Service Sales Business Development Manager

About the role

GEA, a supplier for the food and beverage processing industry and other process industries, is looking for an experienced Service Sales Business Development Manager for its Nutritional Plant Engineering Division in Naas. This is a strategic, client-facing role reporting directly to the Director of Service, with no direct reports, combining office work with regular customer and site visits. It focuses on the Dairy, Beverage and Pharmaceutical sectors and other process industries.

Key responsibilities

• Identify and grow new business and existing accounts in the Dairy, Beverage and Pharmaceutical sectors, build a sales pipeline and develop account and market strategies.
• Understand GEA's service and engineering portfolio (service agreements, spare parts, upgrades, process optimisation, automation, lifecycle solutions) and turn customer needs into service, upgrade and capital project opportunities.
• Lead the full sales cycle: qualification, proposal preparation with technical and project teams, negotiation of commercial and contractual terms, and contract award.
• Maintain accurate forecasts, budgets and pipeline data in CRM and ERP systems, and manage commercial and project risks.
• Build long-term relationships with key customers, ensure a smooth handover to project execution and support after-sales engagement.
• Contribute to regional business development planning, collaborate with regional teams and global Centres of Competence, and ensure compliance with legal, ethical, safety and environmental requirements.

Required profile

• University degree in Engineering, Business, Management or a related technical discipline; equivalent industry experience also considered.
• Proven B2B business development, service or technical sales experience, ideally in Dairy, Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Food Processing or Process Engineering.
• Experience selling engineering services, capital equipment or technical solutions in complex industrial environments.
• Ability to manage complex sales opportunities from first contact through proposal, negotiation and contract award.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites as required.

Required skills

• CRM and ERP systems, such as SAP, and Microsoft Office.
• Pricing, proposal development, negotiation and contract management.
• Strong communication, presentation and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to lead cross-functional sales initiatives with engineering, service, project and commercial teams.