Business Development Manager – Semiconductor Segment

Job Requirements

Job Purpose:

The BD Manager will lead growth initiatives in Japan’s semiconductor market by developing strategic customer relationships, identifying and converting new business opportunities, and mobilizing relevant capabilities across multiple business units. The role serves as the link between the external semiconductor market and internal business units, ensuring that customer needs, market trends, and application expertise are translated into actionable growth strategies.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Provide market and competitive intelligence

- Monitor semiconductor-market trends, customer investment plans, technology roadmaps, regulatory developments, and competitive activity in Japan.
- Identify attractive application areas, emerging customer needs, market-entry opportunities, and potential risks.
- Translate market intelligence into clear recommendations for business-unit strategy, portfolio priorities, and customer targeting.

2. Develop customer opportunities and build strategic relationships

- Proactively engage target customers across the semiconductor value chain, including semiconductor manufacturers, materials suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and relevant partners.
- Build trusted relationships with commercial, technical, procurement, and senior decision-making stakeholders.
- Identify customer pain points and development priorities, generate qualified opportunities, and establish customer-specific growth plans.

3. Connect customer needs with multiple BU offerings

- Understand customer requirements in target semiconductor applications and identify relevant products, technologies, and services across business units.
- Develop integrated value propositions that demonstrate how the broader portfolio can address customer technical, commercial, and sustainability requirements.
- Ensure business units receive clear, actionable customer requirements to support products/technical evaluation and solution development.

4. Lead cross business unit opportunity development

- Lead cross BU teams to assess, prioritize, and advance strategic customer opportunities.
- Drive alignment on opportunity ownership, customer engagement strategy, milestones, risks, resource needs, and next steps.

5. Share expertise and customer insight across business units

- Act as a subject-matter expert on Japan’s semiconductor market, customer landscape, applications, and technology trends.
- Share customer feedback, competitive intelligence, opportunity learnings, and application knowledge with relevant business units.

6. Manage pipeline and business development performance

- Build and maintain a robust, qualified pipeline of semiconductor opportunities in Japan.
- Maintain accurate opportunity plans, account strategies, forecasts, and progress reporting.

Work Experience

Key Qualifications & Requirements

- Bachelor’s degree or above in Materials Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or a related discipline.
- Strong understanding of semiconductor ecosystem, including relevant customers, supply-chain participants, applications, technology trends, and commercial dynamics.
- 10 years of relevant experience in business development, strategic market development, key account management.
- Demonstrated ability to originate opportunities with a “Hunter” mindset, build senior customer relationships, and manage complex business development initiatives from concept to commercialization.
- Proven ability to work effectively in a matrix organization and influence stakeholders across multiple business units and functions without direct authority.
- Japanese citizen with fluent English, willingness to travel regularly.