Business Development Manager - Shipping & Freight

Overview

This role calls for a strategic leader to drive business growth and market penetration in the UAE and surrounding regional logistics sectors, with a specialization in shipping and freight services. The candidate will focus on pursuing high-value enterprise clientele, primarily multinational corporations and blue-chip companies.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement broad business development strategies to increase market share in logistics across the UAE and surrounding areas.
• Identify and proactively engage prospective multinational and premium clients, managing all phases of bidding, tendering, and proposal submissions.
• Collaborate closely with pricing, procurement, and operations to design customized, profitable supply chain solutions tailored for corporate customers.
• Consistently surpass individual and team revenue and profit margin objectives.
• Build and sustain durable partnerships with major industry players and corporate decision-makers to secure long-term contractual relationships and strategic collaborations.
• Conduct periodic high-level business reviews ensuring contract compliance, service excellence, and identifying opportunities to upsell.
• Serve as top-tier escalation contact for key accounts, providing coordinated cross-departmental support to guarantee service quality and client retention.
• Maintain a detailed and precise CRM sales pipeline, delivering regular data-driven revenue forecasts to senior management.
• Analyze financial and market performance metrics to fine-tune pricing strategies for corporate agreements.
• Lead commercial contract negotiations ensuring adherence to legal, compliance, and risk standards.
• Mentor junior sales personnel and share strategic market insights to align with overall growth plans.
• Achieve aggressive financial targets with a particular focus on securing contracts with high profitability rather than just volume.
• Manage complex negotiations for multi-year agreements and service level contracts.
• Provide strategic reports and forecasts to guide executive decision-making by leveraging CRM analytics.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, or related discipline; an MBA is advantageous.
• At least 10 years of progressive sales and business development experience within the freight forwarding and logistics sector.
• Minimum of 5 years of successful operations in the UAE market, with a focused expertise in the Abu Dhabi region.
• Extensive knowledge of global freight forwarding modes—air, sea, and land—along with multimodal transport, 3PL/4PL contract logistics, customs regulations, and free zone procedures.
• A well-established network comprising corporate and enterprise-level contacts in the regional logistics industry.