Job Title: Business Development Manager - EU Location: Remote Business Unit: Team Wendy/Avon Protection About Avon Technologies: We are a world leader in protective equipment, with a reputation for innovative design, high-performance quality and specialist materials expertise. Our two brands, Avon Protection and Team Wendy, supply our respiratory and head protection portfolio to custo mers across the globe from our manufacturing sites in the UK and North America. With over 900 talented people our shared purpose and core beliefs are to be #FIERCE about Protecting Lives. It's why we come to work - and it's what motivates us, every day, to do the best work we can
Position Summary
The Business Development Manager – Europe is responsible for growing Team Wendy’s presence, brand awareness, and revenue across European defense and law enforcement markets. Reporting to the Senior International Business Development Director, Europe & Middle East, this role provides dedicated, in-region engagement with NSPA, NATO, national military organizations, law enforcement agencies, distributors, and end users. The role exists to close a critical market coverage gap, ensure Team Wendy engages early in procurement and modernization cycles, influence future requirements, and build long-term customer relationships that position Team Wendy head protection solutions as the preferred choice across Europe.
Key Responsibilities
European Growth Strategy & Market Development
- Develop and execute a focused business development plan for Europe aligned with Team Wendy’s international growth strategy and revenue objectives.
- Prioritize NATO member countries based on customer need, procurement activity, competitive position, partner capability, and probability of success.
- Build country-level account plans covering defense ministries, armed forces, special operations, law enforcement, public safety agencies, and other relevant government stakeholders.
- Identify whitespace opportunities and recommend market-entry, product-positioning, and route-to-market strategies.
Customer Influence & Demand Creation
- Engage end users, procurement authorities, technical evaluators, and senior decision-makers early in the acquisition cycle to understand requirements and position Team Wendy solutions.
- Proactively shape opportunities by influencing specifications, evaluation criteria, testing plans, and procurement pathways in an ethical and compliant manner.
- Build awareness through customer briefings, product demonstrations, field evaluations, helmet shoots, trials, exercises, and targeted industry events.
- Translate operational feedback and regional requirements into clear inputs for product management, marketing, engineering, and commercial teams.
Pipeline, Opportunity & Tender Management
- Own the regional opportunity pipeline from early identification and qualification through capture, bid submission, negotiation, and handover.
- Maintain accurate CRM records, next actions, opportunity value, timing, probability, competitive intelligence, and forecast assumptions.
- Monitor defense plans, government budgets, framework agreements, tenders, and NATO-related procurement activity to identify opportunities before formal release.
- Develop capture plans for strategic pursuits and coordinate pricing, demonstrations, compliance documentation, proposals, and executive engagement with internal stakeholders.
Channel & Partner Development
- Identify, assess, onboard, and develop distributors, agents, and strategic partners in coordination with the Senior Director, International Business Development.
- Establish partner business plans, opportunity reviews, enablement priorities, and measurable performance expectations.
- Ensure clear ownership of end-user relationships and maintain direct customer engagement alongside channel partners.
- Address coverage or performance gaps and recommend changes to strengthen market access and execution.
Cross-Functional Execution, Governance & Compliance
- Work closely with the Senior Director, International Business Development and internal bid, product, marketing, legal, trade compliance, customer service, and operations teams to deliver coordinated regional plans.
- Provide concise market intelligence on customer priorities, competitive activity, pricing, regulatory requirements, standards, and procurement trends.
- Ensure all activities comply with company policies, anti-bribery and anti-corruption requirements, export controls, sanctions, trade regulations, and local laws.
- Support due diligence, contract review, pricing approvals, and risk mitigation for partners and opportunities.
Key Competencies
- Strong strategic selling, market development, and government stakeholder engagement skills.
- Ability to create demand and influence complex procurement programs well ahead of formal tenders.
- Commercial judgment and disciplined opportunity qualification in long-cycle B2G and B2B environments.
- Credibility with military, law enforcement, technical, procurement, and executive audiences.
- Strong partner-management, negotiation, presentation, and cross-cultural communication skills.
- Strong working knowledge of compliance frameworks, anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies, partner due diligence, and responsible third- party governance.
- Self-directed, collaborative, resilient, and comfortable operating across multiple countries and priorities.
- Analytical and data-driven, with a strong commitment to accountability, ethics, and business integrity
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Qualifications
Education & Experience
- 5+ years of business development or sales experience across European defense, military, law enforcement, or public safety markets.
- Demonstrated success developing government customers and winning complex, long-cycle opportunities.
- Strong understanding of European defense procurement, tendering, channel structures, and relevant regional institutions; experience across NATO countries is strongly preferred.
- Existing relationships with defense ministries, armed forces, special operations, law enforcement agencies, procurement bodies systems integrators, or distributors are highly desirable.
- Experience with personal protective equipment, soldier systems, ballistic protection, head protection, or adjacent mission-critical products is preferred.
- Fluent English required; proficiency in another European language is strongly preferred.
- Proficiency with CRM systems, pipeline management, forecasting, and structured capture planning.
- Demonstrated experience applying corporate compliance and anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies to international business development, partner onboarding, and ongoing partner oversight.
- Strong partner management experience, including partner selection, due diligence, onboarding, business planning, performance management, and remediation of coverage or capability gaps.
- High ethical standards and the ability to operate within strict compliance requirements.
- Willingness to travel extensively across Europe, up to 50% of the time.
- Valid passport and ability to travel freely within Europe and to the US
Skills & Competencies
- Prior military or law enforcement service, or direct experience as an end user of protective equipment.
- Knowledge of personal protective equipment, ballistic protection, or head-borne systems.
- Fluency in one or more European languages in addition to English (e.g., French, German, Polish, Spanish, or Italian).
- Familiarity with export control regulations (ITAR/EAR) and EU defense trade requirements.
- Ability to obtain or hold a security clearance.
- Strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen and a customer-first mindset
What We Offer:
- Flexible Schedule
- Competitive Compensation Package
- Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
- 401k Matching
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Learning and Development Initiatives
This job description is not intended, and should not be construed, to be an all-inclusive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with this job. While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of the job requirements, management reserved the right to modify, add or remove duties from particular jobs and to assign other duties as necessary. Responsibilities of this position may include direct and/or indirect physical or logical access to information, systems, technologies subjected to the regulations/compliance with U.S. Export Control Laws.
U.S. Export Control laws and U.S. Government Department of Defense contracts and sub-contracts impose certain restrictions on companies and their ability to share export-controlled and other technology and services with certain "non-U.S. persons" (persons who are not U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents of the U.S., refugees, "Temporary Residents" (granted Amnesty or Special Agricultural Worker provisions), or persons granted asylum (but excluding persons in nonimmigrant status such as H-1B, L-1, F-1, etc.) or non-U.S. citizens.
To comply with these laws, and in conjunction with the review of candidates for those positions within Avon that may present access to export controlled technical data, Avon must assess employees' U.S. person status, as well as citizenship(s).
The questions asked in this application are intended to assess this and will be used for evaluation purposes only. Failure to provide the necessary information in this regard will result in our inability to consider you further for this particular position. The decision whether or not to file or pursue an export license application is at Avon's sole election. Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without a sponsorship for employment visa status (e.e. H1B status). The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in Cleveland, OH is $109,000 to $186,000 Annually. The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to the type and years of experience within the job, type and years of experience within the industry, education, etc. EOE, Including Vet/Disability
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