Director, Business Development

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.

About the Role

You will be responsible for generating sales growth of the Harman automotive product portfolio in Japan. Reporting to the regional business development lead – you will be focused on developing partnerships with our Japan OEM customers driving the pre-sales of Harman’s new strategic product portfolio covering Japan and North America. You are a high performer with a winning mentality and enjoy being relentless in your pursuit of winning new business.

What You Will Do

• Drive the pre-sales engagement of Harman automotive products with Japan OEM customers; you will work collaboratively with the product and customer business unit teams, influencing the OEM customer to embrace Harman product offerings. You are critical in helping earn OEM confidence, seeing Harman as a strategic partner for these products rather than just another supplier.
• Understand how each OEM prefers to work with partners & suppliers, identify the key contacts and players covering all appropriate cross-functional disciplines, build relationships, and formulate and implement product-specific strategies to win new business with these OEMs.
• Develop a deep understanding of the OEM needs and drive the voice of the customer into Harman product and technology roadmaps thereby ensuring that the products consistently enjoy market leadership, offering our OEM customers value unmatched by competition.
• Identify and evaluate new business opportunities, set the OEM-specific sales strategy, and build value propositions for product offerings, catering to respective OEM pain points and pleasure points.
• Collaborate with the product marketing team and drive OEM product awareness, through demo-cars showcasing product maturity, marketing campaigns, and press releases.
• Maintain strong knowledge of the automotive landscape, OEM transformations, and competitor offerings and partnerships.
• Create, contribute and provide oversight to customer facing proposals, content and strategy, supporting the sales team to win customer pursuits.
• Develop and maintain a pursuit pipeline for each customer, providing an overview of the opportunities, and customer engagements. Provide monthly feedback on customer engagement status to leadership. Establish partnership objectives by forecasting and developing annual targets by OEM, projecting expected sales volume for each of Harman’s new strategic products.

What You Need

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, MBA preferred.
• Prior business development, especially early engagement prior to RFQ, experience with at least 5+ years focused in the automotive sector.
• Prior experience with Japan OEMs or Japanese automotive Tier 1 suppliers
• Business acumen to gauge not just what can be done but to know what can be profitable, is a key requirement for this role.
• Team Player and coach, who can communicate a compelling vision and is committed to what needs to be done, this person inspires others, and instills a make-it-happen mindset.
• Experienced and skilled in building relationships, selling to and negotiating with customer executives.
• Results Driven: Has a proactive, goal-oriented approach to decision making. The person is capable of handling multiple projects / initiatives simultaneously and executing to completion. 
• Must have strong organizational and planning skills. Excellent time management skills with ability to prioritize and multi-task and work under shifting deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to drive change in a multi-dimensional matrix organization. Must also be able to adapt to changing demands and conditions.

What is Nice to Have

• Electronics and/or software experience
• Japanese Language

What Makes You Eligible

• Be willing to travel up to 30%, covering domestic and international travel.
• Be willing to work in the Novi office (1-2 days / week in the office)

What We Offer

• We offer an authentic diverse, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development in a truly global organization.
• You will work on products and services that touch people’s lives and will change the industrial standards, being a part of the transformations in our industry.
• Our work environments are fast paced, challenging, empowering, collaborative, flexible and ex