Business Line Lead – Sensing & Communications

Role Overview

• Own the growth plan for Sensing & Comms, including, pipeline, routes-to-market, partner strategy and market expansion.
• Move the business line from smaller early orders into larger opportunities and more substantial programmes.
• Build on existing traction across the UK, Europe and Canada, while establishing a credible pipeline and early sales momentum in the US.
• Develop direct and channel routes to market, including partners, resellers and customer relationships.
• Lead from the front on priority deals, from discovery and customer engagement through to demo, pilot, proposal and signed contract.
• Run the business line with the discipline of a general manager, balancing revenue growth, delivery, margin, cash exposure and investment decisions.
• Build a robust operating rhythm for forecasting, reporting, decision-making, risk management and opportunity tracking.
• Work with product, engineering, supply chain, manufacturing and operations teams to make informed decisions on stock, build timing and delivery commitments.
• Ensure commercial commitments are realistic, deliverable and aligned with Rowden’s wider business objectives.
• Translate customer demand, market insight and live opportunity data into clear input for the product roadmap.
• Shape the future direction of current product line and adjacent Sensing & Comms products.
• Help Rowden prioritise where to invest, what to build, and which market opportunities are worth pursuing.
• Bring clarity to complex, regulated and export-controlled markets.
• Lead through influence across teams that do not all report directly to you.
• Work closely with the CEO, COO, CRO, VP Engineering, VP Finance, VP Product, Business Development, Legal, Commercial, Operations and other business line leads.
• Build the foundations for a larger Sensing & Comms team over time, including future sales and engineering leadership capability.
• Represent Rowden credibly in external conversations with customers, partners, channel resellers and senior stakeholders.
• Within the first 12–18 months, you will have built a qualified, credible pipeline across priority markets, with clear stakeholders, use cases, procurement routes and routes to award.
• Converted current early traction into larger sales across UK, European and North American markets.
• Successfully launched and commercialised the second generation product.
• Established early US traction through credible pipeline development and initial sales progress.
• Improved forecasting, decision-making and commercial visibility through a disciplined operating rhythm.
• Helped Rowden make better commercial and operational decisions around stock, supply chain and manufacturing risk.
• Embedded structured customer and market insight into the Sensing & Comms roadmap.

Requirements

• Strong commercial experience, including ownership of sales targets and deal progression.
• Technical fluency, ideally gained in a hardware, engineering, defence, communications, RF, or adjacent technical product environment.
• Experience scaling a product-led business beyond early-stage traction.
• Credibility in senior commercial and customer conversations.
• Practical understanding of hardware product realities, including supply chain, manufacturing, verification, validation and stock risk.
• Experience operating in complex or regulated environments; defence, government or export-controlled markets would be valuable.
• The ability to bridge technical execution and commercial outcomes.
• A track record of building structure without slowing momentum.
• The ability to lead cross-functional teams without relying solely on formal authority.
• A proactive, hands-on working style. This is not a role for someone who only wants to delegate.
• An RF/CEMA/EW background would be useful but is not a strict requirement.

Benefits

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!