Software Business Development Manager

Your role
Major Responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
1. Market and opportunity development
- Build target-account and market-segment plans based on the priorities of the software business in China, and maintain a visible, qualified pipeline
- Engage selected customers before tool specifications and the commercial route are fixed, looking for needs related to software, data, quality, traceability, production improvement, and lifecycle services
- Build account, stakeholder, and opportunity profiles covering the customer workflow, business problem, current baseline, budget path, timing, technical environment, and acceptance criteria
- Qualify opportunities continuously. Mark weak or unsupported fits for further discovery or as no fit instead of making an early commitment
2. Discovery and solution development
- Lead customer discovery and define the problem, expected outcome, scope, prerequisites, and next decision
- Bring together the product, technical, project, and service expertise needed to choose the right solution and delivery route
- Keep released products, controlled validation, customer-specific work, and future research clearly separated in customer communication, quotations, and contracts
- Advance demonstrations, technical validation, and paid proof-of-concept projects. Confirm the objective, customer contribution, success criteria, owner, and commercial follow-up before work begins
- Turn technical content into a business case and decision material that the customer can understand and use
3. Commercial execution and closing
- Act as the dedicated commercial driver for software opportunities, managing sales stages, action plans, forecasts, and risks
- Prepare the value proposition, solution narrative, quotation input, and customer proposal, and advance discussions on price, contract, procurement, information security, and compliance
- Build the win plan and move the opportunity toward stakeholder approval, confirmed budget, and an order
- Keep the customer relationship management system and forecast information accurate, and report material changes or unresolved issues promptly
4. First customer cases and repeatable growth
- Select and advance initial projects that can demonstrate customer value. Agree the baseline, validation method, and required evidence before execution starts
- Work with the marketing team to turn successful work into customer cases, demonstration scripts, industry offers, competitive material, and sales training
- Build reusable sales methods and tools that help the software business expand to more customers and industries
- Collect customer and competitor insight, then provide commercially grounded input for product improvement and business priorities
5. Handover, renewal, and expansion
- After an order, hand over the software scope, assumptions, customer prerequisites, acceptance criteria, and risks clearly to the project team
- Follow adoption, value evidence, issue closure, renewal, and expansion after go-live
- Identify cross-selling opportunities across software, tools, automation, location and error-proofing, analytics, and services
- Use delivery and service experience to improve qualification, solution design, and sales material
To succeed, you will need
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree or above in automation, mechanical or electrical engineering, computer science, software engineering, industrial engineering, business, or a related field.
- At least five years of business development, solution sales, or key-account sales experience with business customers. Experience in industrial automation, industrial software, smart manufacturing, manufacturing execution systems, the industrial internet of things, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, quality management, or production improvement is preferred
- A record of developing and closing opportunities with complex manufacturing customers and buying groups that include engineering, production, quality, information technology, procurement, and management
- Strong consultative discovery skills, with the ability to turn a customer problem into a clear business case, solution scope, and action plan
- Enough knowledge of industrial software and integration to discuss connected equipment, data flows, manufacturing execution systems, enterprise resource planning systems, programmable logic controller interfaces, deployment models, and information-security requirements. The role is not expected to develop software or produce detailed architecture
- Experience with demonstrations, proof-of-concept projects, business cases, value-based pricing, contract negotiation, and sales forecasting
- Fluent Chinese and strong spoken and written English
- Willingness to travel frequently within China and work at customer sites
Personality & Behavior Traits
- Enters the customer's problem proactively instead of waiting for a finished technical specification
- Takes responsibility for commercial outcomes while respecting product maturity, technical risk, and delivery boundaries
- Moves decisions forward and records owners, dates, and next steps clearly
- Communicates directly and credibly. When information is incomplete, tests the assumption instead of using a vague promise to create short-term progress
In return, we offer
- Culture of trust and accountability
- Lifelong learning and career growth
- Innovation powered by people
- Comprehensive compensation and benefits
- Health and well-being
Job location
Shanghai
Contact information
Talent Acquisition Team: Young Zhang
Founded in 1914 Desoutter Industrial Tools is a global leader in electric assembly tools serving a wide range of assembly and manufacturing operations, including Aerospace, Automotive, Light and Heavy Vehicles, Off-Road, General Industry. Desoutter offers a comprehensive range of Solutions (tools, service and projects) to meet the specific demands of local and global customers in over 170 countries. The company designs, develops and delivers innovative quality industrial tool solutions, including air and electric Screwdrivers, Advanced Assembly Tools, Advanced Drilling Units and Torque Measureme