African Business Development Director

Main activities:

Contribute to the development of the Airbus African Aviation Support Ecosystem (including MRO, Training, Material management and Education) to sustain the safe operation of the growing Airbus fleet in Africa.

Activities

Support to the Ecosystem development strategy definition

• Continuous monitoring and understanding of existing capabilities and capacity in the African Aviation Ecosystem
• Proposing realistic cooperation projects and the associated cooperation mechanism (partnership, JV, services) to improve and grow the existing capacity / capability
• Prioritizing cooperation opportunities in coordination with the relevant stakeholders (Regional management, Services Business Lines, Services Strategy management)
• In link with Services Business Lines, ensure consistency and adequacy of the scope of the cooperation projects, delivering the best possible value proposition to the partner and optimizing Airbus financial impact whilst ensuring alignment with Airbus African Support Strategy and coordination with Airbus Aftermarket Strategy
• Evaluate potential for revenue of the cooperation projects, ensuring safety remains priority

Ecosystem development project management and execution

• Leading Africa ecosystem development projects (in accordance with internal processes) until project execution or until cooperation is in running mode
• Establishing the most appropriate project structure,
• Ensuring validation of projects objectives and associated resources,
• Following-up project progress and deliverables, proposing and setting project indicators (KPI)
• Organizing and animating project management in a structured and agile way,
• Organizing progress reviews with the different project or work package leaders across Services business lines,
• Defining the financial and budgetary implications of the cooperation and get it validated,
• Ensuring that the required contractual set-up is in place (NDA, LoI, MoU, contractual agreement, JV, …);
• Implementing Risk & Opportunity approach to maximize chances of success
• Ensuring consistency of local projects with other projects of Services growth project portfolio and of Airbus Services transformation platform
• Reporting to the head of Africa Support and the sponsors of the projects on the progress and deliverables
• Interfacing with the necessary institutions for synergies and funding (IATA, AFRAA, EU, Africa Union, Governments…)

Roles and responsibilities can be adapted according to the department’s evolving priorities.

The position may require frequent business trips across Africa and the jobholder must be available to travel accordingly

The position is based in Johannesburg

Organization Structure

The job holder reports operationally to the Head of Africa Customer Support and functionally to the Head of Business Development for Customer Services AME.

Skills/competencies

We are looking for candidates with the following skills and experience:

• Educated to a 5-year degree level (or equivalent) in engineering or business. An MBA would be a plus
• Previous experience(s) in Commercial Aviation and/or Aviation Services

Hard Skills

• Good understanding of the air transport services industry
• Previous knowledge of African Aviation is a plus
• Excellent project management skills and extensive demonstrable experience
• Experience negotiating and working on contracts
• Concise & rigorous
• Solid analytical skills
• Economic modeling capability with good understanding of financial drivers and business cases
• Able to work in an agile environment

Soft Skills

• Pioneering spirit: proactive, creative, open to new ideas
• Ability to work in autonomy
• Good communication/presentation skills
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Team worker
• Result-oriented with proven ability to deliver
• English at negotiation level

This job requires an awareness of any potential compliance risks and a commitment to act with integrity, as the foundation for the Company’s success, reputation and sustainable growth.

Company

Airbus Southern Africa (Pty) Limited

Employment Type

Permanent

Experience Level

Professional

Job Family

Customer Account and Service Management

By submitting your CV or application you are consenting to Airbus using and storing information about you for monitoring purposes relating to your application or future employment. This information will only be used by Airbus.

Airbus is committed to achieving workforce diversity and creating an inclusive working environment. We welcome all applications irrespective of social and cultural background, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief.

Airbus is, and always has been, committed to equal opportunities for all. As such, we will never ask for any type of monetary exchange in the frame of a recruitment process. Any impersonation of Airbus to do so should be reported to [email protected].

At Airbus, we support you to work, connect and collaborate more easily and flexibly. Wherever possible, we foster flexible working arrangements to stimulate innovative thinking.