Business Development Lead

Business Development Lead

Macklan Group

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia | Full-Time | In Office

Macklan Group designs, manufactures and builds. Its companies include DORA Construction, a general contractor; Eastcut Wood Building Solutions, which manufactures building components and modular buildings at its plant in Trenton; Somerled, its development company; and an in-house design and preconstruction team. Together they deliver housing, institutional and commercial projects across Atlantic Canada.

HOW MACKLAN WORKS

Build like it matters: Every detail, every day.

Enjoy the ride: Celebrate wins. Talk early. Bring energy.

Always true: Integrity, safety, grit.

Make it better, every day, together: Continuous improvement.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Opportunities reach Macklan from every direction: architects, developers, public bids, referrals and the relationships of its leaders. This new role brings them together.

You’ll own the process that keeps opportunities across the group visible and moving. Every lead needs to be captured, assessed against agreed criteria, put in front of the right people and followed through to a clear next step. It’s the first dedicated, group-wide role of its kind, and you’ll report to Donald MacDonald, President and Founder.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Capture every opportunity, wherever it surfaces, and get the facts fast: scope, timing, budget, funding and who decides.
• Make sure every opportunity is assessed against agreed criteria, close gaps where needed and bring forward a clear recommendation.
• Bring it to the right people across DORA, Eastcut, design and preconstruction, and estimating, with a brief they can act on.
• Keep it moving. Every opportunity has a next step, an owner and a date, and you follow up until something happens.
• Run the weekly opportunity meeting and the monthly pipeline review, and own the pipeline in monday.com.
• Pick up the phone when no one else holds the relationship: architects, developers and clients you’ve never met. Get the facts, read the situation, and bring in the right expert at the right time.
• Turn what comes out of leadership’s client meetings into logged next steps within two days.

WHY THIS ROLE

You’ll work directly with Macklan’s founder and operating leaders, with visibility across the group and a direct hand in how new opportunities are managed.

You’ll bring those opportunities into one clear picture, connect the right people, and make sure decisions turn into action. It’s a chance to build a function Macklan hasn’t had before.

WHO YOU ARE

• Three to seven years in client-facing commercial work, with examples where your judgement and initiative moved something forward. That might be business development or proposals in construction, engineering or architecture; account management in technical B2B; or construction project coordination with real client contact.
• You pick up the phone to people you’ve never met, and you hold your own with senior people.
• You can tell a real opportunity from a long shot, and you say so.
• You build a process and keep it running without being told. You care whether things move, not just whether they look tidy.
• Persistent and diplomatic. You can hold a busy leader to a date and keep the relationship.
• This isn’t an individual sport. You’ll work alongside the EA and marketing team and depend on leaders across the group. You share information early, follow through on commitments and care more about the group’s success than who gets the credit.
• Sound judgement. You know what you know, and when to bring in the person who knows more.
• You keep your focus when a lot is in motion, and your updates are short: what’s happening and what decision is needed.
• You understand how construction projects are bought, designed and delivered, or you’ll learn it fast. Direct experience is a strong asset.
• Comfortable with CRM and work-management tools (monday.com is a plus). You use AI tools with judgement and check what they produce.

YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS

One trusted pipeline: Every live opportunity across the group has an owner, a stage, a next action and a date.

Clear decisions: Every new lead has an initial decision or a defined next step within a week, with an owner and a date.

Responsiveness: Every inquiry acknowledged within a business day.

APPLY TODAY

This search is being led by Hawthorne Recruitment where all conversations are confidential.

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