Business Development Manager

Universal Aviation; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Universal Aviation in India is seeking an experienced Business Development Leader to build India- and China-origin freight business from the ground up. This hands-on, individual-contributor role focuses on market development, prospecting, rate coordination and day-to-day commercial groundwork.

You will engage shippers, exporters, importers, overseas agents and referral partners, close contracts, manage pricing and reporting, and drive scalable India operations with support from local partners.

Qualifications

• 10–15 years of international freight-forwarding or cross-border logistics experience.
• Strong air freight, ocean freight, export/import and cross-trade knowledge.
• Exposure to India–China, China–India, Middle East, US and Canada lanes; India–UK and India–Thailand exposure is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Build profitable export, import and cross-trade business across priority and emerging trade lanes.
• Identify and approach shippers, exporters, importers, overseas agents and referral partners.
• Promote India- and China-origin freight business to selected global regions and priority corridors.
• Close contract rates with carriers, co-loaders, agents and customers across air freight, ocean freight and related services.
• Manage buy rates, sell rates, FOB-origin charges, local charges and lane-wise margins to protect profitability.
• Use WCA, local market contacts and origin-based business leads to develop agent and shipper opportunities.
• Work with the existing local operating partner for operational execution while identifying additional local partners where needed.
• Convert shipper and agent relationships into recurring import, export and cross-trade traffic.
• Define and supervise the sales-to-operations workflow from enquiry, quotation and rate confirmation through booking, documentation, execution, invoicing and post-shipment follow-up.
• Ensure every confirmed booking is handed over through a clear process, with shipment details, rate approvals, documentation, escalation ownership and follow-up responsibilities defined.
• Resolve pricing, service, documentation, capacity and contractual escalations.
• Maintain daily, weekly and monthly reports covering pipeline, quotations, bookings, shipment status, revenue, gross profit, conversion, lane performance and service issues.
• Support the phased development of a scalable and increasingly independent India business model.

Job description

A leading international freight forwarding company is seeking an
experienced and well-connected Business Development Leader to build India- and
China-origin freight business from the ground up.

This is a hands-on, individual-contributor role. Ideal candidate must be
comfortable with direct market development, prospecting, agent follow-ups, rate
coordination, reporting and day-to-day commercial groundwork.
This is not a senior people-management position, but a market-building role
designed to create profitable business and support a future independent India
presence.

Priority Trade Lanes

Core: India–China, China–India, India–Middle East, China–Middle East,
China–US, India–US, India–Canada and China–Canada.

Emerging: India–UK and India–Thailand.

Key Responsibilities

• - Build profitable export, import and cross-trade business across priority and emerging trade lanes.
• - Identify and approach shippers, exporters, importers, overseas agents and referral partners.
• - Promote India- and China-origin freight business to selected global regions and priority corridors.
• - Close contract rates with carriers, co-loaders, agents and customers across air freight, ocean freight and related services.
• - Manage buy rates, sell rates, FOB-origin charges, local charges and lane-wise margins to protect profitability.
• - Use WCA, local market contacts and origin-based business leads to develop agent and shipper opportunities.
• - Work with the existing local operating partner for operational execution while identifying additional local partners where needed.
• - Convert shipper and agent relationships into recurring import, export and cross-trade traffic.
• - Define and supervise the sales-to-operations workflow from enquiry, quotation and rate confirmation through booking, documentation, execution, invoicing and post-shipment follow-up.
• - Ensure every confirmed booking is handed over through a clear process, with shipment details, rate approvals, documentation, escalation ownership and follow-up responsibilities defined.
• - Resolve pricing, service, documentation, capacity and contractual escalations.
• - Maintain daily, weekly and monthly reports covering pipeline, quotations, bookings, shipment status, revenue, gross profit, conversion, lane performance and service issues.
• - Support the phased development of a scalable and increasingly independent India business model.

Requirements

• - 10–15 years of international freight-forwarding or cross-border
  logistics experience.
• - Strong air freight, ocean freight, export/import and cross-trade
  knowledge.
• - Proven exposure to India–China, China–India, Middle East, US and
  Canada lanes; India–UK and India–Thailand exposure is advantageous.
• - Existing relationships with shippers, exporters, importers,
  overseas agents, carriers, co-loaders and forwarding networks.
• - Strong ability to sell directly to shippers and overseas agents.
• - Proven capability in contract-rate negotiation, buy/sell pricing,
  FOB-origin charges, local charges and lane-wise margin management.
• - Strong understanding of India export documentation, origin
  operations and local market realities.
• - Experience with WCA or comparable forwarding networks is strongly
  preferred.
• - Comfortable working independently, starting from zero and handling
  hands-on business-development groundwork.
• - Able to coordinate effectively with overseas leadership, local
  operating partners and internal operations teams.
• - CRM experience, preferably Salesforce or equivalent, is preferred.

KPIs / Performance Metrics

• - New shipper, agent and referral accounts secured
• - Revenue, shipment-volume and gross-profit growth across priority
  lanes
• - Contract rates and profitable buy/sell margins secured
• - Growth in recurring India- and China-origin import, export and
  cross-trade traffic
• - Active overseas-agent partnerships and reciprocal business
  generated
• - Quote-to-booking conversion and lane-wise win rate
• - Quality of booking handover and commercial-to-operational workflow
• - Daily, weekly and monthly reporting discipline
• - Resolution of pricing, service, documentation and operational
  escalations
• - Progress toward a scalable India business model