Commercial Manager Optics EMEA

About Umicore

Reducing harmful vehicle emissions. Giving new life to used metals. Powering the cars of the future. As a global materials and technology group, we apply our specialist knowledge to offer materials and solutions that are essential to everyday life. We aim to be a clear world leader in materials for clean mobility and recycling and have turned our sustainability approach into an even greater competitive advantage. With ambitions like this, imagine what you could do?

About Electro-Optics Materials

Power in space. Vision at night. Coatings thinner than human hair. Umicore is a world leader in material solutions for the space, optics and electronics sectors – enabling every day cutting-edge technologies. We guarantee our customers secure access to supply, plus recycling technologies that give materials a new lease of life. To produce materials with even higher performance, and provide recycling to new markets, we cannot stand still. We need to find new ways to do things, discover new solutions and develop new processes. Which is where you come in.

What you will be doing

• You will lead sales and business development activities for Optics products in EMEA region and are responsible for lead generation, management of the sales pipeline. You take full ownership of the revenue for EMEA region and contributes to BOP growth.
• You set up technical & commercial dialogues and establish long-term relationships with customers for maintaining current and developing new business.
• You define/position customer specific value propositions to win contracts/orders.
• You create and negotiate customer contracts and agreements and manage sales margins by thorough understanding of production flows and by assessing cost drivers in cost models.
• You contribute to long term planning by analysing the EMEA markets in the context of the worldwide market (leading to market reviews with market segmentations, application roadmaps, societal trends, competitor analysis) and provide timely reporting of commercial management data for sales and operational planning.
• You provide business cases to support management, technical and R&D teams for current and future product portfolio developments and capabilities.
• You act as Program manager on key accounts/product introductions, working with manufacturing and R&D, technical teams to ensure effective time to market and follow-on support at all stages in the life-cycle of the program.
• You travel to customers facilities, participate in tradeshows.
• You coordinate delivery schedules with production and customers to manage timely deliverables and customer satisfaction.
• You monitor and manage customer credit lines, accounts receivables and invoicing.

Who we are looking for

• You hold a master degree in scientific, technological or business engineering domain and have min. 5 years relevant experience in sales / business administration in a manufacturing field of B2B environment, preferably in the optics industry.
• You have an affinity with numbers, financial metrics and with the application domain of highly technical products and their use.
• You have a solid understanding of production flows and cost drivers in order to assess underlying unit cost and sales margins.
• You have excellent business communication and technical sales skills,  good understanding of Optical Manufacturing process and Quality Standards is preferred.
• You are fluent in English, knowledge of French, German or Dutch is an asset.
• You are an experienced project manager, able to influence and lead a team in a complex matrix organization.
• You are a strategic thinker, results driven, with strong interpersonal and communication skills (both written and spoken) with ability to relate with different profiles and in different cultures.
• You are a positive, open minded, creative problem solver, eager to identify and develop new ideas and initiatives.

What we offer

We aim to lead the way. Not just for our customers, but for our employees too. That is why we strive to create a collaborative environment in which we can all succeed, and a culture through which we can all share ideas, develop our expertise and advance our careers. As you would expect from a world-leading organisation, we will also reward your contribution with a competitive salary and benefits. With all this and more, imagine what you could do?