Job Title: Head of Business Development - Naval
Location: UK, Hybrid
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF
Lead the future of naval training innovation
At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Head of Business Development – Naval at any of our main UK locations, near major commutable towns across the UK.
The role
As a Head of Business Development – Naval, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering customer‑tailored, outcome‑focused training solutions that strengthen defence capability, operational readiness and maritime resilience worldwide. This is an opportunity to influence national security, contribute to sovereign capability, and directly support naval organisations and defence ministries across the globe.
You’ll be leading a strategic function that sits at the heart of our training portfolio, spanning Marine Training, Nuclear Training, Mission Systems and Special Projects. It’s a role that offers genuine impact, global reach, and outstanding scope for career development. By bringing together customer insight, commercial expertise and innovative thinking, you will help define long-term partnerships and steer the future of naval training excellence.
Day-to-day, you’ll:
1. Shape customer‑focused, outcome‑based training solutions for domestic and export markets.
2. Lead senior‑level customer engagement across global navies, defence ministries and government organisations.
3. Drive capture and bid activity from initial market shaping through to contract award.
4. Collaborate with engineering, delivery, commercial and safety teams to ensure proposed solutions are robust, affordable and operationally effective.
5. Represent Babcock at executive, military and government levels with credibility and strategic influence.
This role is full time, 37 hours per week and provides hybrid working arrangements with days onsite and days working from home.
Essential experience of the Head of Business Development - Naval
6. Senior‑level business development and capture experience within defence, naval or training environments.
7. Strong understanding of naval operations, training systems and capability development lifecycles.
8. Proven experience delivering complex, customer‑tailored training or services solutions.
9. Commercially astute with strong risk‑management and decision‑making capability.
10. Comfortable operating at executive, military and senior government levels.
Qualifications for the Head of Business Development - Naval
11. Degree‑level qualification or equivalent experience.
12. A professional, engineering or military background is desirable.
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Standard (BPSS) and Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.
Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE organisation with over 26, people working together to make a difference.
Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.
We call that lifetime engineering.
Join us and see how far we can go, together.
We are a disability confident committed employer.