Manager – Business Development (Technical Sales)

About SDC

SDC (Spray Drying and Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.) is a Gujarat-based manufacturer of food and nutraceutical ingredients, built on deep spray-drying and process-engineering expertise. Two businesses, one plant standard:

• AcaPure™ — our branded range of spray-dried and instantised Gum Acacia serving flavour houses, beverage, confectionery, nutraceutical and pharma customers.
• CDMO & Contract R&D — contract spray drying, fluid-bed processing and product development from lab and pilot scale to commercial capacity, under an FSSC 22000 food-safety system.

Facilities at Saykha GIDC (Bharuch) and an R&D centre at Surat. We are in active growth mode with a clear ambition: a globally competitive Indian ingredient platform.

What you will own

• Pipeline — build it from a named-account universe (~30%)
• Construct and work a 60–80 named-account target list across two lanes: AcaPure buyers (flavour, beverage, food, nutra) and CDMO prospects (brands and ingredient companies needing drying/encapsulation capacity or development support).
• Generate first meetings through direct outreach, referrals, trade shows and inbound enquiries; qualify hard, log everything in the CRM within 24 hours.
• The technical-commercial sale — run it end to end (~35%)
• Lead grade-selection and specification conversations with customer R&D, QA and procurement (Senegal vs Seyal chemistry, spray-dried vs instantised formats), backed by our R&D team.
• Own the full sample-to-qualification cycle: dispatch, trial follow-up, documentation (CoA, specifications, FSSC/FSSAI/Halal/Kosher), audit coordination, negotiation and close.
• For CDMO: scope requirements, drive NDAs, shape feasibility responses and pilot-trial proposals with R&D/operations, and construct commercial offers for Director approval.
• Accounts — protect and grow what you take over (~20%)
• Assume ownership of accounts handed over from the Directors through structured joint introductions; grow share-of-wallet with additional grades and, as launched, encapsulation and fibre lines.
• Market intelligence & the commercial system (~15%)
• Track competitors and raw-material dynamics; deliver a monthly one-page market note.
• Stand up the CRM and a lightweight, repeatable sales process a future team can inherit — you are building the machine, not just working in it.

Who we are looking for

Must-have

• 6–10 years of B2B sales/BD in food or nutraceutical ingredients, hydrocolloids, food-grade specialty chemicals, or CDMO/CMO services.
• Proven hunter: you can name the accounts you opened, not just the ones you kept.
• Genuine technical fluency — comfortable in front of a customer's R&D head discussing specs, applications and regulatory documentation.
• Working knowledge of the Indian food/nutra buying landscape; live relationships strongly preferred.
• CRM discipline and structured reporting habits; fluent English and Hindi
• B.Sc./B.Tech in Food Technology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or related (MBA welcome, not required).

Even better

• You have sold gum acacia, hydrocolloids, or spray-dried/encapsulated ingredients specifically.
• Export-sales exposure and international documentation experience.
• You have been an early or first commercial hire before — and liked it.

What success looks like in Year 1

• A living two-lane pipeline with predictable weekly activity; ≥ 10 new AcaPure accounts converted to paid commercial supply; 2–3 CDMO projects advanced to paid development or toll agreements.
• The CRM is the single source of commercial truth; the Directors' routine selling time is cut by more than half.

What we offer

• First-mover position in a new commercial function, working directly with the founders — with a defined growth path toward Senior Manager / Head of Sales as the team scales.
• A four-week structured product & application induction before you are ever put in front of a customer alone.
• Competitive fixed compensation, a clean incentive linked to a transparent scorecard, and real pricing authority within an agreed approval matrix.