Director of Business Development

A fast-growing software company is looking for its first dedicated Director of Business Development to build and scale a proactive commercial function. The business has established itself as a trusted provider of mission-critical software used to control, monitor and automate complex hardware systems. With strong year-on-year growth, exceptional customer retention and a highly technical product team, the company is now investing in outbound business development to accelerate its next phase of growth. This is a rare opportunity to join a founder-led organisation at an inflection point, where you\'ll play a pivotal role in shaping commercial strategy, opening new markets and building long-term customer relationships. Initially an individual contributor role, there is clear scope to influence future team growth as the business scales. Key Responsibilities Develop and execute an outbound business development strategy to generate new commercial opportunities. Build relationships with senior technical and commercial stakeholders across target industries. Identify and qualify opportunities within both existing and emerging markets. Lead discovery conversations to understand customer challenges and position software solutions around business outcomes. Work closely with founders, product and marketing teams to refine messaging and market positioning. Represent the business at industry conferences, networking events and customer meetings. Develop strategic partnerships that create new routes to market. Capture customer and market feedback to influence product direction and commercial strategy. Manage opportunities through the early stages of the sales cycle before collaborating with technical teams on solution development. Help establish scalable business development processes that support future company growth. Key Requirements Proven success generating new business within a B2B software or SaaS environment. Experience selling complex or technical software solutions to engineering, operations or technology-focused organisations. Comfortable discussing modern software concepts such as APIs, containers, microservices and cloud-native technologies with technical stakeholders. Strong consultative selling skills with the ability to uncover customer pain points rather than rely on feature-led demonstrations. Highly proactive, self-motivated and comfortable building opportunities from scratch. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills with the confidence to engage senior decision-makers. Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to thrive in an early-stage, high-growth business. Willingness to travel for customer meetings, conferences and industry events. Experience within aerospace, robotics, defence technology, autonomous systems, industrial automation or adjacent technical industries would be advantageous, but is not essential. This is an opportunity to become the first commercial business development hire within an ambitious software company that is redefining how organisations operate and manage complex hardware systems. You\'ll work directly alongside the founders, influence go-to-market strategy, and play a key role in expanding into new industries while helping shape the future commercial function. If you\'re passionate about opening doors, building markets and selling innovative software into technical environments, this role offers genuine ownership and long-term career progression. #J-18808-Ljbffr