Business Manager

Shape the future of innovation as we tackle cutting-edge projects that make a difference. We’re not just in the business of engineering—we’re building a brighter future. Driven by creativity and a culture of excellence, we believe in the power of engineering to solve today’s challenges and create opportunities for tomorrow. What we do matters.

Quest Defense Systems & Solutions is seeking a proactive and highly organized Business Manager to support strategic account growth and help drive execution across key customer relationships. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys bringing structure to fast-moving environments, coordinating multiple stakeholders, and ensuring important business priorities move forward on time. You will serve as a critical connector between sales, delivery, and solutions teams while helping keep customer-facing activity organized, responsive, and aligned.

The right candidate is a strong communicator who is comfortable following up with internal teams, scheduling meetings, managing action items, and keeping momentum on important initiatives. This position requires someone resourceful, confident in asking questions, and motivated to solve problems rather than wait for direction. If you enjoy being the person who keeps everything moving and creates order from complexity, this could be a strong fit.

Experience supporting sales operations, account management, business operations, contracts administration, or customer-facing coordination functions is highly valued. Familiarity with CRM systems such as Salesforce or similar tools is a plus. Candidates with experience in aerospace and defense, engineering services, or other deadline-driven professional environments are especially encouraged to apply.

Due to the nature of this work, all candidates must be U.S. Citizens

This role can be hybrid, and candidates are preferred to reside in Cedar Rapids or Minneapolis, though remote may be considered for the right fit.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and enforce adherence to sales processes 
  • Ensure compliance with defined sales methodologies, governance, and operational standards across the account, proactively identifying gaps and driving corrective actions.  
• Enable Strategic Account Manager effectiveness 
  • Provide structured support across core engagement processes, including:  
    • Scheduling and preparing customer and internal meetings (agendas, materials, briefing notes)  
    • Driving follow-ups on actions, tasks, and customer commitments to closure  
    • Managing the internal account operating rhythm (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reviews and deliverables)  
• Drive sales proposal development, coordination, and submission in alignment with customer requirements and internal standards  
  • Ensure sales proposal compliance, quality, and timeliness, enforcing governance throughout the lifecycle  
  • Develop a strong understanding of Statements of Work (SOWs) to effectively support shaping proposals, ensuring scope clarity, alignment to customer needs, and commercial soundness  
  • Drive cross-functional alignment (legal, finance, delivery) to ensure proposals are executable and compliant  
• Analyze monthly revenue performance against plan, identify variances, and recommend actionable corrective measures  
  • Provide forward-looking insights to mitigate risks and capture opportunities  
• Pipeline and CRM management  
  • Manage, track, and drive the sales opportunity pipeline and campaigns within CRM tools  
  • Ensure data accuracy, hygiene, and timely updates to support reliable forecasting  
• Business insights and reporting  
  • Analyze pipeline health and revenue performance to plan  
• Customer engagement planning 
  • Maintain an integrated customer contact and engagement plan aligned with account strategy  
• Customer relationship support 
  • Provide operational and coordination support for customer visits, executive engagements, and roadshows  
• Cross-functional coordination 
  • Interface with key enabling functions (e.g., finance, legal, delivery, marketing) to align on business needs, initiatives, and execution priorities  
• Strategy execution support  
  • Facilitate quarterly and annual account strategy sessions  
  • Track, manage, and drive actions from these sessions through to completion  
• Account initiatives leadership 
  • Drive and coordinate key account initiatives based on evolving business needs, ensuring alignment, accountability, and execution discipline