Business Development Manager

Real autonomy to build and own your patch, not a scripted or managed role.

Work at the design stage with engineering, not just after the sale is made.

Genuine pathway into senior sales leadership as the business scales.

The Opportunity

Our client is a well-established New Zealand manufacturer of custom-engineered electronic power components, supplying technical and industrial customers across a range of sectors, with manufacturing operations across both New Zealand and an owned offshore site.

The business is on track to double revenue over the past two years, and its lead salesperson, now a part-owner of the business, is stretched thin as a result.

This role exists to take on real ownership of the sales function: building new business from scratch, developing the pipeline, and eventually growing into a more senior role as the business scales.

It isn't a role someone will sit under. The expectation is that you go out, build relationships in your own way, and make the patch your own, with support and guidance available when you want it.

The work itself sits closer to engineering than most sales roles. Customers are typically designing something new, and this business gets involved at that early stage rather than competing on price once the spec is already locked.

That technical partnership, sitting genuinely alongside a customer's engineering team, is what wins and keeps the business.

This is not a high-frequency, on-the-road sales role. Most customers only need to be seen once a quarter.

Sales cycles are long, sometimes years, so the role suits someone patient enough to build and hold a pipeline rather than chase short-term wins.

The Role

Reporting to the lead salesperson, you will manage a portfolio of existing accounts while actively building new business across technical and industrial sectors.

Key responsibilities include

• Identifying and validating new business opportunities, then converting them into long-term production revenue.
• Managing a pipeline through long, complex sales cycles that can run from six months to several years.
• Building strong relationships with customer engineering teams to understand their upcoming projects and requirements.
• Translating customer needs into commercial opportunities in partnership with the internal engineering team.
• Maintaining and growing revenue and margin across an existing account base.
• Representing the business at a technical level, working closely with manufacturing and engineering both locally and offshore.
• Keeping the business informed on market activity, competitor movement and customer plans.
• Skills and Experience
• This role will suit someone from a B2B technical sales or business development background, or someone with strong technical grounding who is ready to move into a customer-facing commercial role.
• Experience in electrical, electronics or power components industries is useful, though adjacent technical sectors will also be considered.
• You will bring:
• Experience in B2B sales, ideally within a technical, engineering or electronics environment.
• The discipline and patience to manage long, value-based sales cycles without losing momentum.
• Strong commercial instincts, with the ability to identify and develop new business opportunities from scratch.
• Confidence working closely with engineering and manufacturing teams to shape the right solution for a customer.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and relationship-building skills.
• Strong time management and the ability to handle multiple accounts and opportunities simultaneously.
• An engineering qualification would be highly advantageous, though it is not essential.
• You must already have the legal right to work in New Zealand to apply for this role.

How to Apply

Apply online now, or contact Theo Lawson on 021 710 743 for a confidential discussion.

Who is Lawson Williams?

At Lawson Williams, we have supported New Zealand's manufacturing, engineering and wider technical businesses for over 30 years.

We work quietly alongside some of the country's most respected companies to connect them with leaders, technical specialists, and operational professionals who drive performance across operations, manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, quality, and technical sales functions.

For the professionals we work with, a career move through Lawson Williams means joining businesses where you can make a real impact, contribute to business improvement, and continue to grow your career over the long term.

We do not shout about what we do, but the relationships we build and the trust we earn speak for themselves. We look forward to working with you when the time is right.