Aerospace & Defense Distribution Manager, North America

Job Requirements

Why work for us?

Alkegen brings together two of the world’s leading specialty materials companies to create one new, innovation-driven leader focused on battery technologies, filtration media, and specialty insulation and sealing materials. Through global reach and breakthrough inventions, we’re delivering products that enable the world to breathe easier, live greener, and go further than ever before. 

With over 60 manufacturing facilities with a global workforce of over 9,000 of the industry’s most experienced talent, including insulation and filtration experts, Alkegen is uniquely positioned to help customers impact the environment in meaningful ways.

Alkegen offers a range of dynamic career opportunities with globe-spanning reach. From production operators to engineers, technicians to specialists, sales to leadership, we’re always looking for top talent ready to bring their best.  Come grow with us!

Mission:

The Aerospace & Defense and Distribution Manager owns Aerospace & Defense (A&D) revenue growth across North America and Europe and coordination of Alkegen's North America (NAM) distribution strategy. Reporting to the North America Sales Director, the role will grow share with existing customers, secure product spec-ins with A&D OEMs, and win new A&D customers, while partnering with the NAM region managers to set channel and pricing policy, align distributor terms and performance, develop trainings programs, and drive profitable growth across the distribution channel.

Job Responsibilities:

Job responsibilities and duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Grow Aerospace & Defense revenue across North America and Europe, meeting or beating the annual A&D budget in the sales walk
  • Grow share with existing OEMs and ensure Alkegen products are spec'ed in on current and next-generation platforms
  • Identify and win new Aerospace & Defense customers across North America and Europe
  • Partner with Product Management to develop A&D pricing strategy and prioritize product-development needs
  • Negotiate long-term agreements (LTAs) and program-based supply positions typical of A&D
  • Represent Alkegen at A&D trade shows and OEM technical days to build pipeline and relationships
• Coordinate the North America distribution strategy through influence, partnering with the East, Mid-West, and West region managers to grow the channel
  • Set channel and pricing policies, and align and enforce inventory and terms across distribution agreements and distributor tiers
  • Partner with region leaders to define distribution growth targets and enable field sales reps to deliver channel growth
  • Identify underpenetrated distributors and existing products not currently carried, and drive onboarding or rationalization as needed
  • Establish distributor performance management and tiering, using sell-through and inventory data to guide decisions
  • Resolve channel conflict and enforce pricing / terms compliance and channel integrity
• Build a disciplined distributor engagement cadence and serve as the voice of the customer into the organization
  • Implement a recurring cadence with the regions for distributor planning and performance reviews
  • Enable and train distributor reps on Alkegen's product portfolio and technical value proposition
  • Be the voice of the customer between distributors and the rest of Alkegen (e.g., Product Management and Engineering), championing distributor and end-customer needs in the product roadmap and pricing decisions
  • Organize the annual channel-partner event / conference
• Exercise influential leadership across the sales organization, without direct authority, to deliver on both objectives
  • Align peer region managers and field sales teams around shared A&D and distribution goals
  • Drive accountability through operating rhythms, data, and forecasting despite a matrixed structure
  • Partner cross-functionally with Product Management, Engineering, and Operations to commercialize products and ensure seamless customer handoffs
  • Coach and mentor field reps to build A&D and channel selling capability, introducing new thinking, processes, and tools to improve commercial performance
• Ability to attend training as required
• Good computer skills
• Strong work performance
• Strong communication skills
• Other duties as assigned.

KPIs

• New product revenue & overall pipeline health
• A&D revenue vs. annual budget (sales walk)
• Share growth with existing OEMs
• New A&D customers & OEM spec-ins won
• Distribution channel growth vs. target
• Distributor performance and compliance (terms & inventory adherence)
• Channel conflict resolution and distributor satisfaction

Job Specifications:

Experience:

• Proven sales experience in industrial or technical products, ideally selling into Aerospace & Defense OEMs and their supply chains
• Track record growing revenue and share with existing accounts while opening new customers in long sales-cycle, spec-driven environments
• Experience managing distribution / channel partners, including setting channel and pricing policy, distributor agreements, and tier-based structures
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with Product Management and Engineering to shape pricing, product roadmap, and the voice of the customer

Skills and Abilities:

• Strong commercial acumen with contemporary CRM and sales-analytics tools to manage pipeline and channel performance
• Ability to develop others through formal and informal trainings / coaching
• Ability to lead through influence in a matrixed organization, aligning peer region managers and field sales without direct authority
• Strong knowledge of computers and computer programs
• Must be able to function as a member of a team and be able to work under general supervision
• Self-starter capable of operating independently
• Must be able to maintain expected quality levels
• Comply with all site required policies and procedures
• Ability to organize high volumes of work and information
• Strong time management and prioritization skills

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Employee is required to execute the following:

• Occasional bending, reaching, pushing and pulling when retrieving and moving various items
• Lifting intermittently of various items. Typically, assistance would be provided for weights exceeding 50 pounds
• Good manual dexterity to operate computer equipment and precision measuring instruments
• Verbal communication via telephone or in person while interacting with customers, suppliers, or other employees
• Position may require more than eight hours daily and more than five days weekly to complete work assignments
• Must be able to work in confined spaces and low overhead areas
• Must be able to recognize and respond to virtual and audible warning signs/tones
• Sitting in chairs (swivel, padded, and adjustable)
• Squatting / crouching when retrieving stored items from lower shelves and file cabinets, making equipment / product inspections, etc.
• Standing intermittently
• Visual monitoring of computer screens

Supervision:

This position supervises no other.

Safety Requirements

• Comply with all department and safety regulations.
• Wear all required personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Report all job-related illness and injuries per site safety policies
• Report all safety, health and environmental concerns to your supervisor in a timely manner.
• Attend safety training as required.

Travel Requirements

• Willingness and ability to travel to site locations on a periodic basis (approximately quarterly or as required)

Quality Statement

We are committed to becoming the world’s leading specialty materials solution platform providing high quality products that meet or exceed our customers' requirements and help the world breathe easier, live greener and go further than ever before. 

We will accomplish this through compliance (customer and internal requirements and applicable laws and regulations), accountability (quality is the responsibility of all employees), exemplary performance (strive to achieve “right the first time” in all activities), and continuous improvement (measure effectiveness and drive improvement against performance indicators).

This job description reflects the general details of the specific job identified and is not necessarily a complete listing of all the work requirements that may be involved in the job.

If you are interested in being part of a world class Manufacturing function here at Alkegen then we would love to hear from you.

At Alkegen, we strive every day to help people – ALL PEOPLE – breathe easier, live greener and go further than ever before. We believe that diversity and inclusion is central to this mission and to our impact. Our diverse and inclusive culture drives our growth & innovation and we nurture it by actively embracing our differences and using our varied perspectives to solve the complex challenges facing our changing and diverse world.

Employment selection and related decisions are made without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, nation of origin, religion, color, gender identity and expression, age, disability, education, opinions, culture, languages spoken, veteran’s status, or any other protected class.