Business Development Manager

Role Profile

The North America Business Development Manager focusing on US is responsible for driving market activation and building deep customer relationships and market knowledge across the territory. You will develop discipline in opportunity and front-end funnel management, enhance regional business development talent and capabilities in-line with Segment strategy, and focus on finding new opportunities and establishing connections with multiple contacts at potential customers. You will steward customer engagements from initial awareness through commercialization, and partner with cross functional teams to meet customer requirements and develop customer segment offers and solutions. You will gather market insights and customer unmet needs and contribute to the development of the Personal Care multigeneration innovation pipeline.

This role will be based in the US. Approximately 75%+ travel is required.

Responsibilities

• Generate and qualify targets aligned with the territory and Segment strategy to deliver future growth.
• Drive market activation and build deep, multi-contact customer relationships across US and opportunistically in LATAM.
• Effectively engage potential customers to understand unmet needs and their buying process; challenge customers to consider new ways of winning.
• Build and use market knowledge and competitive/customer information to expand sales opportunity development.
• Develop and maintain discipline in front-end funnel and Opportunity Management to prioritize, track, and drive opportunities to close sales.
• Use CRM and sales systems to ensure timely updates, accurate opportunity records, and seamless handoffs to Account Managers and internal teams.
• Steward the customer’s development, evaluation (including product testing), and decision-making for new solutions.
• Present and test value propositions that clearly show how Eastman solutions help customers win.
• Partner with Strategic Marketing, Application Development, Technical Services, Sales, and Product Management to secure required resources and develop customer segment offers and solutions.
• Plan, coordinate, and host industry and customer events to systematically build customer relationships and drive project acquisition.
• Identify new business/project opportunities (new markets, growth areas, trends, customers, partnerships, products/services, or new ways of reaching existing markets) based on commercial attractiveness and Eastman capabilities.
• Cultivate a broad network of relationships across the value chain and within customer organizations beyond procurement (Operations, Technology, Senior Leadership, Marketing, etc.).

• Collaborate with channel partners and distributors to develop and grow local markets for personal-care ingredients through joint business planning, sales and technical enablement, and targeted promotional activities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university is required; Master’s degree or PhD preferred. Fields: Business and/or Chemical Engineering, or a related field.
• Fluency in English
• Several years of experience in business development or similar external customer facing roles in a multinational company; experience in food, pharmaceutical, or personal care industries is a plus.
• Experience using Salesforce CRM and Opportunity Management tools and sales systems; ability to follow structured opportunity/funnel processes.
• Strong technical/market strategy, discovery, communication, and negotiation skills.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, ownership, resilience, and a “never give up” attitude.
• Willingness and ability to travel approximately 75%+.