Business Development Manager

ELANTAS; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

ELANTAS is seeking a New Business Development Manager in the United States to drive growth in specialty coatings by researching markets, developing new customers, and commercializing opportunities. The role blends commercial strategy with technical insight and customer engagement to accelerate revenue and strengthen innovation-led value.

You will collaborate with Sales, R&D, and Technical Service to identify opportunities, plan trade shows, and develop entry points at targeted accounts, while

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, business, or related field.
• 7–10+ years in specialty chemicals, coatings, additives, resins, or adjacent B2B technical sales.
• Proven experience winning new business in a technical, solution-selling environment.
• Experience with formulators, R&D teams, technical service, and manufacturing stakeholders.
• Experience in coatings end markets such as industrial, architectural, automotive, or packaging coatings.
• MBA or commercial training is a plus, but not required if market-building experience.
• Experience with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Experience managing teams in a matrixed organization.

Responsibilities

• Develops new and existing markets to support the Specialty Coatings growth strategy.
• Leads implementation of the growth strategy based on customer requirements and future needs.
• Plans and attends trade shows and conferences to develop markets.
• Engages with industry technical committees to understand markets and customer requirements.
• Represents ENAL's products and services to meet customer needs in targeted market segments.
• Visits potential and existing customers for new business development, including cold calls.
• Collaborates with Sales, Technical Service and R&D to identify growth opportunities and pricing for new launches.
• Drives new growth/innovation pipeline with TS & R&D and monitors project progress.
• Develops and executes product launch plans with collateral and training for sales.
• Stays informed on new products and general market information.
• Develops annual forecast on anticipated market sales.
• Maintains records and prepares reports on all activities.

Skills

Analytical skills

Time management

Negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, business, or related field

Tools

MS Office Suite

Job description

Your responsibilities

The New Business Development Manager is a newly created role with the purpose of bringing a narrower and deeper focus on developing new markets, customers and applications in Specialty (industrial) Coatings. The incumbent is responsible for market research, development, and execution of the Specialty Coatings growth strategy (within the Engineering Materials Business Line). In this role the incumbent is expected to develop a thorough understanding of targeted markets/applications/customers via primary/secondary research, trade shows, conferences, etc. Focus will be on driving strategic growth by identifying, developing, and commercializing new business opportunities.

The position bridges commercial strategy, technical expertise, and customer engagement to accelerate revenue growth and strengthen the company’s innovation-led value proposition. In support of our growth strategy, the incumbent will develop new and existing segments by creating entry points at targeted accounts to evolve sales positions with ENAL’s current product portfolio. The incumbent must effectively address customer and market needs through product portfolio / product range and communicate such requirements to ENAL Technical resources requiring further portfolio innovation.

• Develops new and existing markets to support the Specialty Coatings growth strategy (within the EM Business Line).
• Leads implementation of the growth strategy based on customer requirements and future needs.
• Plans and attends trade shows and conferences to develop markets.
• Engages and participates in industry technical committees to gain understanding of markets and customer requirements.
• Represents ENAL's products and services with comprehensive understanding to identify how the solutions meet the needs of customers for targeted market segments.
• Visits potential and existing customers for new business development, including cold calls, with and without Sales team and key distribution channel partners.
• Work with Sales, Technical Service and R&D leadership to identify growth opportunities and propose the participation plan including 4P analysis and Value Propositions
• Work with TS & R&D to drive the new growth/innovation pipeline in Specialty Coatings & monitor project progress
• Work with Sales manager, Business Directors and VP – Commercial & Technology to determine the pricing strategy for new product launches and new application development
• Develops and executes successful product launches by creating launch plans, support materials, and training for sales. Partners with sales to drive new product sales in key accounts. Coordinates with marketing communications to produce collateral, e-solutions, etc.
• Stays informed on new products and/or services and other general information of interest to the market and potential customers.
• Develops annual forecast on anticipated market sales.
• Maintains records and prepares reports on all phases of activities.
• Assists the organization to create a safe and healthy working environment by working safely, using equipment provided and following instructions given for health and safety purposes and immediately reporting any unsafe working practices or hazardous working conditions.

The above list describes typical duties and responsibilities and is not intended to limit management from assigning other work as needed.

Metrics Deliverables

• New revenue generation from new customers and applications (annual and multi-year targets).
• Pipeline value and conversion rate from opportunity identification to commercialization.
• Number and quality of new customer engagements, trials, and product qualifications.
• Time-to-commercialization for new opportunities.
• Contribution margin from new business wins.
• Market penetration within targeted coatings segments or geographies.
• Customer retention and expansion within newly developed accounts.
• Alignment with innovation pipeline, including successful commercialization of new products.

Your profile

Qualification, knowledge and experience

• Balanced mix of technical credibility, commercial drive, and customer-facing maturity
• Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, business, or a related field.
• 7–10+ years of experience in specialty chemicals, coatings, additives, resins, or adjacent B2B technical sales.
• Proven experience winning new business in a technical, solution-selling environment.
• Experience working with formulators, R&D teams, technical service, and manufacturing stakeholders.
• Experience in one or more coatings end markets such as industrial, architectural, automotive, protective, or packaging coatings.
• MBA or commercial training is a plus, but not required if the candidate has strong market-building experience
• Experience with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Experience with managing teams preferred
• Experience in a matrixed organization where sales, technical, and operations must align

Skills and attitude

Ability to work collaboratively with all relevant internal and external stakeholders in an international business environment.

Proven ability to use analytical skills and critical thinking to diagnose business issues and incorporate into development or adjustment of marketing plans.

Exceptional use of time management, planning, organizational, selling and negotiating skills.

Resilient, persistent, and comfortable with long sales cycles

Excellent business / commercial acumen

Sensitive to cultural differences

Ability to demonstrate and foster safe working behavior in the team

Contact Person

Brett Keller

HR Team