Business Development Intern: Drive New Partnerships

Business Development Director Business Development Director, Europe
Location: Flexible across Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, Spain)
We are seeking an experienced channel and commercial leader to drive channel growth, aftermarket performance, and strategic business development initiatives across Europe.
This is a high-impact leadership role with responsibility for growing established revenue streams, developing and optimising partner networks, identifying new market opportunities, and influencing commercial success across multiple European markets.
We're looking for candidates with a proven track record of delivering growth through distributors, channel partners, OEMs, and indirect sales channels. You'll bring strong experience in channel development, partner management, and distributor performance improvement.
To succeed in this role, you'll have experience leading managers and geographically dispersed teams, operating across complex international environments, and driving results through influence, collaboration, and strong commercial leadership.
With direct responsibility for revenues of approximately 25M-30M and indirect influence over a further 60M through channel partners and distributors, this role offers significant visibility and strategic influence within the business.
What You'll Be Doing Lead Channel Strategy & Performance
The primary focus of this role is driving channel growth across Europe. You will:
Develop and execute European channel strategy
Drive distributor and partner performance
Evaluate and optimise channel coverage and effectiveness
Identify new routes-to-market and growth opportunities
Build strategic partnerships, OEM relationships and indirect sales channels
Ensure strong channel governance and commercial compliance
Support the introduction of new products and solutions into the market
Drive Commercial Growth
You will take ownership of revenue-generating business units, including:
Aftermarket and spare parts business
Non-retail customer segments
Strategic growth initiatives
Business development programs across Europe
Lead Cross-Functional Initiatives
This role is often the focal point for key business initiatives. You will:
Bring together teams across sales, marketing, operations and commercial functions
Drive execution of strategic projects
Remove barriers to growth
Lead complex commercial initiatives that require collaboration across multiple stakeholders and countries
What We're Looking For We are specifically seeking candidates with significant experience in channel development, partner management, distributor performance, and indirect commercial growth. Experience managing managers and leading geographically dispersed teams is required .
Location: Flexible across Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, Spain)
Essential Experience We are interested in candidates who can demonstrate:
Significant experience leading channel, distributor or partner networks across multiple countries
Success growing channel performance and delivering commercial growth
Experience developing and implementing channel strategies
Leadership responsibility for managers and senior commercial teams
Ownership of meaningful revenue targets and commercial performance
Experience introducing new products, services, channels or go-to-market approaches
Strong stakeholder management across regional and cross-functional environments
Experience working within complex international organisations
Commercial & Contract Experience The successful candidate will bring experience in:
Commercial contract negotiations
Distributor and partner agreements
Contract execution and governance
Managing channel compliance issues
Partner relationship management
Commercial decision-making and risk assessment
The Leadership Profile This role requires more than traditional sales management. We're looking for a strategic commercial leader who:
Thinks beyond short-term revenue targets
Can influence without direct authority
Is comfortable managing managers
Can travel and operate effectively across multiple European markets
Has the credibility to engage with senior stakeholders
Can balance strategic planning with commercial execution
Enjoys solving complex business challenges and driving change
Languages English is essential, additional European languages are desirable.
Why Join? This is an opportunity to take ownership of a highly visible European leadership role with responsibility for:
Significant commercial scope
Strategic channel development
Market expansion initiatives
Leadership of established teams
Influencing growth across a large European territory
If you have successfully grown channel businesses, led senior commercial teams and delivered results through partner networks , we'd like to hear from you.
WHO IS GILBARCO VEEDER-ROOT Gilbarco Veeder-