Aerospace Business Development Manager – Growth & Strategy

3M; Maplewood (MN); On-site; USD 188,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Well-being programs

Job summary

3M is seeking a Manager of Business Development for Civil Aviation to translate customer needs and market trends into growth and product priorities. You will coordinate across engineering, marketing, and portfolio teams to drive airframe and defense applications.

The role emphasizes opportunity framing, business case development, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver market-driven innovations and successful commercialization. On-site in Maplewood, MN with travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Materials Science, Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, or a science field (completed and verified prior to start).
• Seven (7) years of experience in business development, segment or product marketing, product management, technical sales, strategic marketing, or commercial strategy in a private, public, government or military environment.
• MBA or advanced degree in business, engineering, aerospace, materials science, or a related discipline.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, electronics, semiconductor, power electronics, advanced materials, or related technical markets.
• Experience with aerospace airframes and structures applications, including adhesives, tapes, films, composites, sealants, surface preparation, surface protection, structural bonding, or related technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer needs, voice‑of‑customer insights, market trends, and unmet needs into business opportunities and innovation priorities.
• Experience working in cross‑functional, matrixed environments with sales, marketing, technical, laboratory, product, platform, and portfolio teams.
• Strong analytical, communication, presentation, and executive‑ready synthesis skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain a clear understanding of aerospace and defense airframes and structures market needs, customer challenges, industry trends, priority applications, and growth spaces.
• Gather, synthesize, and represent customer pull and voice‑of‑customer insights to inform portfolio decisions, innovation priorities, new product introduction activity, and commercialization plans.
• Identify and frame new applications, cross‑selling opportunities, technology gaps, and customer‑backed growth opportunities across aerospace OEMs, tier suppliers, MROs, defense customers, and strategic accounts.
• Support development and vetting of business cases for vertical‑relevant products, technologies, strategic customer opportunities, and external collaborations.
• Partner with application engineering to create product application heat maps for lead customers, priority accounts, and vertical growth areas.
• Connect customer needs and market opportunities with internal capabilities across Corporate Labs, platform teams, product teams, application engineering, marketing, sales, portfolio teams, and partner divisions.
• Support go‑to‑market strategy, launch readiness, customer demonstrations, trade shows, and customer‑facing portfolio representation for vertical‑relevant technologies and products.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing with sales, marketing, commercial, and technical teams on market trends, customer needs, value propositions, product updates, and competitive positioning.
• Represent aerospace and defense airframes and structures priorities in portfolio reviews, venture evaluation activity, innovation workshops, cross‑functional planning forums, and collaboration initiatives.
• Execute and measure collaboration priorities and agreement metrics where applicable.
• Evaluate opportunities based on customer value, market attractiveness, technical feasibility, strategic fit, and commercial potential.
• Support progression of customer‑backed opportunities through innovation, new product introduction, stage‑gate, go‑to‑market, and commercialization readiness milestones.
• Represent the business in customer meetings, trade events, demos, industry forums, and collaboration discussions related to aerospace airframes, structures, and defense applications.

Skills

Business development

Opportunity framing

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Market interpretation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Business/Marketing/Materials Science/Aerospace

Tools

None specified

Job description

3M is seeking a Manager of Business Development for Civil Aviation to translate customer needs and market trends into growth and product priorities. You will coordinate across engineering, marketing, and portfolio teams to drive airframe and defense applications.

The role emphasizes opportunity framing, business case development, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver market-driven innovations and successful commercialization. On-site in Maplewood, MN with travel.