Position Summary
Hayden Industrial is seeking a commercially driven Business Development / Sales Engineer to support the continued growth of its engineered heat-transfer and cooling products.
This role is intended for someone who is prepared to be active in the market: identifying opportunities, visiting customers, developing relationships, attending industry events and progressing opportunities from initial contact through technical and commercial qualification.
The successful candidate will combine the energy and persistence of a business-development professional with sufficient engineering knowledge to understand customer applications, ask the right questions and communicate Hayden’s technical value.
Key Responsibilities
Business development
- Identify and develop new customers, applications and market opportunities for Hayden’s product portfolio.
- Build a structured pipeline across priority sectors, including data centers, power generation and industrial cooling
- Research target customers, engineering consultants, contractors, OEMs, developers and end users.
- Establish contact with new prospects through direct outreach, referrals, industry events and site visits.
- Qualify opportunities based on technical fit, commercial potential, timing, decision-making structure and competitive position.
- Develop account-entry plans for strategic customers and market segments.
- Maintain consistent follow-up from initial contact through specification, quotation and order placement.
- Re-engage dormant customers and opportunities where Hayden has relevant technical capability.
Customer engagement
- Travel regularly to meet customers, consulting engineers, contractors and project stakeholders.
- Attend customer offices, project sites, factories and industry events as required.
- Develop relationships at engineering, procurement, project-management and executive levels.
- Understand the customer’s application, operating conditions, technical constraints and commercial drivers.
- Lead early-stage discovery discussions and gather the information required for Hayden to develop a suitable technical solution.
- Coordinate internal support from Application Engineering, Product Management, Project Management and Operations.
- Present Hayden’s capabilities, product range, manufacturing footprint and value proposition.
- Provide professional and timely responses throughout the sales process.
- Remain engaged after quotation to understand customer feedback, competitor positioning and the actions required to progress the opportunity.
Technical sales
- Develop a strong working knowledge of Hayden’s heat-transfer and cooling products.
- Understand customer requirements relating to thermal performance, fluid conditions, ambient conditions, noise, power consumption, footprint, materials, controls and regulatory compliance.
- Review customer specifications and identify the key technical and commercial requirements.
- Work with Application Engineering to develop technically compliant and commercially competitive selections.
- Explain product configurations and performance trade-offs clearly to customers.
- Support technical presentations, specification reviews and value-engineering discussions.
- Identify requirements that are unusual, technically difficult or commercially high risk and escalate them appropriately.
- Assist customers in developing practical equipment specifications where requirements are not yet fully defined.
- Support the development of standard sales tools, presentations, application guides and market-specific technical content.
Trade shows and market presence
- Represent Hayden at relevant trade shows, conferences and customer events.
- Support the selection of events based on target markets and commercial priorities.
- Arrange meetings with existing and prospective customers before each event.
- Proactively engage with attendees rather than relying only on booth traffic.
- Ensure that all leads and actions are recorded, qualified and followed up promptly.
- Gather market intelligence on competitors, product trends, customer investment and emerging applications.
- Provide structured post-event reporting, including leads, opportunities, market observations and required actions.
- Support technical seminars, lunch-and-learn sessions, webinars and other customer-facing activities.
Sales process and reporting
- Maintain accurate opportunity and customer information within the company CRM system.
- Develop and maintain a credible sales pipeline and forecast.
- Record customer interactions, decision criteria, next actions and target dates.
- Coordinate quotation activity and ensure that internal teams receive complete and accurate information.
- Track quotations through the customer’s review and approval process.
- Provide regular reporting on:
- New opportunities.
- Customer visits.
- Pipeline value.
- Forecast order timing.
- Market activity.
- Competitor intelligence.
- Key obstacles and required internal support.
- Support contract and commercial discussions in coordination with Sales leadership and other business functions.
- Ensure that commitments made to customers are properly reviewed and approved internally.
Qualifications and Experience
Essential
- Degree, technical qualification or demonstrable experience in Mechanical Engineering, HVAC, refrigeration, thermal systems, process engineering or a related field.
- Experience in technical sales, applications engineering, business development or customer-facing engineering.
- Ability to understand engineered products and communicate technical concepts clearly.
- Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
- Confidence initiating contact with new customers and developing relationships from an early stage.
- Willingness to travel frequently, including international travel.
- Willingness to attend trade shows, conferences and customer events.
- Strong written and spoken English.
- Good organizational skills and disciplined follow-up.
- Ability to manage multiple opportunities and stakeholders simultaneously.
- Competence with CRM systems, Microsoft Office and professional presentation tools.
Preferred
- Experience selling heat exchangers, dry coolers, fluid coolers, air-handling equipment, refrigeration products or other capital equipment.
- Knowledge of data-center cooling or other mission-critical cooling applications.
- Experience working with consulting engineers, EPC contractors, mechanical contractors, OEMs or large end users.
- Familiarity with technical specifications, schedules, drawings and tender documentation.
- Experience developing new territories or market segments.
- Existing industry relationships within one or more of Hayden’s target markets.
- Experience working across North American and international markets.
Personal Attributes
- Energetic, persistent and comfortable creating activity rather than waiting for enquiries.
- Technically curious and willing to develop detailed product knowledge.
- Prepared to travel and spend significant time in front of customers.
- Strong sense of ownership and personal accountability.
- Comfortable working independently while coordinating effectively with internal teams.
- Professional, credible and confident in customer meetings.
- Commercially aware without being overly transactional.
- Able to balance customer responsiveness with internal discipline.
- Strong at following through on commitments and closing out actions.
- Willing to undertake the practical groundwork required to develop a new customer or opportunity.
- Resilient and comfortable with the longer sales cycles associated with engineered capital equipment.
- Quality of market intelligence provided to Product Management and Sales leadership.
Travel Expectations
Regular travel is a core requirement of this position. Travel may include customer offices, project sites, Hayden facilities, trade shows and industry events. Travel may account for approximately 50% of working time, with periods of higher travel around major events and customer-development initiatives.
