Vice President Commercial

Primary Purpose of Job:

Reporting to the President, Structures Systems, the Vice President – Commercial,  will be the top commercial executive in the business unit and will own the global commercial strategy, revenue growth, customer relationships, commercial contract negotiations, business development, and market execution for Howmet Engineered Structures aerospace and defense business. 

This leadership position will have primary responsibility for driving achievement of sales and marketing objectives for the business unit through effectively marketing and ultimately selling Howmet's value proposition to a diverse range of existing and potentially new customers.  He/she will bring hands-on experience at the OEM and supplier levels, along with a deep understanding of how to successfully conduct business across multiple business locations and geographic regions.  The Vice President must lead a proactive and strategic approach to the market that fuels enhanced organic growth. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Lead and execute critical contract negotiations and serve as the internal liaison with senior leadership, including the CEO and CFO, for major contract approvals. 
• Further develop and enhance a global go-to-market strategy for Howmet's Engineered Structures business that crystallizes the value proposition for key customers and accelerates the company’s growth. 
• Play a key role in near and long term strategic planning in terms of demand outlook, sales targets, SIOP and contract reviews.  
• Lead the global team to ensure that everyone understands the strategy and the company’s expectations, and that there are appropriate standards and measures of performance in place. 
• Create focus, clarity and alignment around strategies for achieving growth, efficiency and profitability goals. 
• Recruit, motivate and develop world-class teams to achieve or exceed plan performance.  Ensure adequate people development and succession plans are in place. 
• Foster a culture that promotes ethical practices and individual integrity, while providing autonomy and accountability.  
• Establish and build strong relationships with key customers and represent the company in domestic and international markets. 
• Promote effective communication and collaboration with operations to ensure alignment around demand planning, contracting, order processing, production, delivery and customer satisfaction. 
• Monitor, review and assess key market trends, both in terms of recognizing new business opportunities as well as potential impacts to existing business segments. 
• Be the voice of the customer inside Howmet's Structures business, actively partnering with key functions and stakeholders to ensure full coordination and ensuring the voice of the customer is communicated properly. 
• Serve as a face of the Structures division and the company in the external market. 

Ideal Experience:

• Global experience leading a commercial organization for a highly engineered products business, ideally in aerospace and defense.
• Experience in aerospace and defense or other similarly complex manufacturing industries.  Possesses a technical orientation and genuine interest in highly engineered products.

• Progressive leadership experience in a high-performing sales and marketing organization, spanning multiple business segments and with global reach.  Possesses the requisite commercial leadership experience to be credible and confident in across all facets of the function, i.e., multi-year programs, planning, marketing, sales, capture, negotiation, contracting and customer service.

• A history and track record of successfully identifying and capturing new business opportunities across multiple product lines, market segments, customer groups and geographies.  Prior experience with new product introductions and implementations on a global scale.

• Inflexible on matters of safety, compliance and the fostering of a healthy work environment.
• Unquestioned ethics and integrity.

Education

An undergraduate degree with a concentration in business or engineering; an advanced degree is preferred.

U.S. work permission

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.  Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.  This position is subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which requires U.S. person status.  ITAR defines U.S. person as a U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (i.e., Green Card Holder), Political Asylee or Refugee.