View Vacancy – Head of Aerospace, Grade-SEO, Bangalore/Hyderabad/Mumbai/New Delhi

Note: All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, experience segment and the behaviour-based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only for all the required details. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

Main purpose of job:

Remember the huge aircraft order from Air India in 2023 with British input at Airbus and Rolls Royce being a key part of that order? Want to be part of negotiations between the British and Indian Governments on increasing the number of flights between our nations? Do you know about Wings Air show and Aero-India Air show and want a front row seat in meetings with major Aerospace companies whilst aircraft display overhead? Then read on… as this may be the role for you…

The Head of Aerospace at the British High Commission in India is an exciting role. You will be working for the British Government, supporting UK industry in the global aerospace economy, valued at more than $700 billion on the civil side and growing year on year. The UK is the second largest aerospace cluster in the world and the largest in Europe – making it a perfect partner for India as it continues on it’s huge growth trajectory. India is a thriving economy, with significant aspirations for being a major civil aerospace player. Both the UK and India have a long history of collaboration in this field, and growth in India presents sizeable business opportunities to British aerospace companies.

You will be a senior member of staff in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) South Asia team, working alongside a sector lead to identify opportunities for UK business and identify wider collaboration opportunities for the UK in the aerospace industry. As the Head of the DBT Aerospace sector team, your overall objective will be to lead the team to deliver against business targets and increase sales and the UK’s footprint in India. This will include identifying export opportunities for UK companies in the three key sub-sectors: sales, supply chain, and MRO and training across India. You will work across teams to identify market access issues for UK companies doing business with India and working with colleagues and the Government of India to solve them.

The aerospace team has individual team members located in the two main hubs: Bangalore and New Delhi. You will be expected to travel to other clusters across India, in major metros and developing tier 2 and 3 cities, whilst also leading and supporting the team on a day to day basis. You will bring with you, or demonstrate how you would quickly acquire, an in-depth knowledge of the aerospace sector, in both the UK and India. You will build a strategy based on this knowledge to turn the long-term potential and direction of travel of the sector into a pipeline of opportunities for UK business. To do so, you will identify and build relationships within the sector and identify a pipeline of validated projects of interest to UK business, particularly large or high-value deals which would require UK government support or involvement to secure. You will then work with DBT’s Headquarters team in the UK and in other markets to bring UK companies to India and support them to win business, delivering towards the UK government’s commercial targets.

Your role is high profile and with great responsibility. You will be the voice of the UK government and industry in the sector, and wider; you will be expected to gain access to the most senior levels within Indian industry and government as necessary, making best use of the DBT South Asia Senior Leadership Team and British Deputy High Commissioners throughout India. You will be a self-starter who can demonstrate a long-term focus; plan and manage a delivery model; and identify, grow and make effective use of stakeholders. You will work with colleagues within DBT in India and elsewhere, with other UK government colleagues, Indian State and Federal government(s), business and other multipliers (trade associations, etc.).

As the role includes line management of someone who looks at the space sector, the successful candidate will need to show at interview and in their application, they have a good knowledge of this sector too and it’s cross overs, linkages and growth areas for UK business. You will be expected to stand in at space meetings and events with confidence and know the subject area and its opportunities and challenges.

Note: The role is open for either of the location: Bangalore/Hyderabad/Mumbai/New Delhi

We reserve the right to review, revise or amend the roles and responsibilities from time to time reflecting the changing needs of business.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve:

The job is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact on the UK’s commercial links with India. We will give you the freedom and responsibility to develop within the sector and build your networks, but we will support you too with opportunities to get the right learning and development, career development and opportunities to travel across India, to the UK and the wider South Asia region. You will need to be collaborative and flexible to fit in with the network’s ethos; and, importantly, focussed on delivering results and contributing to the wider corporate efforts especially around our busy Ministerial/VIP visit programmes.

To be successful:

• You will have an in depth understanding of the civil aerospace sector, both in India and the UK, and a strong network on the ground, and use your good analytical skills to apply this to identifying significant market opportunities for UK business and then supporting them to turn these into contracts.
• You will need to be strategically aware to identify emerging opportunities in your sector, and to what is happening in the UK in your sectors and to emerging investment opportunities.
• You will have strong interpersonal skills and be a credible team leader capable of setting the direction for yourself and those around you and of gaining their trust and respect – and doing so while working within a virtual team located across India.
• You will have experience of developing productive relationships with senior decision makers in UK and Indian businesses and with stakeholders and partners, and of using these to deliver your objectives.
• You will need to be collaborative and flexible and able to manage yourself and the demands on you.
• You will have good project management skills to create and deliver campaigns; and excellent English written and verbal communication skills. You will be expected to produce written work in to a high standard.
• Create, validate, plan and deliver a strategy for the aerospace sector across India. Identify, validate and deliver a pipeline of high value projects and opportunities; plan and deliver activities to connect UK business to these opportunities and provide bespoke support to UK companies to win business. In doing so, meet DBT’s internal targets (for pipeline, export wins, return on investment and customer satisfaction/quality).
• Create and innovate models to engage with stakeholders, raise the profile of the sector through activities & events planned and managed by DBT and others, including GREAT UK.
• Provide strategic and policy advice to senior colleagues and Government officials and identify opportunities to engage with Ministers in both Governments to overcome trade barriers and market access issues.
• Contributing to wider corporate UK government objectives, including leading on Ministerial/VIP visits and deliverables across HMG in India.
• This job is a senior position, reflecting a decision by DBT to create greater capacity within the team, enabling greater strategic direction and focus on individual sectors where significant opportunities exist for the UK.
• As above, the successful candidate also needs to have a good solid understanding of the UK space sector due to line management responsibilities. You will be expected to stand in at Space meetings with confidence and know the subject area and its opportunities and issues.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

1 X HEO grade country based staff

The DBT team is a high-performing, hybrid team of supportive colleagues made up of UK-based and country based staff, totalling around 100 people, spread across nine cities in India.

Language requirements:

Language: English, with basic Hindi desirable. Local Indian languages will also be useful for this role

Level of language required: Excellent level of spoken and written English. All meetings and documents are conducted in English.  

Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):

Extensive training on British High Commission ways of working and understanding the UK in India footprint will be undertaken in the first six-months. Please expect to travel widely during this period to other offices across India, to trade events and to meetings with your line manager and wider team. Previous members of the team have found this deep dive into the role and the UK in India work exciting and a great way to get stuck in and learn.

The British High Commission also has an extensive learning and development offer to all trade staff. There is an allowance each year for staff to undertake their own personal L&D, linked to their current roles.

Finally, there are also very exciting opportunities to travel to UK and/or South Asian region for training & work-related opportunities.

Working patterns:

Full time employment Monday to Friday. The British High Commission in India works 4 days per week in an office or in external meetings. One day per week can be remote working / flexible around your needs.

You will be required to support activities and events outside of normal working hours (such as High Commission evening events or receptions) and to travel frequently. Time for this is compensated by time off in lieu (TOIL).

Most Trade staff find the out of hours work the most exciting part of the job. As an example, one week you may spend an evening with at a Reception in Mumbai, followed by networking and advancing your teams goals and priorities at the High Commissioners Residence in Delhi with Indian politicians and leading members of Indian global industries.

Essential on arrival:

• Good education to degree level or comparable work experience (desirable to have both) Candidates without the required educational qualifications but with exceptional practical experience will be considered.
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant commercial/business experience
• An in-depth understanding of the aerospace sector and a strong network in the sector are essential to hit the ground running.
• Strong analytical, research and problem-solving skills to search out significant opportunities for UK business.
• Excellent networking and communication skills. This role is easier when the incumbent is able to demonstrate this up to very senior levels (Director, Politician, Diplomat etc)
• Excellent interpersonal, team working and people management skills. The successful candidate must be able to work across and within teams across all of India. Experience of dealing with senior level decision makers in Indian national and state government. You will need to show a solid track record of dealing with senior level decision makers in the business world. Strategy and policy development experience – public and or private sector focused.
• As above, the successful candidate also needs to have a good solid understanding of the UK space sector due to line management responsibilities. You will be expected to stand in at Space meetings with confidence and know the subject area and its opportunities and issues.