Business Development Manager

Company: This company is a well-established international flavour and fragrance business with a strong presence across the global food and beverage industry. The organisation works with multinational manufacturers, regional groups and local brands, supporting customers through flavour creation, applications, consumer insight, marketing, regulatory expertise and technical service. The business combines the resources and stability of a global organisation with an entrepreneurial and collaborative operating style. Its teams work closely across countries and functions, using local market knowledge and technical capability to develop relevant, commercially effective solutions for customers. As part of its investment in the beverage category across Southeast Asia, the company is now seeking to appoint a Business Development Manager who will lead strategic growth with selected customers and help strengthen the regional project pipeline.

Role: The company is seeking an experienced and commercially driven Business Development Manager to join its regional beverage category team. The position will focus on developing selected strategic accounts across Southeast Asia and designated surrounding markets, covering both retail and foodservice customers. This is a strategic business-development position rather than a traditional day-to-day account-management role. The successful individual will identify priority customers, define short and long-term growth plans, build commercially valuable project pipelines and work with local sales teams to convert opportunities into sustainable business.

The role will require close collaboration with country sales teams, account managers, marketing, R&D, applications, consumer insight and regulatory colleagues. The Business Development Manager will connect customer priorities with the company’s technical and creative resources. They will work directly with senior customer stakeholders, identify unmet needs, present relevant market insight, coordinate innovation programmes and support the development of commercially viable flavour solutions.

The position does not carry direct people-management responsibility. Success will depend on the ability to influence local teams, create alignment across different countries and maintain momentum across complex projects. The company is looking for someone who combines commercial judgement with curiosity, initiative and cultural awareness. This position offers the opportunity to influence the development of a growing regional beverage business and take ownership of strategically important customer relationships.

Main Responsibilities

• Develop and execute strategic growth plans for selected beverage accounts across Southeast Asia and designated surrounding markets
• Work with local affiliates and account teams to establish short and long-term sales budgets, targets and customer-development priorities
• Build detailed account plans covering customer objectives, opportunity areas, decision-makers, competitive activity and project pipelines
• Map the regional market and identify new opportunities across retail, foodservice and other relevant beverage channels
• Analyse customer needs, market trends, consumer behaviour and competitor activity to identify commercially relevant growth opportunities
• Develop and maintain a qualified annual pipeline across selected strategic accounts
• Lead or support important customer projects with a clear focus on improving project conversion and win rates
• Identify high-value and must-win opportunities and ensure the right internal resources support each project
• Work through local account managers and sales teams to coordinate regional customer activity and maintain a consistent commercial direction
• Build relationships with senior customer stakeholders across commercial, marketing, innovation, procurement and technical functions
• Collaborate with sales, marketing, R&D, applications, consumer insight and regulatory teams to develop relevant customer solutions
• Translate customer requirements and market insight into clear internal briefs for technical and creative team
• Identify customer needs and commercial gaps within the foodservice channel and develop plans to address them
• Propose, plan and coordinate customer innovation days, workshops and technical presentations
• Support customer-facing meetings by communicating market opportunities, category direction and the commercial value of proposed solutions
• Monitor project progress, identify barriers and coordinate action across the relevant teams
• Maintain accurate customer plans, opportunity records, pipeline information and commercial forecasts
• Provide regional market intelligence covering customer investment, competitor activity, pricing, category trends and emerging opportunities
• Support commercial negotiations and contribute to proposals, business cases and long-term customer agreements
• Represent the business at relevant customer meetings, industry events and regional activities
• Ensure all commercial activity follows company policies, quality requirements and relevant regulatory standards

Key Requirements & Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Business Management, Food Science, Food Technology or a related discipline
• A minimum of seven years of experience in account management, sales or business development
• Experience within flavours, food ingredients, beverage systems or a related technical B2B environment is strongly preferred
• Experience working with beverage manufacturers, retail beverage businesses or foodservice customers would be valuable
• Demonstrated success developing key accounts, creating new business and converting customer projects into commercial result
• Strong commercial judgement with a clear understanding of revenue, margin, pricing, forecasting and project value
• Ability to develop structured account strategies and translate market information into practical growth plans
• Experience managing complex customer projects involving commercial, technical and regulatory stakeholders
• Proven ability to influence colleagues and stakeholders without direct reporting authority
• Comfortable working across different countries, cultures and organisational structures
• Strong relationship-building skills with the confidence to engage senior customer decision-makers
• Ability to communicate technical and commercial information clearly to different audiences
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret market, customer and competitor information
• Proactive, organised and comfortable managing several priorities at the same time
• Collaborative working style and a willingness to share information across regional and functional teams
• Willingness to travel extensively across the region
• Willing and able to be based in the designated Southeast Asian regional hub.