Job Description
Business Line Lead (General Manager) - Sensing & Communications
Department: Management
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Bristol, UK
Reporting To: Ellie Steers
We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
The Role
Rowden is looking for a Business Line Lead to take ownership of our Sensing & Comms business line as it moves from early traction into structured growth.
Sensing & Comms is one of Rowden’s three business lines. It already has a deployed product in market, real users, booked revenue and a growing pipeline. Our first-generation product is being sold and used today; a more powerful second-generation version is in development and nearing release. The opportunity now is to turn that early validation into a scalable, repeatable revenue engine across the UK, Europe, North America and other aligned markets.
This is a broad leadership role. You will own the commercial growth, delivery performance, operating rhythm, financial control and strategic direction of the business line. You will work across sales, product, engineering, manufacturing, legal, commercial, finance and operations to build the systems required to scale.
This role will suit someone who has seen technical products move from early traction into structured growth, and who wants direct ownership of that transition. You will need to be commercially sharp, technically fluent, operationally disciplined and comfortable leading through ambiguity.
While this role offers hybrid working options, it requires a minimum of 3 days per week on-site at our Bristol HQ.
For senior roles, compensation is tailored to the scope of the role and the specific experience a candidate brings. Because that can vary significantly, we do not always publish a fixed salary band. We will, however, discuss compensation openly at the first stage of the process and can share an indicative range before either side invests significant time.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
Key areas of responsibility
Business line growth
- 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.
Commercial and operational leadership
- 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.
Product and market direction
- 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.
Cross-functional leadership
- 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.
What success looks like
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.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
We are looking for someone with:
- 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.
About you
- You should be competitive, commercially focused and willing to own a target.
- You should want to build something, not just manage something.
- You should be comfortable with ambiguity, pace and incomplete information.
- You should be able to act decisively while recognising the risks of operating in defence, export-controlled and hardware-led markets.
- You should be willing to spend time with customers, pick up the phone, present externally and travel where needed.
- You should be committed to working from Rowden’s Bristol HQ at least three days per week, except where customer commitments require travel.
Working at Rowden
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!
