Business Development Manager

Build the Business Development Function Behind Great Engineering

Tangent Design Engineering is looking for an experienced Business Development Manager to join our Calgary-based product development team.

We solve complex engineering challenges across consumer electronics, industrial systems, medical devices, cleantech, aerospace, defence, and everything in between. Our work is deeply technical, highly collaborative, and focused on helping clients turn complex ideas into products that perform in the real world.

Tangent has grown through referrals, repeat clients, strong relationships, and the quality of our work. In this role, you will take ownership of the business development process, lead client opportunities from first conversation through signed agreement, and build greater consistency around proposals, follow-up, pricing, and pipeline management.

This is not a cold-calling role. You will work with an active pipeline, established client relationships, and technical leaders who need someone to bring structure, momentum, and commercial focus to the process.

What You Will Do

As Business Development Manager, your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Leading client intake, discovery, and qualification conversations
• Understanding client needs, project scope, timelines, budgets, and decision-making processes
• Managing opportunities from initial inquiry through signed agreement
• Coordinating engineers, designers, and project managers to develop scopes and pricing
• Leading the preparation of proposals, bids, and statements of work
• Following up consistently and keeping opportunities moving toward a decision
• Supporting pricing discussions, negotiations, and scope trade-offs
• Building strong relationships with technical buyers, founders, executives, and operational leaders
• Managing Tangent’s sales pipeline and CRM in HubSpot
• Providing leadership with a clear view of active opportunities, next steps, and revenue potential
• Improving proposal templates, sales processes, and commercial tools
• Supporting a smooth transition from signed agreement into project delivery
• Using lessons from won and lost opportunities to improve future proposals, pricing, and qualification

What You Bring

On your resume, we ask that you demonstrate:

• Five or more years of experience in business development, technical sales, professional services sales, or a related commercial role
• Experience selling complex technical or professional services
• Experience managing proposals involving multiple technical contributors
• Strong client discovery, qualification, and relationship-management skills
• Experience supporting pricing, negotiation, and commercial decision-making
• Direct experience using a CRM to manage opportunities and pipeline activity
• A track record of improving or building sales processes
• Strong written communication and proposal-development skills
• Excellent organization, follow-through, and attention to detail
• The ability to work effectively with engineers and technical subject-matter experts
• Experience in engineering services, product development, technical consulting, or a design consultancy is considered an asset
• Experience with HubSpot is considered an asset

During the Interview

We will ask you to:

• Share what interests you about business development in a technical environment
• Describe your experience selling complex services or solutions
• Walk us through a proposal or pursuit you managed across multiple contributors
• Explain how you qualify an opportunity before investing significant internal time
• Provide an example of how you handled pricing, scope, or a difficult client expectation
• Describe what you do when an opportunity goes quiet
• Explain how you keep technical contributors engaged when they have competing priorities
• Share a sales process, tool, or system you built or improved
• Demonstrate how you communicate clearly when something is delayed, unclear, or not going as planned

Why Tangent?

At Tangent, you will join a company with strong demand, a trusted reputation, and a team that takes pride in solving difficult problems properly. We offer:

• A flexible, hybrid work environment
• Direct access to the CEO and senior leadership team
• An active pipeline and established base of repeat clients
• Support from a senior sales advisor during your first year
• The opportunity to shape and build Tangent’s business development function
• A collaborative culture grounded in Innovation, Accountability, Client Service, and Teamwork
• A base salary around $100,000, depending on experience
• Performance-based incentive compensation
• Excellent health and dental benefits
• Profit sharing
• The opportunity to work across a wide variety of products, technologies, and industries
• Meaningful influence over how Tangent qualifies, scopes, prices, and wins new work

If you enjoy building relationships, moving complex opportunities forward, and creating structure in a growing technical business, we would like to hear from you.

To apply, please upload your resume online, preferably as one document. We thank everyone who applies for their interest in Tangent. While we appreciate every application, we will only contact candidates whose experience closely aligns with the role.