Technical Business Development Manager
At a glance
Mid-level Business Development role at SCHOTT. Southbridge · $110,000–$190,000 base.
growthroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Lead technical discovery with customers, capture their application and system needs, then turn them into clear inputs for internal teams
- Shape custom technical concepts and assess customer value, feasibility, risks, timing, investment, and resource needs
- Coordinate estimates and proposal details, then give the Sales Manager a technical and costing package for formal quotes
- Present technical proposals and trade-offs, support commercial discussions, and coordinate work across internal functions
- Track AI data-center and optical interconnect developments, identifying applications and recommending capability or portfolio changes
What you bring
- A bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, materials science, photonics, optics, or a related technical field
- At least eight years in a customer-facing technical, sales, product, or business development role in a relevant technology market
- A record of leading complex customer discussions and translating requirements into practical engineering inputs and viable custom solutions
- Experience contributing to complex technical quotations or proposals
Who this fits
This role suits a technically grounded business development professional who can lead customer discussions and coordinate complex custom-solution work. Expect regular travel of up to forty percent, mainly in the Pacific region, including Silicon Valley. US Person status may be required because of the work performed at the facility.
From the employer
About us
Our Business Unit Lighting and Imaging offers smart solutions for light delivery and image transmission in demanding environments — from medical devices, industrial, and safety applications to aviation and automotive. With manufacturing sites in Europe and North America, and supported by SCHOTT’s global sales network, we are a leading supplier of high-quality fiber optic and LED components.
Your Contribution
- Lead discovery and substantive technical discussions with minimal routine support from R&D. Build credibility with customer engineering, architecture, program, procurement, and executive stakeholders.
- Capture application, performance, interface, environmental, quality, regulatory, manufacturability, and schedule requirements. Translate them into complete, documented inputs for R&D, Product Management, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain.
- Define technically sound custom-solution concepts that meet customer needs while leveraging established technologies, platforms, manufacturing capabilities, and development resources.
- Evaluate feasibility, customer value, differentiation, development risk, timing, investment, and resource requirements. Recommend whether and how opportunities should advance.
- Coordinate internal inputs to develop reliable cost estimates, technical descriptions, scope, assumptions, deliverables, milestones, and risk provisions. Provide the Sales Manager with a complete technical and costing package for the formal quotation.
- Prepare and present technical proposals, trade-off analyses, feasibility conclusions, and development plans. Support commercial discussions while the Sales Manager retains ownership of final pricing, negotiation, quotation delivery, and contract closure.
- Lead technical-commercial workstreams across R&D, Engineering, Operations, Quality, Product Management, Finance, and Supply Chain. Maintain clear decisions, actions, owners, risks, and timelines.
- Monitor AI data-center and optical interconnect trends, including the transition from copper to optical connectivity in scale-up and scale-out architectures. Identify attractive applications and translate market needs into capability and portfolio recommendations.
Your Profile
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, materials science, photonics, optics, or a related technical discipline; advanced technical or business degree is preferred.
- 8 – 12+ years in technical business development, solutions or systems engineering, technical sales, applications engineering, product management, or a comparable customer-facing role in semiconductors, photonics, optoelectronics, data-center infrastructure, precision components, or another high-reliability technology market.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex customer discussions, uncover application and system requirements, assess trade-offs, and convert needs into practical engineering inputs and commercially viable custom solutions.
- Working knowledge of opportunity qualification, value propositions, cost structures, margins, business cases, and customer decision processes. Experience supporting complex technical quotations or proposals is required.
- Ability to coordinate cross-functional inputs and develop credible cost estimates, technical scope, assumptions, risks, timelines, and deliverables for custom solutions.
- Knowledge of optical interconnects, fiber optics, photonics, high-speed connectivity, semiconductors, lasers, optical packaging, or adjacent technologies is preferred. Candidates with a strong transferable background and demonstrated ability to learn new markets quickly are encouraged.
- Regular business travel of up to 40%, primarily within the Pacific region, including Silicon Valley.
- Due to the nature of work performed at this facility, US Person status may be required.
Total Compensation (Salary + Bonus) Pay Range: $110,000-$190,000
Actual starting pay is determined by a number of factors including relevant skills, qualifications, and experience.
Your Benefits
At SCHOTT, you can expect a unique corporate culture where we emphasize equity, diversity, and inclusion. We know: motivated and committed employees are the precondition for the success of our company.
Please feel free to contact us
You can expect interesting tasks and challenging projects, as well as motivated and friendly teams in fields that influence our future. Do you want to be successful with us? Then, please send us your application.
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