Business Development Manager | Commercial Food Equipment

Business Development Manager | Commercial Food Equipment

This is a leading global manufacturer of highly engineered sensing, control, and sealing components. They deliver mission-critical protection and valuable data for a wide range of systems, including appliances, heating, air conditioning, refrigeration units, industrial process equipment, motor vehicles, and aircraft. They have over 4,000 employees worldwide across 10 manufacturing facilities dedicated to keeping people and their homes safe.

With a track record of over 75 years of innovation, quality, specialized expertise, they promote a highly collaborative approach, and a commitment to growth – working together with customers as a valuable partner, helping to meet their critical objectives. They recently re-established themselves as an independent company and are looking for entrepreneurial minded candidates to help the company grow.

The Business Development Manager will expand the presence in the North American commercial food equipment (restaurant and foodservice) market by building strategic relationships with leading OEMs, platform engineering teams, and product development organizations.

This role focuses on engaging technical and commercial stakeholders early in the design cycle to ensure temperature sensing solutions (RTDs, thermistors, and thermocouples) are designed into next-generation cooking, refrigeration, and food processing equipment.

By influencing product platforms at the concept phase, this position will secure design specifications, preferred supplier status, and long-term adoption across high-volume equipment platforms.

In this role, you will identify emerging trends and unmet needs in commercial food equipment—including energy efficiency, food quality consistency, safety, and electrification—and connect those needs with sensing technologies.

You will map key decision makers, track new product development cycles, and coordinate internal engineering and product teams to develop solutions that become embedded in OEM platforms.

Success in this role will result in technologies being designed into high-volume food equipment platforms, generating repeatable revenue across multiple product lines and customer programs.

This role will engage across the broader commercial food equipment ecosystem, including OEMs, system integrators, and engineering teams responsible for designing cooking, refrigeration, and food processing equipment.

Relationship Development – Build strategic relationships with OEMs, engineering leaders, and sourcing teams within commercial food equipment manufacturers.

Early Engagement – Engage early in product development cycles to secure design specifications and preferred supplier positioning for sensing technologies.

Solution Orchestration – Identify unmet customer needs related to temperature control, safety, and performance; collaborate with internal engineering teams to develop optimized sensing solutions.

Market Mapping – Track product development pipelines, emerging trends (electrification, energy efficiency, automation), and competitive positioning to develop targeted growth strategies.

Internal Collaboration – Coordinate across engineering, product management, and regional sales teams to align resources and accelerate opportunity development.

Growth Metrics – Deliver upstream influence, specification / Approved Vendor Listing wins, portfolio pull-through, and repeatable GTM patterns.

Market Presence – Represent at exhibitions and networking events to strengthen brand visibility and customer relationships.

Sales Support – Assist sales leadership with account planning, funnel management, and reporting on wins, losses, and market intelligence.

Securing design wins and preferred supplier status with key OEMs

Influencing new product platforms across multiple equipment categories

Generating a qualified pipeline of opportunities within the food equipment vertical

Driving adoption of sensing solutions across high-volume product lines

Establishing repeatable go-to-market patterns within strategic OEM accounts

Education – Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field.

Experience – 7+ years of experience in commercial food equipment, HVAC-R, appliance manufacturing, or industrial sensing technologies.

Technical Understanding – Familiarity with temperature sensing and control applications, including:

RTDs, thermistors, and thermocouples

Thermal control systems in ovens and cooking equipment

Refrigeration temperature monitoring

Safety and limit control systems.

Locations: TX, AZ or OH (may consider additional locations)