Africa Business Development & Commercial Lead

Tangent Solutions; Midrand; Hybrid; ZAR 1,100,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Tangent Connect is seeking an entrepreneurial, hands-on Business Development & Commercial Lead to grow our footprint across African markets. This role focuses on market-building, opening doors with customers, and developing a diversified pipeline for enterprise networking, connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud, and managed services.

You will build local routes to market with ISPs, technology providers and partners, manage strategic channel relationships, and drive opportunities from prospecting

Qualifications

• Experience in business development, commercial sales, channel development or strategic partnerships in enterprise networking, connectivity, cybersecurity or managed services.

Responsibilities

• Build Tangent Connect’s presence and commercial pipeline across priority African markets.
• Identify and secure new customer opportunities across industries.
• Develop direct relationships with senior business, IT, operations, procurement stakeholders.
• Create routes to market via ISPs, partners and system integrators.
• Grow partner ecosystems and drive managed services and IT infrastructure opportunities.
• Lead opportunities from discovery to proposal and deal closure.
• Ensure delivery teams understand local requirements and terms before delivery.

Skills

Business development

Channel development

Strategic partnerships

Sales leadership

Job description

Africa Business Development & Commercial Lead

Tangent Connect | Midrand, South Africa | Hybrid | Africa Travel Required

The Opportunity

Tangent Connect is looking for an entrepreneurial, hands-on business development professional to grow our presence across African markets.

This is a market-building role, not a desk-based sales position. You will open doors with customers, build Tangent Connect’s brand and partner ecosystem country by country, and create a strong, diversified pipeline of new business opportunities.

You will represent Tangent Connect’s enterprise networking, connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud, managed-services and IT-infrastructure solutions across a range of industries and customer environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Build Tangent Connect’s presence and commercial pipeline across priority African markets.
• Identify, develop and secure new customer opportunities across relevant industries.
• Build direct relationships with senior business, IT, operations, project and procurement stakeholders.
• Create and activate local routes to market through ISPs, technology providers, system integrators, engineering partners and pan-African service businesses.
• Develop and manage strategic channel partnerships that generate qualified opportunities and support market credibility.
• Position Tangent Connect’s solutions across enterprise networking, connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud, managed services and IT infrastructure.
• Lead opportunities from prospecting and discovery through solution development, proposal, negotiation and deal closure.
• Grow existing accounts and identify opportunities to attach managed services, support agreements and additional technology solutions.
• Maintain disciplined pipeline management, account plans, market intelligence and partner-development plans.
• Work closely with technical and delivery teams to ensure that customer requirements, commercial terms and local delivery considerations are understood before implementation begins.
• Support the coordination of local partner, commercial and compliance requirements needed to enable successful delivery in each market.

What Success Looks Like

• Tangent Connect has a credible, visible and growing presence in priority African markets.
• Local and regional partners are established and actively generating qualified opportunities.
• Strong direct relationships are built with target customers and key industry stakeholders.
• A qualified, diversified pipeline converts into new projects and recurring managed-services revenue.
• New business is transitioned effectively to delivery teams, with local requirements and dependencies clearly understood.

The Person

You are a proactive, commercially sharp go-getter who enjoys building something from the ground up. You are resourceful, practical and comfortable taking ownership in unfamiliar or complex markets. You can open doors, develop trust quickly and turn relationships into commercial opportunities.

You will bring experience in business development, commercial sales, channel development or strategic partnerships within enterprise networking, connectivity, telecommunications, cybersecurity, managed services, systems integration or a related technology environment.

You must be comfortable building partner-led routes to market across Africa, travelling regularly and engaging confidently with customers, partners and senior decision-makers. Experience in cross-border African business, technology-service delivery or local partner enablement will be advantageous.