At Leonardo, we have a fantastic opportunity for a Campaign Leader - Combat Air to join our team. Leonardo is a global high-tech company and one of the leading players in Aerospace, Defence and Security. Headquartered in Italy, Leonardo has over 45,000 employees, of which 7,000 are based in the UK. Leonardo is a globally recognised leader in the design, supply and support of integrated airborne Electronic Warfare (EW) solutions. The Electronics UK Business Unit designs, develops and produces a wide range of products and solutions for air, land and maritime platforms that include integrated mission systems, radars and sensors, electronic warfare systems, on-board avionics and communications, air launched effects and a range of support solutions.
The Opportunity
The role of a Campaign Leader is to lead the business winning process during tender and negotiation phase for complex large value programmes. You will be responsible for engaging closely with customers, end-users, platform manufacturers and integrators in both the UK and overseas in order to close deals that meet our business plan targets.
The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of both the UK and international defence and aerospace market, as well as experience and proven success in strategic selling of complex EW (or similar) solutions. Experience from the customer side of complex programmes is welcome.
Job Description
The roleholder will lead large, complex pursuits in the EW line of business, using their significant domain, market and customer knowledge to help define the strategy and prosecute an integrated approach for capture of the business. They will be responsible for delivering the final phases of campaigns for a strategic programmes. The programme portfolio includes our contribution to partnership programmes such as Typhoon, GCAP and UK sovereign DASS.
This will require considerable external engagement with platform primes, commercial partners, mission data integrators and operators in the air, maritime and land domain. Therefore the roleholder must have excellent communication skills and be credible when engaging with customers to negotiate commercial and technical solutions. The role will require direct and indirect leadership skill qualities when dealing with internal stakeholders and driving the Integrated Campaign Teams (ICT).
The successful candidate will be required to build a detailed capture plan based on the bid strategy to secure pursuit, bid and resourcing approvals. They will also develop bespoke win strategies, generate the price to win for individual campaigns and oversee the drafting of proposals.
This is a high profile role focussed on a key growth area for the organisation, with the successful applicant getting regular exposure to senior leadership and an opportunity to visibly excel and become a significant contributor to the organisation’s success over the next decade.
The ideal candidate will have a demonstrable record of success in leading complex business pursuits. What is most important is a strong desire to meet customer needs and how you demonstrate flexibility and agility to meet those customer needs. An understanding of EW is highly desirable alongside how defence customers make decisions. The role holder will have to demonstrate leadership, tenacity and resilience during bid and tender stages.
The role can be located at either our Lincoln or Luton sites, although we are open to discuss flexibility, part time working and what that means to you.
What you will do. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to;
Development and execution of strategies to win business on complex proposals.
Work closely within the Integrated Campaign team using direct and indirect management skills to lead and coordinate bid activity and deliver innovative/competitive proposals.
Develop bespoke win strategies, generate the price to win for pursuits.
Lead the preparation of proposals for customers.
Develop and maintain relationships with Customers & End Users as well as Industrial Partners.
Develop and maintain relationships with key internal stakeholders including Regional and Divisional Marketing, our Capability function and other Leonardo lines of business.
Present detailed prospects to BW Reviews in order to secure pursuit, bid and resourcing approvals.
Utilise internal company procedures to ensure that opportunities are identified, tracked and accurately reported to senior management through maintenance of active Capture Plans.
Undertake accurate and well-informed market and competitor analysis.
Identify, create and validate opportunities for future sales and growth.
Provide input to and support for marketing & communications (MARCOM) events such as shows, exhibitions, demonstrations, conferences, etc as planned and directed.
Assist in the preparation of private venture (PV) investment business cases to develop new capabilities.
What We Are Looking For
Relevant sector experience and commercial knowledge. In particular, knowledge of the value of EW and Air platforms.
Self-starter and highly motivated and able to set short and long-term planning goals in line with campaign and business needs.
Innovative thinker able to anticipate and overcome problems in a complex international sales environment.
Experience of export campaigns, International customers and influence of UK MOD to support UK Defence exporters.
Output oriented with focus on achieving clear and ambitious goals.
Ideally have significant experience in developing, managing and leading key sales or strategic campaigns within the defence or other comparable sectors.
Strong leadership and motivational skills.
Excellent communication and presentation skills.
Be capable of confidently briefing to senior stakeholders across industry, government and the military
Required to make frequent visits (including overnight stays) to customer facilities in both the UK and overseas.