Business Unit Lead West

Reporting to: Group CEO, Teqnion West

Location: Hybrid / Birmingham

Scope: 8–10 subsidiary businesses within the Teqnion West portfolio

Find out more about the daily tasks, overall responsibilities, and required experience for this opportunity by scrolling down now.

Do you want to drive growth and performance across a portfolio of British industrial SMEs – inside a listed serial acquirer built on permanent ownership and long-term thinking?

Teqnion is looking for two Business Unit Leads for Teqnion West – one with a commercial focus, one with an operational focus – to support the Managing Directors across our UK portfolio. Between you, you cover 8–10 subsidiaries, and you are deployed to the businesses that most need your particular strength: the commercial BUL where a business needs help on sales, pricing and growth; the operational BUL where a business needs help on manufacturing, supply chain and operational delivery.

Both roles share the same purpose: sit alongside the MDs and help them run better businesses – working through the real problems with them and offering practical options drawn from having done the job yourself. This is hands-on enabling, not analysis and challenge from a distance.

These are roles for people who lead through trust rather than formal authority, and whose instinct when an MD has a problem is to help solve it – not to ask for more analysis.

About Teqnion

Teqnion is a listed serial acquirer founded in 2006, today made up of 40+ subsidiaries across Sweden and the UK. Teqnion West is the group’s UK platform and currently holds 17 acquired SME businesses. Each company keeps its own identity, its own Managing Director and full operational autonomy – Teqnion adds patient capital, a long-term home, and senior commercial support rather than central control.

The group’s companies operate in narrow technology niches across a broad spectrum of industries. Teqnion’s strategy is built on active ownership, steady operational improvement of each subsidiary, and growth through acquisition.

About the Roles

You work across a shared portfolio of 8–10 acquired SME businesses within Teqnion West. Each subsidiary has its own Managing Director with full operational autonomy. These roles exist to make those MDs better at running their businesses – to be the person they call when something is going wrong, who has been there before and can help them work it out. Alongside that, you keep Group clear-sighted on how each business is performing, and spot problems early.

You report to the Group CEO, Teqnion West, and work hybrid, based in Birmingham. Your value is measured by whether the MDs are better off for having you there.

The two roles differ only in where your strength lies and where you are most often deployed.

Role 1 – Business Unit Lead (Commercial)

Deployed where a business is more centred around commercial activity. You sit alongside MDs on the commercial engine of the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Help MDs with sales strategy, pricing, go-to-market, key accounts and growth planning – bringing options and ideas, not just questions
• Work through commercial problems hands-on: margin erosion, a stalled pipeline, losing a key salesperson, entering a new market
• Support commercial due diligence and integration for newly acquired businesses
• Spot cross-portfolio commercial opportunities (referrals, shared customers, pricing lessons) without forcing them
• Monitor commercial performance across the portfolio and own that narrative to the Group CEO.

What we believe you bring

• Has held real commercial P&L accountability – as a Commercial Director, Sales Director or Sales & Marketing Director – in a manufacturing or industrial SME, close enough to the business that you did it without a corporate support structure behind you
• Reads a P&L, asks the right questions without being prompted, and knows what to do about the answers
• A solid working understanding of a full P&L – not just the top line. You can sit with an MD and talk through the whole statement with genuine fluency; this is non-negotiable and will be tested
• Credible to an industrial MD from the first meeting.

Role 2 – Business Unit Lead (Operational)

• Help MDs with manufacturing, supply chain, capacity, quality and operational delivery – bringing practical fixes from having done it yourself
• Work through operational problems hands-on: a production bottleneck, a supplier failure, a botched systems change, a site that needs restructuring
• Support operational due diligence and integration for newly acquired businesses
• Spot cross-portfolio operational opportunities (shared suppliers, shared capacity, operational lessons) without forcing them
• Monitor operational performance across the portfolio and own that narrative to the Group CEO.

What we believe you bring

• Has run manufacturing operations with real accountability – as an Operations Director, Manufacturing Director, or General Manager – in an industrial SME or a site small enough that you did it without a large corporate structure behind you
• Knows how a factory actually runs and can help fix it, rather than only report on it
• A solid working understanding of a full P&L – not just cost and output. You can sit with an MD and talk through the whole statement with genuine fluency; this is non-negotiable and will be tested
• Credible to an industrial MD from the first meeting.

What We Offer

As a Business Unit Lead with us, you get a role with a real mandate and direct influence on how Teqnion West develops. You will work closely with subsidiary MDs, Group leadership and owners, in a business with short decision paths, a clear strategy and a strong acquisition-driven growth culture.

We offer an environment where commercial sharpness and operational judgement are valued equally – and where your ability to move between strategy and the day-to-day reality of running a business makes a tangible difference.

Compensation & Benefits

We offer a competitive package reflecting the scope and seniority of this role. Base salary is £80,000–£100,000, depending on background, complemented by a performance-related annual bonus, a car allowance, and an employer pension contribution.

Practical Information

• Two roles – one commercial, one operational. Please indicate which you are applying for
• Location: Birmingham (minimum 3 days per week in B’ham office)
• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis but our response might be delayed due to summer holidays (thanks for your understanding)
• A background check is carried out on the final candidates. xwzovoh

Hiring manager

Meet the hiring manager David.