Sales & BD Manager - Middle East (UAV/Drone Systems) Abu Dhabi, UAE

This role is for a Sales & Business Development Manager focused on UAV and drone systems in the Middle East, based in Abu Dhabi. The successful candidate will lead business development and sales activities, identify and develop strategic defence opportunities, and build relationships with senior decision-makers across ministries, armed forces, and industry partners. They will manage the full business development lifecycle from market intelligence to contract award, and coordinate with technical and commercial teams. The role requires deep UAV market knowledge, regional defence relationships, and strong commercial capability, with regular travel across the region.

Responsibilities

• Lead business-development and sales activities for UAV, drone and unmanned aerial systems across the Middle East.
• Identify, qualify and develop strategic defence opportunities involving UAV platforms, payloads, mission systems and related technologies.
• Develop and execute regional business-development, market-entry and growth strategies.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior decision-makers across:
• Ministries of Defence
• Armed Forces
• Air Forces
• Defence procurement authorities
• Government and security organizations
• Defence OEMs
• Local defence companies
• System integrators
• Strategic industrial partners
• Lead opportunities through the complete business-development lifecycle, including:
• Market intelligence
• Opportunity identification
• Qualification
• Capture planning
• Customer engagement
• Proposal development
• Commercial negotiation
• Contract award
• Programme launch and sustainment
• Understand customer operational requirements and translate them into relevant UAV / UAS solutions.
• Coordinate closely with technical, engineering, programme, commercial and executive teams.
• Support technical and commercial discussions related to UAV platforms and associated mission systems.
• Prepare market assessments, capture plans, account strategies, competitive analyses and customer-engagement plans.
• Coordinate and contribute to responses for RFIs, RFPs, tenders and government procurement processes.
• Support pricing strategy, commercial negotiations and contractual discussions.
• Identify and develop appropriate regional partners, local representatives, integrators and industrial cooperation opportunities.
• Navigate defence procurement requirements, localization programmes, offsets and industrial-participation obligations across the region.
• Maintain strong awareness of competitor activity, UAV technology developments, upcoming defence programmes and customer priorities.
• Represent the organization at customer meetings, defence exhibitions, demonstrations, governmental meetings and strategic forums.
• Maintain and report an accurate regional opportunity pipeline and business-development forecast.
• Provide market intelligence and strategic recommendations to senior management.

Requirements

• We are looking for an experienced defence business-development professional with strong expertise in military UAVs, drones and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and a proven track record of developing and securing defence business across the Middle East.
• The successful candidate will be responsible for identifying, developing and converting strategic business opportunities across the region, while building and maintaining senior-level relationships with Ministries of Defence, Armed Forces, Air Forces, procurement authorities, government stakeholders, defence companies, system integrators and industrial partners.
• This role requires a combination of deep UAV / drone market knowledge, regional defence relationships, technical credibility and strong commercial capability.