Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation

3M•Maplewood, MN

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation translates customer needs, industry trends, market applications, and voice-of-customer insights into growth, innovation, portfolio, and commercialization priorities for aerospace airframe and structural applications. The role identifies and frames valuable opportunities, advances customer-backed growth initiatives, supports business case development, and connects market needs with 3M capabilities across application engineering, platform teams, Corporate Labs, product teams, marketing, sales, portfolio management, and partner divisions. The position focuses on aerospace and defense airframes and structures, including structural bonding, assembly, surface protection, sealing, films, composites, and adjacent technologies. It supports opportunity evaluation and commercialization through innovation, new product introduction, stage-gate, go-to-market, and readiness milestones. The role represents vertical priorities in portfolio and innovation forums and may represent 3M in customer meetings, demonstrations, trade events, and industry discussions. This is an on-site role requiring work at least four days a week at the 3M Center in Maplewood, Minnesota. Travel may include up to 25% domestic or international travel. Relocation may be authorized. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the country of employment without employment visa sponsorship. The position may involve direct or indirect access to information or technology subject to U.S. export-control laws.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Materials Science, Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, or a science field, completed and verified before starting.
Seven years of experience in business development, segment or product marketing, product management, technical sales, strategic marketing, or commercial strategy in a private, public, government, or military environment.
Strong customer orientation, strategic opportunity-framing ability, technical-commercial understanding, and cross-functional influence.
Legally authorized to work in the country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status.
Provide education and work history through a resume or directly in the application.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree in business, engineering, aerospace, materials science, or a related discipline.
Experience in aerospace, defense, electronics, semiconductor, power electronics, advanced materials, or related technical markets.
Experience with aerospace airframe and structures applications, including adhesives, tapes, films, composites, sealants, surface preparation, surface protection, or structural bonding.
Ability to translate customer needs, voice-of-customer insights, market trends, and unmet needs into business opportunities and innovation priorities.
Experience in cross-functional, matrixed environments with sales, marketing, technical, laboratory, product, platform, and portfolio teams.
Strong analytical, communication, presentation, and executive-ready synthesis skills.
Experience supporting business case development, opportunity screening, commercialization planning, or strategic growth initiatives.
Working knowledge of 3M technologies, platforms, product portfolios, and internal technical capabilities relevant to aerospace and defense applications.
Familiarity with application engineering processes, customer-specific solution mapping, and product application heat-map development.
Understanding of new product introduction, stage-gate, go-to-market strategy, business case development, and commercialization-readiness processes.
Knowledge of aerospace qualification, certification, specification, procurement, and commercialization environments.
Experience supporting strategic customer opportunities, external collaborations, innovation workshops, portfolio reviews, or venture evaluation.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain an understanding of aerospace and defense airframe and structures market needs, customer challenges, industry trends, priority applications, and growth areas.
Gather, synthesize, and represent customer needs and voice-of-customer insights to inform portfolio decisions, innovation priorities, new product introduction, and commercialization plans.
Identify and frame new applications, cross-selling opportunities, technology gaps, and customer-backed growth opportunities across aerospace OEMs, tier suppliers, MROs, defense customers, and strategic accounts.
Support development and vetting of business cases for relevant products, technologies, strategic customer opportunities, and external collaborations.
Partner with application engineering to create product application heat maps for lead customers, priority accounts, and vertical growth areas.
Connect customer needs and market opportunities with capabilities across Corporate Labs, platform teams, product teams, application engineering, marketing, sales, portfolio teams, and partner divisions.
Support go-to-market strategy, launch readiness, customer demonstrations, trade shows, and customer-facing portfolio representation.
Facilitate knowledge sharing with sales, marketing, commercial, and technical teams on trends, customer needs, value propositions, product updates, and competitive positioning.
Represent aerospace and defense airframe and structures priorities in portfolio reviews, venture evaluation, innovation workshops, cross-functional planning forums, and collaboration initiatives.
Execute and measure collaboration priorities and agreement metrics where applicable.
Evaluate opportunities based on customer value, market attractiveness, technical feasibility, strategic fit, and commercial potential.
Support customer-backed opportunities through innovation, new product introduction, stage-gate, go-to-market, and commercialization-readiness milestones.
Represent the business in customer meetings, trade events, demonstrations, industry forums, and collaboration discussions related to aerospace airframes, structures, and defense applications.
Comply with corporate policies, procedures, and security standards; contribute to environmental health and safety by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.