Role Overview

The Business Development Director will drive profitable growth across Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea. The role focuses on expanding revenue and market penetration, particularly in water and wastewater treatment, while identifying opportunities across municipal, industrial, and infrastructure markets. You will bring in-depth customer, product, and application knowledge to the business, provide strategic support to Regional Sales Managers (RSMs), and turn market opportunities into practical growth initiatives.

Working closely with sales, engineering, operations, product management, marketing, supply chain, finance, and executive leadership, you will develop customer relationships, strengthen channel performance, and deliver sustainable commercial results.

Key Responsibilities

1. Regional growth and sales leadership: Own regional revenue, margin, and market-share targets for assigned pump brands. Build relationships with customers, EPC contractors, consulting engineers, utilities, and government agencies. Maintain accurate forecasts and a well-managed opportunity and project pipeline. Support RSMs through joint customer visits, deal strategy, pricing approvals, and escalation support.
2. Channel partner management: Work with RSMs through regular one-to-ones, joint field visits, deal reviews, and quarterly capability assessments. Review business performance with the executive team ahead of RSM country-level reviews, and participate in channel-partner QBRs to assess business health. Evaluate partners with RSMs and align on onboarding or offboarding decisions. Ensure partners are trained, certified, and equipped to sell, commission, and service pumps.
3. Market and opportunity development: Lead market segmentation and identify growth opportunities across water and wastewater, semiconductor, data centres, chemical, pharmaceutical, OEM, and related markets in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea. Monitor competitors, pricing, and market trends, translating insights into actions with Sales, Marketing, and Product teams. Develop strategic initiatives such as competitor displacement, entry into fast-growing markets, and aftermarket or service growth.
4. Commercial excellence and solution selling: Guide customer-facing teams on pump applications, product value propositions, and consultative selling. Support complex tenders, key-account negotiations, and technical solutions. Reinforce CRM discipline, including opportunity stages, win/loss reviews, and regular funnel reviews with RSMs.
5. Marketing and product alignment: Partner with BU Marketing to develop campaigns, events, and brand presence across the region. Gather voice-of-customer and market insights and translate them into strategic recommendations for management. Present market intelligence, customer profiles, and competitive analysis to the Commercial Director.
6. Cross-functional collaboration: Coordinate with Logistics and Supply Chain on demand planning, lead times, inventory, service levels, and route-to-market efficiency. Partner with Applications, Operations, and Finance to develop profitable deal structures and support effective project execution.

Required Qualifications and Experience

1. Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Business, or a related discipline. An MBA is preferred.
2. Commercial experience: At least 10 years of progressive experience in business development, sales leadership, or commercial management.
3. Industry background: At least five years of experience in water or wastewater, fluid handling, pumps, dosing systems, filtration, treatment solutions, or a closely related industry.
4. Growth and account leadership: A track record of managing strategic accounts and delivering significant revenue growth, with experience working with EPC contractors, industrial customers, and municipal utilities.
5. Regional capability: Ability to develop business across Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea, working effectively with customers, RSMs, and channel partners across diverse markets.
6. Technical knowledge: Strong understanding of water treatment processes and wastewater treatment systems; power applications; chemical dosing and metering technologies; pumps and fluid handling equipment; filtration and disinfection systems; industrial process water applications; and desalination technologies.
7. Commercial and analytical skills: Capability in market segmentation, opportunity-pipeline and forecast management, pricing and deal strategy, competitor analysis, and CRM-based sales management.
8. Communication and collaboration: Strong relationship-building, negotiation, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to align cross-functional teams and convert customer and market insights into actionable business plans.