KL - Senior Trade Manager - Defence and Security, HEO

British Government; Kuala Lumpur; Hybrid; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a dynamic Senior Trade Manager to enhance the trade relationship between Malaysia and the UK. This role focuses on developing high-value defence and security exports while collaborating with local stakeholders. The successful candidate will thrive in a fast-paced environment, leveraging their strategic and interpersonal skills to create impactful business opportunities. With a commitment to professional development and flexible working options, this position offers a unique chance to contribute to significant trade initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Learning and development opportunities

Work-life balance support

Qualifications

• Strong interest in defence and security, business and trade.
• Excellent oral and written English skills.
• Minimum of 2 years work experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement defence and security export strategy for Malaysia.
• Manage relationships with key industry bodies.
• Provide strategic advice to UK companies in Malaysia.

Skills

Defence and Security

Business Development

Strategic Planning

Interpersonal Skills

Analytical Skills

Project Management

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Professional Development

Tools

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Word

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel

Job description

View Vacancy - KL - Senior Trade Manager - Defence and Security, HEO

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer. We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow. The FCDO operates an agile workforce and to facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time, as we may reasonably require.

Job Category Department for Business and Trade roles (DBT)

Job Subcategory Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Main purpose of job:

Are you a dynamic individual who is interested in a career where international trade meets defence and security? Where you can support British companies seeking to develop business partnerships in Malaysia, as part of a fast-moving and high-profile team?

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is the UK Government’s department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the UK. We are looking for a Senior Trade Manager (Defence and Security) to join the DBT Malaysia team at the British High Commission (BHC) in Kuala Lumpur to help us build and shape the trade relationship between Malaysia and the UK, increasing UK defence and security exports to Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region.

The job holder will work as part of the friendly and supportive DBT team, with opportunities to travel within Malaysia, Asia Pacific and beyond. We provide a modern and flexible working environment with the opportunity to work part of the week remotely.

The work will be varied and often fast paced. The successful candidate will be a flexible self-starter with a high degree of initiative and the ability to juggle priorities. We are looking for someone creative, with great people skills. A background in defence/security/business is an advantage but just as important is a proactive mindset and strong strategic and influencing skills. The role offers excellent scope for personal and professional development. The job holder will develop the defence and security export strategy for DBT Malaysia and manage a pipeline of business opportunities with the aim of delivering high value export wins for UK companies against agreed targets.

The successful candidate will collaborate closely with the Defence & Security Exports (DSE) team in DBT HQ in London, the Defence Adviser and Political Teams at BHC, as well as with colleagues across our Asia Pacific network.

• Develop and implement the UK government’s defence and security export strategy for Malaysia working closely with colleagues in the BHC Defence team and the DSE team in our UK HQ.
• Develop and maintain an in-depth knowledge of the defence and security sector in Malaysia, building strong and productive relationships with local stakeholders in public procurement and private sectors.
• Develop and manage a strong pipeline of high potential business opportunities in Malaysia, with an outcome-driven approach to creating the best conditions for exporter success.
• Provide strategic advice and support to UK companies around their business development activities in Malaysia with a focus on high value/high impact deals.
• Manage relationships with key industry bodies and scan trends and regulatory/strategic/policy developments to identify and pursue strategic commercial opportunities and to identify and tackle any barriers to trade.
• Support/lead on delivery of sector events and VIP visits that help position UK companies to develop business in Malaysia/Asia Pacific, including drafting high-quality briefings and speeches for ministers and senior officials.
• Develop a sound understanding of UK capability in the defence and security industry.
• Effective self-organisation including uploading evidence of services and interactions to our database.

The successful candidate will be joining a high profile and ambitious team and will be able to develop a wide range of strategic planning, project management and senior stakeholder management skills while developing export opportunities for the UK. If successful you will have the opportunity to get involved in a diverse range of DBT, BHC and corporate workstreams including planning and delivering high profile visits, organising L&D activities, and engaging the business community.

As DBT Malaysia team’s business priorities evolve, the successful candidate will potentially become involved in supporting other priority sectors/workstreams for DBT Malaysia, and a flexible approach is important.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

Access to a proportion of DBT’s budget for travel and subsistence, L&D etc

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• Strong interest in and/or experience in defence and security, business and trade
• Excellent oral and written English
• Minimum of 2 years of previous work experience
• Excellent presentation, interpersonal and networking skills
• Strong written, analytical and research skills
• Very good IT skills including Outlook, Word, PPT and Excel
• Self-Starter - ability to work well on own initiative
• Ability to work under pressure and juggle multiple priorities effectively
• Ability to conduct in-depth research and produce high quality materials against short deadlines
• Good organisational/project management skills

Desirable qualifications,skills and experience

• Defence and security sectors, business development, relationship management or government industry associations.

Required behaviours Communicating and Influencing, Managing a Quality Service, Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together

9 May 2025

Grade Higher Executive Officer (HEO)

Type of Position Full-time, Permanent

Working hours per week 36.25

Region Asia Pacific

Country/Territory Malaysia

Location (City) Kuala Lumpur

Type of Post British High Commission

Number of vacancies 1

Salary Currency MYR

MYR 10,000

Type of Salary monthly

Start Date 7 July 2025

Other benefits and conditions of employment

Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):

We offer time and financial support for the successful candidate to take advantage of professional learning and development opportunities inside and outside of the organisation.

BHC and DBT provide a comprehensive L&D offer. A wide range of options is available for personal development including training courses, coaching and mentoring, job-shadowing, presentations and learning sets. Staff have access to a wide variety of online resources through the International Academy and Civil Service Learning. Staff are strongly encouraged to take advantage of all available opportunities.

All new hires undertake a workplace induction and there are some mandatory e-learning courses that must be completed to pass probation.

Working patterns:

Normal working hours are 36.5 per week. BHC Kuala Lumpur supports and promotes flexible working as a crucial part of our inclusive offering and is committed to staff maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

BHC in Kuala Lumpur is committed to flexible/hybrid working as part of our inclusive offering. This includes flexi-hours and up to two days per week working from home, in agreement with a jobholder’s line manager.

Additional information

Please note that your application must be submitted before 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the online application form completely including the employment and educational details, experience, professional skills and behaviour-based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the applications and incomplete form in any respect may not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

Only shortlisted candidates for interview will be contacted. Interviewees will be assessed on the core behaviours/qualifications listed above. Unsuccessful candidates will be notified via the system in due time. Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate”.

Indicated start date is provisional and subject to successful completion of reference and security checks.

Kindly check your application centre or email regularly for any update on the status of your application.

To those applicants not short-listed, we extend our appreciation for considering the British Government as a potential employer.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.