Global Sales Manager

Position: Global Sales Manager (Automotive/Aerospace/Defence)
Location: UK
Salary: £Negotiable OTE £100k + car allowance 
Company/ Sector: Chemicals Distributor 

The Role:
•    Strengthening and expanding key strategic accounts.
•    Identifying and capturing new technical opportunities and projects.
•    Building trusted partnerships with key suppliers to bring innovation into customer applications.
•    Maintaining deep market understanding to ensure the company stays ahead of industry change.
•    This is primarily an individual contributor role with significant influence across regions, including coordination with colleagues in Europe and potential future international resources.
•    Develop and grow relationships with global automotive OEMs.
•    Manage complex, multi-site customer environments spanning engineering, procurement and operations.
•    Retain and expand existing business while identifying new opportunities for growth.
•    Coordinate activities across international customer locations to ensure consistent engagement.
•    Act as a credible technical partner supporting customers through design and material selection, testing and validation, and transition into production environments.
•    Promote high-reliability solutions aligned with automotive quality expectations and a “never fail” approach.
•    Focus initially on silicone technologies while expanding cross-selling across adhesives, tapes and engineered solutions.
•    Build strong, trust-based relationships with key strategic suppliers.
•    Work collaboratively on project development, new product introductions and technical opportunities.
•    Coordinate samples, trials, marketing initiatives and joint customer engagement activities.
•    Align supplier innovation pipelines with their automotive strategy to support mutual growth.
•    Maintain deep understanding of automotive market trends, technology shifts and emerging applications.
•    Identify opportunities arising from industry transformation, including electrification, thermal management and high-vibration environments.
•    Provide insight to shape the company’s long-term automotive strategy.

Requirements:
•    Proven success in technical B2B sales within automotive/aerospace/defence or closely related manufacturing sectors.
•    Knowledge of silicones, adhesives, tapes or related engineered materials preferred.
•    Experience supporting engineering-led design-in processes.
•    Comfortable operating within global customer structures.
•    Strong commercial judgement and negotiation skills.
•    Driven by growth and opportunity, with strong ownership mentality.
•    Credible communicator with engineers and procurement teams alike.
•    Structured, resilient and able to operate independently.
•    Practical and solutions-focused.
•    Comfortable with international travel and flexible working hours.