Strategic Customer Development Manager

Future Form Manufacturing•Sparks, NV

19d•$0 - $95,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Strategic Customer Development Manager drives profitable revenue growth through strategic customer development, new customer acquisition, and expansion of existing customer relationships. The role builds and maintains high-level customer relationships, leads complex sales opportunities, coordinates quoting and commercial negotiations, and works across Engineering, Estimating, Planning, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and company leadership to align opportunities with FFM’s technical capabilities, available capacity, delivery requirements, and business objectives. The position develops new business in the data center, technology infrastructure, and other markets aligned with FFM’s strategic vision. It manages opportunities from initial contact through qualification, proposal, negotiation, and contract execution, while maintaining strategic customer relationships, communicating customer needs internally, and keeping CRM and sales forecast information current. The role also coordinates complex quotes and commercial agreements, evaluates operational feasibility with internal teams, reports on opportunities and risks to leadership, and contributes to Lean and continuous-improvement activities. The position reports to the Chief Supply Chain Officer and works with Future Form team members, customers, vendors, industry partners, and prospective customers. It is primarily office-based, with regular visits to the manufacturing floor and travel to customer sites, trade shows, and industry events. The schedule is Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; overtime may be needed. Drug testing is required per company policy.

Requirements

Significant progressive B2B sales, business development, or strategic account experience, preferably in a complex manufacturing, fabrication, or industrial environment.
Demonstrated success developing new customer relationships, building a qualified opportunity pipeline, and converting opportunities into profitable business.
Experience managing complex sales cycles involving detailed quotes, technical requirements, long lead times, and commercial negotiations.
Strong customer-facing communication, networking, negotiation, presentation, and relationship-building skills, including the ability to engage with senior customer decisionmakers.
Ability to carefully review commercial and technical quote information, identify inconsistencies or potential risks, and coordinate resolution with subject-matter experts.
Ability to collaborate across Engineering, Estimating, Planning, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and leadership to assess feasibility and capacity before making commitments.
Strong analytical, organizational, follow-through, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to use CRM systems and sales reporting tools.
Ability to travel as required for customer visits, industry events, and business development activities.

Nice To Haves

Experience in precision sheet metal fabrication, contract manufacturing, or related industrial manufacturing sales.
Existing relationships in the data center, hyperscale, colocation, critical infrastructure, technology infrastructure, or general contractor markets.
Experience negotiating long-term customer agreements and coordinating pricing, forecasts, capacity, and delivery expectations.
Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience is considered.

Responsibilities

Identify, develop, pursue, and close new business opportunities in the data center, technology infrastructure, and other aligned markets.
Build a qualified opportunity pipeline through executive-level networking, industry events, trade shows, referrals, customer visits, and targeted prospecting.
Develop relationships with customer decisionmakers and discuss customer needs, future programs, forecasts, growth plans, and commercial opportunities.
Represent FFM professionally with customers, industry partners, and prospective customers.
Lead opportunities from initial contact through qualification, proposal, negotiation, and contract execution; pursue agreed-upon sales goals and milestones.
Develop and maintain strategic customer relationships to grow business, strengthen retention, and identify future opportunities.
Serve as a primary contact for important commercial discussions and coordinate internal responses to customer needs, concerns, and escalations.
Conduct business reviews with strategic customers to understand performance, future demand, forecasts, and opportunities for improvement or expansion.
Communicate customer needs, market trends, competitive dynamics, and customer expectations to FFM leadership and relevant departments.
Maintain accurate and timely customer, opportunity, activity, and forecast information in the company’s CRM.
Coordinate complex quotes with Estimating, Engineering, Manufacturing, Planning, and Supply Chain to ensure proposals are complete, accurate, and aligned with FFM’s capabilities.
Review quote packages and commercial assumptions for completeness and consistency, and coordinate resolution of discrepancies, missing information, scope gaps, drawing or revision conflicts, and potential cost or schedule risks.
Work with internal stakeholders to evaluate pricing, margins, tooling, material costs, engineering changes, expedite requests, cancellation terms, and other commercial considerations.
Lead or support customer negotiations and development of long-term agreements covering pricing structures, forecast and volume expectations, lead times, capacity assumptions, and other contractual terms.
Escalate nonstandard terms, pricing exceptions, margin risks, and significant commercial commitments through established approval processes.
Coordinate cross-functional reviews of customer drawings, specifications, revisions, tolerances, quantities, and other requirements to identify errors, inconsistencies, or questions before quote submission or business acceptance.
Partner with Engineering to ensure technical questions and potential drawing or specification issues are reviewed and resolved by the appropriate technical owners.
Work with Manufacturing, Planning, and Supply Chain to understand available labor, equipment, tooling, material, lead-time, and production capacity when evaluating opportunities and commitments.
Help assess whether proposed business fits FFM’s capabilities, capacity, delivery expectations, and strategic priorities; communicate risks and trade-offs to leadership before commitments are made.
Coordinate with internal teams on customer changes, schedule challenges, delivery recovery plans, and other issues affecting customer commitments.
Maintain visibility to the sales pipeline, quote activity, opportunity status, expected revenue, customer forecasts, and anticipated program timing.
Provide regular updates to the President and relevant leaders on major opportunities, customer developments, risks, competitive activity, and recommended actions.
Use sales, quoting, customer, and market information to identify trends, improve processes, and support informed business decisions.
Monitor developments in the data center, technology infrastructure, and precision fabrication markets to identify opportunities aligned with FFM’s growth objectives.
Participate actively and positively in Lean activities and support continuous improvement in customer development and commercial processes.
Work overtime when needed.
Maintain applicable responsibilities of the ISO 9001 system in accordance with the Quality Manual and procedure-level documentation.
Assist other team members as required and perform other duties as assigned.
Follow all OSHA safety regulations and those set by Future Form Manufacturing.