Business Developmet Manager Materials Business - Steel (m/f/d)

Location: Ratingen

Germany · Materials Industry Business · Full-time, permanent · Hybrid · Travel across Germany and Europe

About the role

Steel producers in Germany are rebuilding how they make steel: shifting to hydrogen-ready direct reduction and electric arc furnaces, cutting energy use, and running plants with fewer people and more data. They need partners who understand both the metallurgy and the automation behind it.

As Business Development Manager – Steel Industry & EPC Solutions, you will grow Yokogawa’s business with steel producers and the EPC contractors who build and modernise their plants in Germany. You will be the steel subject-matter expert for the regional sales organisation: you find the opportunities, shape value-based solutions with our engineering and digital teams, and help customers decide with confidence.

The role sits within Yokogawa’s Materials industry business, which supports steel, non-ferrous metals, mining and chemicals customers in improving productivity, reducing environmental impact and saving energy. It combines business development, key-account support, technical consulting and market development, and you will work with colleagues across Europe and with Yokogawa’s global iron & steel experts.

What you’ll do

Steel expertise & solution development

• Act as the regional subject-matter expert for iron & steel, bringing Yokogawa know-how and reference cases to customers and to our account managers, digital solutions and engineering teams.
• Understand customers’ operational and decarbonisation challenges across the steel value chain – raw material handling, coke making and sintering, ironmaking (blast furnace and DRI), steelmaking (BOF and EAF), casting, rolling and finishing – and translate them into solution proposals.
• Shape solutions from the Yokogawa portfolio, for example: distributed control and safety instrumented systems; process analyzers for combustion and gas composition (such as laser gas analyzers and oxygen analyzers for reheating furnaces); fibre-optic temperature sensing for conveyor fire detection; wireless IIoT condition monitoring; and energy and GHG emissions management.
• Support pre-sales activities such as site assessments, application tests, proof-of-concepts and customer workshops or training.

Customer relationships & commercial leadership

• Build and maintain relationships with steel producers and EPC contractors at operational, engineering and management level.
• Lead cross-functional bid teams (technical, commercial, legal) to define scope, pricing and contractual terms for tailored solutions.
• Stay involved through implementation hand-over to make sure what we sold delivers value and leads to long-term partnerships.
• Represent Yokogawa at industry events, associations and trade fairs relevant to the German and European steel sector.

Business development & market growth

• Work with marketing and market intelligence to build the steel go-to-market plan for Germany.
• Track market developments – green steel investments, public funding programmes, regulation such as CBAM and the EU ETS – and competitor activity to identify new opportunities.
• Own the steel opportunity pipeline in CRM, with forecasts, potential analyses and agreed commercial KPIs.

What you bring

You know how a steel plant runs and you can sell to the people who run it. You are credible with process and automation engineers and comfortable presenting a business case to plant and executive management.

Experience

• 5+ years in B2B technical sales, business development or consultative sales, ideally in steel, metals or another heavy process industry.
• Working knowledge of steel processes such as sintering, blast furnace, DRI, EAF, casting or rolling, and of plant automation (Level 1–3), process control or functional safety.
• Experience working with EPC contractors and in project-based sales cycles.
• An existing network in the German steel industry is a strong adva

ntage.

Education

• Degree in metallurgy / materials engineering, automation, electrical or process engineering, or a related field – or equivalent professional experience.

Skills

• Strong relationship-building and active listening; you ask before you propose.
• Analytical and results-oriented, able to build a quantified value case.
• Works independently and drives opportunities from first contact to order.
• Comfortable in a multicultural, matrix organisation.
• Willing to travel regularly within Germany and occasionally in Europe.

Languages

• German: fluent / business level (C1 or higher).
• English: business level (B2 or higher) – our European and global teams work in English.

What we offer

Pay

We are committed to pay transparency. The salary range for this role – base salary plus the variable, performance-related component – is shared with you during the first screening call with our Talent Acquisition team, and always before your first interview with the Hiring Manager. Pay is set on objective, gender-neutral criteria: the skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions of the role. We will not ask about your current or previous salary.

Benefits

• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements. Travel allowance.
• Local benefits – e.g. annual leave days, pension, company car policy
• Access to Yokogawa’s global iron & steel experts, centres of excellence and reference projects.
• Training and professional development, including product and sales training.
• International exposure across Europe and the wider Yokogawa network.
• The stability of a company founded in 1915, with a long-term view on customers and people.

Not just a job, but a career

Yokogawa, award winner for ‘Best Asset Monitoring Technology’ and ‘Best Digital Twin Technology’ at the HP Awards, is a leading provider of industrial automation, test and measurement, information systems and industrial services in several industries.

Our aim is to shape a better future for our planet through supporting the energy transition, (bio)technology, artificial intelligence, industrial cybersecurity, etc. We are committed to the United Nations sustainable development goals by utilizing our ability to measure and connect.

About the Team

Our 18,000 employees work in over 60 countries with one corporate mission, to "co-innovate tomorrow". We are looking for dynamic colleagues who share our passion for technology and care for our planet. In return, we offer you great career opportunities to grow yourself in a truly global culture where respect, value creation, collaboration, integrity, and gratitude are highly valued and exhibited in everything we do.

Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive culture

Yokogawa is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Yokogawa wants a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. We will actively recruit, develop, and promote people from a variety of backgrounds who differ in terms of experience, knowledge, thinking styles, perspective, cultural background, and socioeconomic status. We will not discriminate based on race, skin color, age, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, belief, political opinion, nationality, ethnicity, place of origin, disability, family relations or any other circumstances. Yokogawa values differences and enables everyone to belong, contribute, succeed, and demonstrate their full potential.

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