maritime experience who has transitioned into a commercial role, or a sales professional with experience working with defence customers. Either way, you’ll be confident navigating the sector and turning insight into opportunity. SC clearance is required, which we can support you with.

What You’ll Earn:

Your base salary will reflect your experience, with expectations discussed during the recruitment process.

Your commission structure is directly linked to your base salary, providing a clear and transparent path to success.

Defence sales often involve longer, strategic sales cycles, so your on-target earnings (OTE) will build as your pipeline matures, typically accelerating in year two and beyond.

The key benefit? Your OTE is uncapped, meaning your earning potential grows alongside your success.

A bit about the team:

Our Defence Sales team is packed with expertise and strong industry connections. They’re often found getting out and taking up all networking opportunities, turning their deep sector knowledge and connections into exciting new opportunities for revenue growth.

Collaboration is everything here. Defence sales are technical and precise, so we’ve got brilliant sales support specialists backing the team as well as technical experts to craft practical solutions that wow customers and exceed expectations. It’s all about delivering results and creating long-term, trusted partnerships.

This is a team that's excited about unlocking new opportunities and they can’t wait to welcome new talent to support this.

What working at Novatech means for you:

There are heaps of other perks when working for us! For starters, we’re an accredited 'Great Place to Work', as voted by our amazing staff via the 'Great Place to Work' engagement survey. We embrace a non-corporate vibe and believe that when you can be your authentic self, that you enjoy your work more and take greater pride in what you do.

We respect the skills and experiences everyone brings to the business - and we'll support you with delivering the ideas and strategies you bring to the table to support our growth journey.

We’re all about your wellbeing and regularly organise team events, employee awards, and charity dos. We also care about the environment and have won awards for our efforts, which include being a net positive business (meaning we put more energy back into the grid than we use – which we are super proud of!).

Work life balance is important to us. As part of our hybrid working arrangements, you'll initially be working in the office every day for at least the first month to complete your induction training, after this, you'll be working in the office for a minimum of 3 days a week. We are really lucky as we have good transport links to the office for when you come in, alongside free staff parking and a lockable bike shed for if you drive or ride.

Our benefits in a nutshell:

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (with the chance to buy additional days)
• Upskilling apprenticeship training
• Cycle to work
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Social and wellbeing events
• A great breakout room Kitchen and shower facilities

About us:

Novatech work heavily in the B2B tech sector with some of the largest and most respected names in a range of industries. Whether it’s supporting businesses with their remote workforce under our Direct2Desk ground-breaking service, transforming defence companies with life-saving training simulators or implementing practical IT systems for businesses to thrive, there’s no end to the amount of fascinating and cutting-edge projects that we are involved in (some of which we can’t tell you about, yet).

Pretty cool, right? This is your chance to get involved and help develop the future of our business - and yourself at the same time!