Product & Commercial Development Manager

Company: Lifting and Crane
Build products. Grow a business. Shape its future.

Lifting and Crane is a long-established specialist lifting equipment business based in Gloucester.
For decades, we have designed, supplied, manufactured, inspected, certified and repaired lifting equipment, helping customers carry out complex lifting tasks effectively.

What sets us apart is the breadth of what we do. We combine inspection and certification, repair and maintenance, equipment supply and bespoke manufacture. When a customer has an unusual lifting requirement or needs help finding the right solution, we pride ourselves on being the company they can turn to.

Our bespoke products - including specialist slings, straps and other lifting solutions - are used across a wide range of industries, including construction, manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, marine and heavy engineering. We work with businesses of all sizes, including some of the best-known organisations in Gloucestershire and beyond.

Following new ownership, we are investing in the next phase of the business. We see significant potential to develop our existing product range, identify new opportunities and grow the manufacturing side of Lifting and Crane.

We are now looking for an ambitious Product & Commercial Development Manager to help us do it.

The opportunity
This is not a conventional product management role.

We are looking for someone who wants to learn a specialist business and then help grow it.

Initially, you will work closely with our experienced team to build a strong technical understanding of what we manufacture: how products are designed and made, the materials and components we use, the relevant standards and certification requirements, and why particular solutions work for particular applications.

We expect that learning curve to be intensive. During your first two quarters, the objective will be to develop a strong working knowledge of our core products, manufacturing processes and technical requirements.

But this is fundamentally a commercial growth role.

From early on, you will also be getting out into the market: meeting customers, understanding how they use our products, asking questions, identifying problems we could solve and recognising opportunities that could become new products or product ranges.

As your technical knowledge develops, an increasing proportion of your role will focus on commercial and business development.

What you'll be doing
You will:
• Learn our existing product range, manufacturing processes, materials and technical standards.
• Work alongside experienced members of our team to capture and document important product and manufacturing knowledge.
• Build relationships with existing customers and understand their businesses, applications and lifting requirements.
• Get out and meet customers rather than trying to develop products from behind a desk.
• Identify recurring customer requirements that could be developed into defined, repeatable and commercially attractive product lines.
• Spot opportunities for entirely new products and services.
• Take ideas from customer need through specification, development, production and commercial launch.
• Help establish clear specifications, drawings, documentation and processes for our manufactured products.
• Work with our marketing resource to present and promote our products effectively, including developing a stronger product presence on our website.
• Develop relationships with suppliers and identify opportunities to broaden our product offering.
• Explore products that could complement our UK manufacturing capability, including opportunities to source or import appropriate product ranges.
• Understand the commercial performance of the product area and help drive sustainable revenue and margin growth.
• Gradually take greater ownership and responsibility for this part of the business.

The longer-term opportunity is to become the person who leads and grows this division of Lifting and Crane.

Who we're looking for
Lifting equipment industry experience is welcome, but not essential.

This is a specialist field, and we recognise that the right person may come to us without direct experience of the products we manufacture.

What matters is your aptitude and attitude.

We are looking for someone who is:
• Commercially minded - you naturally see opportunities and think about customers, products, value and growth.
• Curious - you ask questions, particularly "why?", and genuinely want to understand how things work.
• Technically interested - you don't need to be an engineer or experienced machinist, but you must want to understand products, materials, manufacturing processes, specifications and standards.
• Self-motivated - you don't need somebody constantly telling you what to do next.
• Comfortable with responsibility - you want ownership and are prepared to be accountable for results.
• Customer-focused - you're comfortable talking to customers, listening properly and getting underneath what they actually need.
• Practical - you're equally comfortable discussing an opportunity with a customer and spending time on the shop floor understanding how the product is actually made.
• Resourceful - when you encounter something you don't know, your instinct is to find the answer.
• Ambitious - you're looking for a role in which your responsibility can grow as quickly as your capability.
• A builder rather than a caretaker - you're excited by improving something, developing new ideas and creating growth.

We don't expect you to arrive knowing everything. We do expect you to want to learn quickly.

What success could look like

Within your first six months, you should be developing a strong understanding of our existing products, customers, manufacturing processes, materials and technical requirements.

You should also already be spending time with customers and beginning to identify commercial opportunities.

During the remainder of your first year, we would expect you increasingly to take the lead on product and commercial development: turning customer requirements into opportunities, developing new and existing product lines, working with marketing, strengthening supplier relationships and helping us take those products to a wider market.

By the end of that first year, we want to see a business area that is more structured, better documented, commercially stronger and demonstrably growing - with you increasingly taking ownership of where it goes next.

Why Lifting and Crane?
There aren't many opportunities to learn a specialist UK manufacturing capability while also being given the freedom to help build the commercial business around it.

You'll be joining a small team, so your contribution will be visible. You'll work directly with the Managing Director, experienced specialists, customers and suppliers rather than being one small part of a large corporate structure.

You'll inherit decades of knowledge, but you won't be asked simply to preserve it.

We want you to build on it.

For the right person, this is an opportunity to learn a rare specialist field, develop products, build customer relationships, create new revenue streams and ultimately take responsibility for growing a division of the business.

If you're commercially minded, ambitious, technically curious and attracted by the idea of building something rather than simply maintaining it, we'd like to hear from you.

Salary & progression
£27,500–£35,000 per annum, depending on experience

We are deliberately open-minded about background and experience. The starting salary will reflect what you bring to the role, with the opportunity for both your responsibility and remuneration to grow as you develop and take increasing commercial ownership of the division.

This is intended to be a role with genuine progression — not one where the responsibilities grow but the package stands still.

Please send your cv by clicking on Apply Now.