Business Development Manager at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the job:

• The CSIR has a vacancy for a Business Development Manager within the Smart Places Cluster of the Smart Society Division. The incumbent will be accountable for securing the total revenue, diversification of income streams, and for meeting targets per revenue stream for the cluster.
• He/she will be accountable for clearly defining business development and commercialisation priorities in alignment with the CSIR vision, strategy and relevant market needs, collecting market and business intelligence to ensure all cluster programmes and projects are relevant to the user environment, and for transferring CSIR technologies to the market.
• This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• In collaboration with the Business Development & Commercialisation Divisional Executive, lead the business development strategy for the Smart Places cluster.
• Be accountable for securing the revenue targets and diversification of income streams of the cluster.
• Facilitate strategic investment of parliamentary grant to leverage further income from industry and other funding sources.
• Be accountable for a robust, balanced pipeline of business leads per cluster targets.
• Be accountable for market/business intelligence to inform the cluster’s RDI agenda, facilitate development of technologies for current and future competitiveness and ensure collaboration with industry and relevant parties locally and internationally.
• Lead and maintain in-depth stakeholder engagement in industry and the public sector at large.
• Lead technical teams in client interactions.
• Be accountable for all key client relationships, represent client interests and be responsible for client satisfaction.
• Write business plans, develop financial models and undertake techno-economics feasibility studies for related projects
• Provide intelligence on emerging trends and funding mechanisms/ vehicle for engineering and science research
• Lead development of strategic and investments, and resources mobilisation for commercialisation of research outputs.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A degree in engineering, science or business in a relevant domain with at least five years’ business development experience in industry, research, development innovation (RDI) or leading research and technology organisations (RTO).
• MBA or post graduate degree in Engineering, Science  or Commerce is an added advantage.
• Experience in any of the following domains is desired: Engineering, Infrastructure, Urban & Regional Planning, Environmental Sciences & Ecosystems, Climate Change, Sustainability, Energy Management, or Water Management.
• In-depth understanding and/ or experience in engineering or science sector will be an added advantage.
• Previous experience from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Private Equity Firms, Venture Capital, will be an added advantage
• Relevant industry experience, demonstrated experience of people management, project management and organisational development, will be an added advantage.
• Proven track record of securing funding from different streams viz. international funding bodies, private sector, government, etc.
• Excellent communicator with strong business acumen.
• Evidence of high-level stakeholder management and industry-related, government and/or international networks.
• Excellent communicator with strong, demonstrable business acumen; and
• Demonstrated experience of strong people management and organisational development skills.

Closing date: 31 October 2025