Client Director – Defence

Client Director – Defence

Location: Bristol

Salary: circa £100,000 plus many benefits including bonus, pension and medical

Our client is a successful consultancy providing science and technology consultancy expertise to UK Defence projects.

They have a history of successfully delivering technical consulting services into the Land, Joint and Maritime domains.

Our client is looking for a Client Director to strategically lead their UK Defence consulting work winning activity in either the Maritime, Land or Joint domains.

Job Role – Client Director

As a Client Director you will be expected to develop and secure a sustainable business pipeline in order to build on the company's established success in defence consulting.

This is a strategic leadership role and is fully accountable for the development of the Group’s business development and work winning activity.

You will be a member of the Senior Leadership Team and will take responsibility alongside the rest of their leadership team for leading, managing and growing the business at an exciting point in their history.

Responsibilities re role of Client Director will include:

1. Leadership
   • Own and drive the Group’s strategy to deliver business objectives.
   • Be the Group’s ‘go to’ expert for market intelligence in your area of defence, and take the lead for implementing the strategy and work winning activity.
   • Lead the Group’s senior level client engagements with other stakeholders in the business to secure a sustainable pipeline of work for their consultants and capabilities.
   • Manage, mentor, coach and support Account Leads and senior consultants as they grow.
2. Client Management & Business Development
   • Establish and implement a client management approach through recognised methods and approaches for growth.
   • Accountable for major campaigns and leadership of key Projects and Programmes within their portfolio.
   • Build and maintain senior relationships with clients, partners and competitors within the UK Defence sector - gathering intelligence to better understand current and future needs of their marketplace.
   • Collaborate with senior stakeholders across the Group entities in order to co-ordinate business development and sales activity across all of the group markets.
3. Capability Demand
   • Ensure a sustainable demand signal process installed for capacity planning and to meet market delivery expectations.
   • Collaborate with senior stakeholders to identify requirements for new capabilities in line with future needs.

Requirements for the role of Client Director:

This role requires that you are a strong leader and interested in people and growing consultancy business. You will need a comprehensive understanding of the UK MOD Defence and Security consultancy sector, with strong awareness of current and future key programmes. In addition, you will require:

• A demonstrable track record of securing projects for defence consultants in UK MoD’s Front Line Commands, DE&S, Defence Digital etc.
• Strategic Business Development skills, with ability to articulate strategy through the use of plans detailing Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics.
• Bid directorship for large programs into public and/or private market sectors.
• Strong team leadership experience providing direct management through a mentor and coaching approach with proven sustained success.
• Senior consultancy experience within defence, delivering large complex programs into a variety of accounts through both direct client-side structures or through procurement frameworks.
• Sector specific, senior stakeholder experience in negotiating and positioning for long term relationships.
• An established and effective relationship network in Defence.
• Demonstrated capability of Commercial (Contract Law) acumen within significant long-term programs and able to understand company drivers and secure profitable work packages.
• Strong understanding of defence specific economic and client drivers, procurement landscape, major project requirements, and the competitive field.
• Success defining and executing sector specific strategy for Defence consultancy business development.

You will be joining a fast paced, ambitious team and play a pivotal role in the business’s future development.

Additional Information

Candidates will also need to either hold a current SC or DV clearance or be willing and eligible to undergo a Security Clearance check (SC level) upon starting their employment with the company.

Keywords: Defence, MOD, Business Development, Sales, Bids, Commercial Manager, Contract Law, Commercial Acumen, Front Line commands, DE&S, Defence Digital, Dstl, Client Director, Account Management, Account Lead