Business Development Manager

Position Purpose

The Business Development Manager is responsible for driving sustainable business growth across defence, government, and specialist consultancy markets. The role leads opportunity identification, pipeline management, client engagement, capture planning, and bid delivery, ensuring that growth activity is structured, intelligence-led, and aligned with corporate strategy.This role provides leadership across opportunity shaping, client engagement, information gathering, competitor analysis, tender response development, and capture planning. The BD Manager ensures the business grows in a structured, targeted, and opportunity-driven manner, fully aligned with corporate objectives, frameworks, and governance expectations.The BD Manager also leads and develops the BD team, ensuring the BD function operates cohesively, collaborates intelligently, and demonstrates strong commercial discipline.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify, qualify, and develop new business opportunities across defence, government, and technical consultancy markets.
• Own and manage the BD pipeline, ensuring opportunities are accurately logged, prioritised, and progressed.
• Conduct bid / no-bid assessments informed by strategic fit, resource availability, risk, and financial return.
• Ensure pipeline activity aligns with corporate capability priorities and growth objectives.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, partners, and key industry stakeholders.
• Conduct capability briefings, client meetings, and follow-up engagement to shape demand and position the organisation early.
• Maintain regular contact with strategic accounts to ensure early visibility of emerging requirements.
• Represent the organisation professionally in client-facing and industry environments.

• Lead capture planning for priority opportunities, including win themes, differentiators, risks, and competitor positioning.
• Coordinate internal capture sessions and consolidate inputs into actionable plans.
• Identify and engage partners, subcontractors, and teaming arrangements to strengthen bid competitiveness.

• Lead the end-to-end proposal lifecycle including RFI/RFP analysis, compliance, solution narrative, and submission coordination.
• Coordinate inputs from technical SMEs, programmes, finance, legal, HR, and governance functions.
• Ensure all submissions meet client requirements, internal quality standards, and submission deadlines.
• Oversee post-submission clarifications, presentations, and negotiation support.

• Work closely with the Commercial Finance Officer on pricing models, cost estimates, margins, and commercial assumptions.
• Support financial modelling, profitability analysis, and commercial risk assessments for bids and pursuits.
• Monitor bid margins, commercial exposure, and return-on-investment assumptions.
• Ensure financial considerations inform bid / no-bid and pursuit strategies.

• Develop and maintain market-intelligence briefs covering client priorities, procurement pipelines, and competitor activity.
• Track defence and government procurement cycles and emerging capability needs.
• Share intelligence with senior leadership to inform strategic planning and market-entry decisions.

• Support the identification, development, and management of framework agreements and partnerships.
• Coordinate with contracts and governance teams on NDAs, teaming agreements, and bid-related contractual inputs.
• Ensure commercial and contractual awareness is embedded throughout the bid lifecycle.

• Ensure BD activity complies with internal policies, document control, version management, and approval workflows.
• Maintain BD templates, registers, and controlled documentation in line with ISO 9001 QMS requirements.
• Coordinate effectively with Operations, Programs, HR, Finance, Procurement, and Governance functions.

• Produce accurate and timely BD reports including pipeline health, win/loss analysis, and opportunity summaries.
• Maintain BD dashboards for senior leadership and executive review.
• Provide insight and recommendations based on performance trends and intelligence.

Required Competencies

• Business development strategy and opportunity qualification
• Bid and proposal management across complex defence and government environments
• Commercial and financial awareness, including pricing and margin considerations
• Market intelligence, capture planning, and competitor analysis
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills

• Proactive, structured, and results‑driven
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills
• High attention to detail and organisational discipline
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities
• Confident leader and coach

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Defence Studies, or related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• 5–10 years’ experience in business development, bid management, or commercial roles.
• Defence, government, or technical consultancy experience highly desirable.
• Proven experience managing pipelines, bids, and client relationships.
• Ability to attend client‑facing meetings as required.
• Driving license, use of own vehicle and ability to attend client meetings as required is mandatory.