{"id":3763018,"url":"https://alion.io/job/sharpshell-engineering-business-development-manager","title":"BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER","company":{"id":4510151,"name":"Sharpshell Engineering","domain":"sharpshell.co.za","url":"https://alion.io/company/sharpshell-engineering","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":null},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Midrand, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-04T10:01:04Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-11-04T10:01:04Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Introduction\nPrimary Sectors:Industrial Engineering | Mining | Power | Petrochemical | Oil & Gas\n\nLocation: Johannesburg / Gauteng\n\nTravel: Extensive travel to client sites across South Africa; regional African travel may be required later\n\nReporting to: Engineering Director\n\nRole Type: Senior Commercial / Business Development\n\nSharpshell Engineering is looking for an exceptional Business Development Manager capable of materially changing the growth trajectory of the business.\n\nThis role is for a proven industrial business developer who can enter major accounts, identify opportunities before they become public RFQs, gain access to technical and commercial decision-makers, develop complex engineering opportunities and convert them into profitable long-term contracts.\n\nWe are not looking for someone whose sales process ends when a quotation is submitted.\n\nWe are looking for someone who understands that:\n\nA quotation is not a sale. A pipeline is not revenue. A verbal promise is not a purchase order.\n\nThe successful candidate must be able to take opportunities through the complete commercial journey:\n\nMarket Intelligence → Prospecting → Executive Access → Technical Discovery → Opportunity Qualification → Solution Development → Commercial Strategy → Proposal → Negotiation → Decision → Purchase Order → Account Expansion\n\nThis is a high-accountability growth role for someone who wants to build something significant.\n\nDuties & Responsibilities\nTHE MANDATE\n\nThe Business Development Manager will be expected to help Sharpshell Engineering achieve a step-change in revenue, market penetration and quality of customer relationships.\n\nThe mandate includes:\n\n winning major new industrial customers;\n\n increasing revenue from existing strategic accounts;\n\n converting large engineering opportunities into purchase orders;\n\n developing long-term maintenance and framework contracts;\n\n opening new sectors and geographical markets;\n\n improving Sharpshell's win rate on high-value opportunities;\n\n creating a disciplined and predictable sales pipeline;\n\n protecting gross margins while remaining commercially competitive; and\n\n building senior relationships that make Sharpshell difficult to displace.\n\nThe objective is not incremental growth.\n\nThe objective is to develop a business-development engine capable of producing sustained, profitable and repeatable growth.\n\n TARGET MARKETS\n\nThe successful candidate should be capable of developing opportunities across sectors such as:\n\n Mining\n\n Gold, Platinum, Chrome and Coal operations\n\n Petrochemical\n\n Oil & Gas\n\n Power Generation\n\n Utilities\n\n Heavy Manufacturing\n\n Food & Beverage Manufacturing\n\n Pulp & Paper\n\n Industrial Processing\n\n Municipal and State-Owned Infrastructure\n\n Large industrial maintenance environments\n\nThe candidate should be comfortable dealing with organisations such as major mines, refineries, power stations, manufacturing plants and industrial asset owners.\n\nSHARPSHELL'S SOLUTION ENVIRONMENT\n\nThe Business Development Manager will develop opportunities involving services such as:\n\nMechanical Engineering & Maintenance\n\nCorrosion Protection\n\nIndustrial Cleaning\n\nCivil & Structural Engineering\n\nConsulting Engineering\n\nThe successful candidate does not need to personally design these solutions, but must have enough technical understanding to sell them credibly and bring the appropriate engineers into the sales process.\n\nWHAT YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO DO\n\n1. Build a serious new-business pipeline\n\nYou will systematically identify and penetrate new accounts rather than wait for RFQs to arrive.\n\nYou will create opportunities before competitors know they exist.\n\n2. Get access to the real decision-makers\n\nThis is not a role for someone comfortable dealing only with buyers and junior contacts.\n\nYou must build relationships with:\n\n Plant Managers;Engineering Managers;Maintenance Managers;Reliability Managers\n\n Asset Managers;Project Managers;Procurement Managers;Commercial Managers\n\n Technical Specialists;Mine Management;Operations Executives\n\nYou must understand the customer's decision architecture and know:\n\nWho can say yes? Who can say no? Who influences the technical decision? Who controls the budget?\n\n 3. Move opportunities — don't just report them\n\nThe Business Development Manager must actively create movement from:\n\nProposal → Decision → Award → Purchase Order\n\n4. Win larger opportunities\n\nSharpshell is specifically looking for someone capable of winning substantial industrial work.\n\nThe successful candidate must be comfortable pursuing opportunities ranging from routine maintenance orders to multimillion-rand engineering and maintenance contracts.\n\nYou must be capable of managing a sales process that lasts several months without losing momentum or control.\n\n5. Build strategic accounts — not just individual quotations\n\nMajor customers must be managed as accounts.\n\nWe want someone who can turn one successful job into multiple divisions, multiple sites and long-term recurring revenue.\n\n6. Improve conversion of tenders and quotations\n\nYou will not simply submit quotations and wait. Where permitted by the customer's procurement process, you will drive clarification, positioning and stakeholder engagement before and after submission.\n\n7. Protect margin\n\nRevenue without profit is not success.\n\nDiscounts must never be given simply because a customer asks.\n\nAny price concession should produce something in return, \n\n8. Turn customer intelligence into growth\n\nThe successful candidate must continuously gather commercial intelligence.\n\nThis information must be converted into sales strategy — not merely collected.\n\n9. Work closely with Engineering, Operations and Finance\n\nBusiness Development cannot operate in isolation.\n\nYou will coordinate with:\n\nEngineering\n\nTo develop technically credible solutions.\n\nOperations\n\nTo ensure Sharpshell can actually deliver what is promised.\n\nFinance\n\nTo protect margin, payment terms and cash conversion.\n\nManagement\n\nTo escalate strategic opportunities requiring executive support.\n\nA successful sale is one that Sharpshell can win, execute profitably, invoice and collect.\n\nWHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE\n\nThe Business Development Manager will ultimately be assessed on outcomes, including:\n\n profitable new orders;\n\n gross profit generated;\n\n new key accounts opened;\n\n strategic-account revenue growth;\n\n pipeline value;\n\n qualified pipeline coverage;\n\n Proposal-to-Decision conversion;\n\n Decision-to-Won conversion;\n\n average deal size;\n\n tender win rate;\n\n new-customer revenue;\n\n customer diversification;\n\n sales-cycle speed;\n\n forecast accuracy; and\n\n cash quality of business won.\n\nActivity matters.\n\nResults matter more.\n\nTHE PERSON WE ARE LOOKING FOR\n\nYou are likely to succeed in this role if you are:\n\n commercially aggressive without being reckless;\n\n technically credible;\n\n comfortable speaking to engineers and executives;\n\n a strong prospector;\n\n an excellent relationship builder;\n\n highly disciplined in follow-up;\n\n confident in negotiation;\n\n able to defend value and price;\n\n persistent without becoming desperate;\n\n analytical about lost opportunities;\n\n comfortable with targets;\n\n accountable for your commitments; and\n\n motivated by building a business rather than simply earning a salary.\n\nDesired Experience & Qualification\nCandidates should ideally have:\n\n An engineering, technical or commercial qualification .\n\n 5+ years' B2B business-development or industrial sales experience, with strong evidence of winning complex work;\n\n experience selling into mining, petrochemical, oil & gas, power, manufacturing or similar heavy-industry environments;\n\n evidence of personally developing new accounts;\n\n experience with technical or engineering services;\n\n experience managing multimillion-rand opportunities;\n\n strong tender and commercial-negotiation exposure;\n\n established ability to engage senior decision-makers;\n\n excellent written and verbal communication;\n\n strong CRM/pipeline-management discipline;\n\n driver's licence and willingness to travel extensively.\n\nWE ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN CANDIDATES WHO CAN SHOW\n\nAt interview, expect to discuss actual examples of:\n\n A major customer you personally opened from zero.\n\n A multimillion-rand deal you personally helped win.\n\n How you obtained access to a difficult decision-maker.\n\n A large opportunity you lost — and exactly why.\n\n A price objection you successfully overcame without destroying margin.\n\n An account you grew materially over several years.\n\n How you build a pipeline rather than wait for inbound RFQs.\n\n Your personal approach to moving a quotation from Proposal to PO.\n\n Your largest annual sales result.\n\n The value of the pipeline you currently manage.\n\nWe will be interested in evidence, numbers and specific examples, not generic statements about being “passionate about sales.”\n\nTHIS ROLE WILL NOT SUIT YOU IF\n\nYou rely primarily on inbound enquiries.\n\nYou believe sending quotations is selling.\n\nYou avoid asking customers difficult commercial questions.\n\nYou are uncomfortable approaching senior executives.\n\nYou wait indefinitely for customers to “come back to you.”\n\nYou automatically discount when challenged on price.\n\nYou cannot explain why deals were lost.\n\nYou need your manager to repeatedly tell you whom to call next.\n\nYou prefer maintaining existing accounts to building new ones.\n\nYou are looking for a comfortable sales-management title rather than a serious growth mandate.\n\nWHY JOIN SHARPSHELL ENGINEERING?\n\nThis is an opportunity to help build a substantial African Engineering Business.\n\nThe opportunity for growth is significant.\n\nThe successful Business Development Manager will have the opportunity to shape markets, build strategic accounts and directly influence the future scale of the business.\n\nThis is not a maintenance role.\n\nIt is a growth role.\n\nPackage & Remuneration\nMARKET RELATED \n\nInterested?\nAPPLICATION\n\nCandidates should submit:\n\n detailed CV;\n\n current remuneration;\n\n expected remuneration;\n\n notice period;\n\n current location; 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