Business Development Manager, International Ecommerce & Trade

About Lifely

Lifely is an Australian ecommerce business creating practical, well-designed furniture and home products. Product, brand, ecommerce, supply, operations, and customer experience work closely together.

About the role

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this role combines commercial strategy, hands-on execution, and managerial ownership. You will identify, validate, launch, and scale ecommerce, B2B, and trade routes across Australia, the United States, Asia, and Southeast Asia.

This is not a telemarketing or lead-generation role. You must move opportunities from business case through negotiation, launch, and measurable revenue.

What you will own

• Build the international growth plan across priority countries, customer segments, and commercial channels.

• Develop B2B and trade revenue through retailers, distributors, designers, property partners, marketplaces, and commercial procurement.

• Own opportunities end to end: research, targeted origination, business case, negotiation, pilot, launch, and revenue conversion.

• Create commercial cases covering demand, pricing, margin, inventory, fulfilment, returns, compliance, risk, and implementation.

• Lead proposals, negotiations, pilot agreements, and internal decision papers.

• Lead cross-functional execution with Ecommerce, Marketing, Product, Supply, Finance, and Operations.

• Set priorities and hold internal owners, agencies, partners, and future team members accountable for delivery.

• Build reliable pipeline, revenue, and margin forecasts with clear stages, decision gates, and ownership.

• Report transparently on assumptions, blockers, risks, performance, and what must change.

What success looks like

• Within 90 days, a focused country and channel plan, qualified B2B and trade pipeline, and transparent reporting rhythm are operating.

• Within six months, priority opportunities have converted into signed pilots or commercial agreements, with at least one route generating revenue.

• Within 12 months, at least one new market or channel produces repeatable revenue and measurable gross margin. • Commercial decisions are faster because the economics, risks, next actions, and accountable owners are visible.

Must-haves

• Five or more years in business development, commercial growth, partnerships, trade, channel development, or market expansion.

• Proven B2B or trade results, including deals you personally progressed through negotiation to revenue. • Experience scaling ecommerce or consumer products across more than one country.

• Ability to build commercial cases covering revenue, margin, cost, risk, and operational feasibility. • Strong negotiation, proposal writing, stakeholder management, and executive communication.

• Ability to combine strategy with hands-on execution and management of contributors

• Clear, direct, transparent communication with strong working English.

• Reliable Australian business-hour overlap from the Philippines.

Strong pluses

• Experience across Australia, the United States, Asia, or Southeast Asia.

• Furniture, home, consumer goods, retail, wholesale, property, distribution, marketplace, or trade-channel experience.

• Understanding of Shopify economics, cross-border logistics, inventory, fulfilment, returns, and product margin.

• Experience building a CRM, pipeline, or business development process from the ground up.

• Practical use of AI for research, commercial modelling, proposals, and workflow improvement. Not a fit

• Telemarketing or high-volume cold-calling profiles without ownership of deals, launches, or revenue.

• Lead-generation specialists who hand opportunities over before negotiation and conversion.

• Strategy-only profiles that do not execute and own results.

• Build Lifely's international commercial growth function with direct access to the COO.

• Shape where and how Lifely expands across ecommerce, B2B, trade, and partnerships.

• Work across a real product, ecommerce, supply, operations, and customer system.

• Own opportunities from research and business case through launch, revenue, and margin.

• Work remotely from the Philippines with reliable Australian business-hour overlap.