National Sales Manager

Confidential; Norfolk (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential is seeking a Director of Marine Sales to lead national sales execution and business development for the U.S. maritime market. This hands-on leadership role requires a seasoned maritime professional with a broad network and deep shipbuilding/ship repair knowledge.

You will spend substantial time in the field with clients and teams, strengthening executive relationships, expanding accounts, and building a robust national pipeline across defense and commercial segments.

Qualifications

• Experience leading, coaching, and developing sales professionals.
• Strong executive-level relationship development and communication skills.
• Proven sales and business development experience within the U.S. maritime industry.

Responsibilities

• Lead national sales and business development strategy and execution across key U.S. maritime markets.
• Drive new business, account expansion, revenue growth, and market penetration.
• Lead, coach, develop, and hold accountable a geographically dispersed Marine sales organization.
• Build and maintain executive-level relationships with shipyards, ship repair organizations, and senior industry leaders.
• Develop opportunities using existing relationships while growing the team’s capacity to win new clients.

Skills

Maritime sales

Leadership

Business development

Executive relationships

Forecasting & KPIs

CRM utilization

Tools

Bullhorn

Salesforce

Job description

The Director of Marine Sales will lead national sales execution and business development for an established workforce organization serving the U.S. marine industry. This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced maritime professional who understands the shipbuilding and ship repair industries, has an established network across multiple U.S. markets, and knows how to develop both business and people.

The role supports the delivery and expansion of skilled-trades workforce and staffing solutions across defense and commercial shipbuilding, ship repair, maritime contractors, and the broader maritime industrial base.

The successful candidate will spend significant time in the field with clients and sales teams, strengthening executive relationships, developing new opportunities, expanding existing accounts, improving market penetration, and building stronger local, regional, and national pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead national sales and business development strategy and execution across key U.S. maritime markets.
• Drive new business, existing-account expansion, revenue growth, margin performance, and market penetration.
• Lead, coach, develop, and hold accountable a geographically dispersed Marine sales organization.
• Build and maintain executive-level relationships with shipyards, ship repair organizations, defense contractors, maritime contractors, and senior industry leaders.
• Personally support strategic account development and use existing industry relationships to create new opportunities while developing the team’s ability to independently grow client relationships.
• Maintain strong visibility into market performance, sales pipelines, forecasting, KPIs, CRM utilization, and sales activity.
• Establish clear expectations for pipeline development, client engagement, follow-up, CRM discipline, forecasting, and sales accountability.
• Identify underperforming markets, gaps in sales coverage, and new geographic opportunities and recommend appropriate resources or changes in market strategy.
• Review client requirements, pricing, proposals, commercial terms, and sales agreements and help advance opportunities through appropriate internal review processes.
• Lead Marine trade show and industry association strategy, including event selection, client and prospect targeting, team participation, follow-up, and measurable business value.
• Maintain meaningful involvement within the maritime industry and pursue appropriate committee, advisory, working-group, or leadership opportunities where strategically valuable.
• Work closely with Recruiting, Operations, Marketing, Safety, Contract Administration, and other support functions to ensure commercial commitments align with workforce and execution capabilities.
• Continuously improve the structure, discipline, capability, and performance of the national Marine sales organization.

Qualifications

• Proven sales and business development experience within the U.S. maritime industry.
• Strong working knowledge of shipbuilding and ship repair environments.
• Established professional relationships across multiple U.S. maritime markets, rather than a network concentrated in a single local market.
• Demonstrated success developing new business, expanding existing accounts, and building regional or national sales pipelines.
• Experience leading, coaching, and developing sales professionals.
• Strong executive-level relationship-development and communication skills.
• Experience managing pipelines, forecasting, KPIs, CRM utilization, and sales-team accountability.
• Ability to operate independently, exercise sound commercial judgment, identify opportunities or performance gaps, and bring forward actionable recommendations.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 70%.

Preferred Experience

• Staffing, workforce solutions, skilled-trades staffing, or contract-labor experience.
• Experience supporting shipyards, defense contractors, maritime contractors, or large industrial workforce programs.
• Experience with Bullhorn, Salesforce, or a comparable CRM platform.
• Experience managing sales activity across multiple geographic markets.
• Meaningful involvement with maritime trade associations, conferences, or industry organizations.
• Experience with proposals, pricing, commercial agreements, and contract-review processes.

An exceptional maritime sales leader with strong industry credibility, relationships, leadership capability, and demonstrated business-development success may be considered even if their background is not primarily within staffing.

Leadership Profile

This position is intended for a leader who is visible, hands-on, commercially focused, and comfortable operating in the field.

The right individual should be equally comfortable engaging senior executives, visiting shipyards and client locations, working directly alongside sales team members, reviewing performance and pipelines, and developing the people responsible for continued growth.

This is not a position focused simply on maintaining an existing book of business. The Director will be expected to strengthen the sales organization, expand strategic relationships, develop new markets and opportunities, and help build the next stage of national Marine growth.

Location & Travel

The position must be based in one of the following markets:

Norfolk, Virginia | San Diego, California | Pascagoula, Mississippi | Jacksonville, Florida

This is not a remote position. When not traveling, the Director is expected to work from the local office in their designated market.

Approximately 70% travel is required, with consistent in-person presence across U.S. maritime markets. Travel will support client engagement, team development, strategic accounts, new business, market expansion, trade shows, and industry associations.

The position carries national responsibility regardless of base location.