Business Development Manager

Ahead Partnership

Business Development Manager

About us

Since 2004, Ahead Partnership has partnered with leading employers across the UK to ensure young people can fulfil their potential, regardless of background. We create bespoke careers and skills programmes with employers that help young people to find a successful future in key sectors of the economy.

We are passionate about the role that employers have in nurturing future talent. Our work focuses on improving social mobility, removing barriers and supporting greater diversity and inclusivity within the future workplace.

We lead the way in developing professional, tailored programmes of careers and skills engagement with employers that open up opportunities to young people. Our programmes not only support young people by developing their understanding of careers and building confidence and skills, they also help employers to tackle skills shortages by strengthening the talent pipeline - a win/win outcome for everyone involved.

We are a values-led consultancy without shareholders or investors and reinvest all our surpluses in furthering our mission and maximising our social impact.

About our team

We are a team in every sense and because we all pull together, our working environment is very supportive. Our culture is non-hierarchical and each member of our committed team is individually empowered to be an agent of positive change.

The nature of our work is always changing, and we all thrive on this. There s never a dull day at Ahead Partnership and every member of our team is responsive and flexible, eager to develop new skills, experience and ideas.

Ahead Partnership Values and Culture

We have built a team of committed and passionate individuals who live our values and culture:

Change: We inspire change and embrace challenges in the way we develop and deliver our ideas. We learn from experience and foster an environment where new ideas are celebrated and encouraged.

Passion: We are passionate and positive about all our work. We take pride in what we do, responsibility for what we achieve and are always proactive in our approach.

Individuality: We recognise individual strengths and support everyone we work with. We celebrate differences and show kindness in all situations.

Partnership: We succeed as one team. We are collaborative and respectful to create a culture of trust, where sharing and learning is easy and people can thrive.

About the job role

The challenges we address are often too big for any one organisation. We build partnerships with purpose that deliver lasting impact. This role will be key to growing our impact with new partners and ultimately the impact we have on young people and the employers we work with.

The Business Development Manager will work closely with our broader growth and marketing teams to create new partnerships with like-minded organisations who are ambitious in their efforts to drive the social of young people.
Reporting to the Commercial Director, this role is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and fast-paced team. Our ideal candidate will have experience in a B2B context, be proactive and commercially minded. Importantly, they will champion our vision of a society where a young person s potential isn t limited by their background.

The key responsibilities of the role will include:

Business Development

• Supporting the wider growth plans of the business through identifying and developing growth opportunities and winning new work.
• Lead generation and qualification, scoping and converting new opportunities that arise from marketing campaigns, networking, events, tenders and partners.
• Identify emerging market opportunities across the private and public sector.
• Track trends and developments around social value to shape our propositions.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date CRM records. We use Dynamics and HubSpot.

Proposal and Bid Management

• Lead the creation of high-quality proposals.
• Co-ordinate the wider team to develop accurate scoping and pricing.
• Understand client challenges and translate them into bespoke solutions that develop strong and long-term partnerships.
• Identify, sign up to and manage opportunity identification through appropriate tender portals.
• Set up and maintain a bid/proposals filing system.
• Set up and lead the proposal debrief process with both successful and unsuccessful bids and proposals, ensuring learnings and trends are identified, communicated and acted upon going forwards.

Marketing and Reputation Support

• Collaborate closely with Marketing in the identification and conversion of leads generated from marketing campaigns.
• Work with the marketing team to create case studies and thought leadership content.
• Attend and represent the organisation at events and conferences, providing regular feedback to the wider team.

General

• Competitor benchmarking contribute to the growth, marketing, creative and delivery teams knowledge of competitors and help with the competitive differentiation of our offer on a client-by-client basis.
• Champion and advocate for a holistic approach to the assessment and consideration of macro-economic factors and market forces analysis.
• Work alongside growth and delivery teams to better understand targets, how to defend and build client programmes and better understand client relationship dynamics.
• Undertake any other duties as requested and commensurate with the post.

Housekeeping

• Working hours a standard full-time week is 37.5 hours.
• The role is based in Leeds, however, there could be travel across the UK. This could include overnight stays as required (with reasonable notice provided). Unsociable hours may be required.
• There is a requirement to be in the office a minimum of 2-3 days per week. Beyond this, flexible working and other arrangements are happily considered.
• As we work with young people, all staff are required to undertake a Criminal Record Bureau/DBS check upon joining, and the checks are repeated throughout your employment.

Skills, Experience and Attributes

Essential

- Proven experience (around 2-3 years) in business development or account management.

- Excellent relationship building and stakeholder engagement skills.

- Strong written communication with an ability to produce compelling proposals and pitches.

- Commercially astute, with experience negotiating deals.

- Able to work independently, prioritise workload and drive results.

- Able to think outside the box, develop ideas and create clarity from ambiguity.

- Confident presenting to senior leaders and external audiences.

Desirable

- Experience in a consultancy or client facing organisation.

- Experience in B2B Business development.

- Familiarity with CRM platforms (e.g. MS CRM Dynamics and HubSpot).

- Experience supporting marketing or thought leadership activities.

- Strong understanding of social value/ESG.

If you are interested in this role but don t meet every requirement, don t let that put you off. We re interested in potential, attitude and willingness to learn just as much as experience.

Our vision is a society where a young person s potential isn t limited by their background. That means we recognise the importance of our team reflecting the communities we serve, so we welcome and encourage candidates from all backgrounds for this role.

Application Process

If you are interested in applying for this role, please submit a CV and covering letter. If your application is put through to the next stage, you will be invited to an in-person interview where you will be set an assessment that will be shared with you in advance of your interview.

Equals One is an advertising and recruitment agency working on behalf of our client to promote this vacancy. You may be contacted directly by the employer should they wish to progress your application. Due to the number of applications we receive, we are unable to provide specific feedback if your application is unsuccessful.