Manager, Business Development, Civil Aviation

3M•Maplewood, MN

5d•$188,251 - $230,084•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 high-value opportunities, advances customer-backed growth initiatives, supports business case development, and connects market demand with 3M capabilities across application engineering, platform teams, Corporate Labs, product teams, marketing, sales, and portfolio management. The position requires customer orientation, strategic opportunity framing, technical-commercial understanding, and cross-functional influence. The successful candidate helps define vertical-specific market needs; identify applications and cross-selling opportunities; support commercialization pathways; and align teams to drive growth in aerospace and defense airframes and structures, including structural bonding, assembly, surface protection, sealing, films, composites, and adjacent technologies. The role is on-site at the 3M Center in Maplewood, Minnesota, at least four days per week, and may involve up to 25% domestic and 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, systems, and technologies subject to U.S. export-control laws and related restrictions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Materials Science, Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, or a science field, completed and verified before the start date.
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.
Legally authorized to work in the country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status.
Provide education and work history in the application, either by uploading a resume or entering the information directly.

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 airframes and structures applications, including adhesives, tapes, films, composites, sealants, surface preparation, surface protection, structural bonding, or related technologies.
Ability to translate customer needs, voice-of-customer insights, market trends, and unmet needs into business opportunities and innovation priorities.
Experience working 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 activity.
Business development and opportunity framing.
Customer orientation and voice-of-customer synthesis.
Strategic market development.
Cross-functional collaboration and influence.
Business case development.
Portfolio and platform strategy awareness.
Go-to-market and commercialization planning.
NPI and stage-gate process understanding.
Customer application mapping.
Value proposition development.
Competitive and market trend interpretation.
Executive communication and storytelling.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain an understanding of aerospace and defense airframes and structures market needs, customer challenges, industry trends, priority applications, and growth areas.
Gather, synthesize, and represent customer-pull and voice-of-customer insights to inform portfolio decisions, innovation priorities, new product introduction activity, 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 vertical-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 internal 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 for relevant technologies and products.
Facilitate knowledge sharing with sales, marketing, commercial, and technical teams on market trends, customer needs, value propositions, product updates, and competitive positioning.
Represent aerospace and defense airframes 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 while performing assigned duties.
Contribute to a strong Environmental Health and Safety culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.