Business Development Officer

Leadership Skills Foundation; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization is seeking a Business Development Officer to foster relationships and generate income across education sectors. This entry-level role involves identifying potential customers, managing existing partnerships, and utilizing business intelligence for strategic outreach. Applicants should have sales experience and a passion for development, with strong communication skills and an understanding of the UK's educational landscape.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

NEST Pension scheme after three months

Discretionary extended Christmas break

Vitality Health Care Plan

Qualifications

• Previous experience in business development or sales role is essential.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to present information concisely.

Responsibilities

• Identify and convert new opportunities through proactive outreach.
• Deliver excellent customer service ensuring high-quality centre experience.
• Retain and grow existing centre relationships to meet income targets.

Skills

Relationship Management

Communication

Analytical Thinking

Education

Understanding of UK Education Systems

Job description

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Thank you for the interest in this role – it is an exciting one.

You would be joining us at a time when we have recently launched our new identity as the Leadership Skills Foundation alongside a 5-year ‘Evolve’ strategy.

Over these next 5 years, we aim to increase our reach to 200,000 young people annually across primary, secondary and further education, fully establishing the Leadership Skills Foundation as the trusted voice for leadership skills development. This role will play a significant in making that happen via:

·Identifying and securing new customers.

·Retaining and growing income from our current customers.

·Building relationships that drive programme registrations.

·Using data and insights to adapt approaches and drive efficiency.

Looking ahead, with a new identity for the organisation and new programmes and partnerships emerging, this role requires a dynamic storyteller who can confidently identify the needs of our customers and clearly demonstrate the value our programmes can offer.

You'll be a proactive and confident development professional, skilled at spotting opportunities and transforming these into tangible outcomes. You'll thrive on creating and delivering development and engagement plans that directly support our departmental income goals and customer service objectives. With a passion for building strong relationships, you'll bring excellent communication and presentation skills to every interaction.

Previous experience in a business development, or sales role is essential as well as good knowledge of the education systems in the UK.

Please note: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. The Leadership Skills Foundation is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

We look forward to receiving your application.

Rob Watson

Business Development Manager

Business Development Officer

• Retain and grow relationshipswith existing centres through tailored engagement strategies that drive programme registrations and increase impact.
• Identify and convert new opportunitiesthrough proactive outreach, lead generation, and effective nurture tactics to deliver new business income.
• Deliver excellent customer service,ensuring a high-quality centre experience that builds trust and long-term loyalty.

Key responsibilities:

Retain and grow existing centre relationships

• Manage a portfolio of existing centres, ensuring regular and meaningful engagement aligned to their needs, delivery patterns, and growth potential.
• Deliver against annual centre income targets by supporting centres to continue and expand programme delivery.
• Develop and implement tailored engagement plans that reflect sector priorities, sector and programme maturity, and centre feedback.
• Analyse Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards to identify retention risks, spot growth opportunities, and respond to trends with proactive support.
• Coordinate requalification conversations and re-engagement activity to sustain long-term partnerships.

Generate and convert new business

• Identify and research high-potential leads across your allocated sectors (e.g., secondary, FE, community) using BI and CRM insights, sector intelligence, and marketing-generated activity.
• Plan and deliver proactive outreach activity via a Sector Development Plans.
• Build and maintain a personal pipeline of prospects and log progress regularly updating conversion insight and forecasts.
• Support new centre onboarding, from initial conversations through to registration and early delivery support.
• Collaborate with Marketing on lead nurture campaigns, sales funnel activities, and content that targets sector-specific priorities.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for your centres, responding promptly and professionally to queries, issues, and feedback.
• Ensure every interaction reflects the Leadership Skills Foundation’s values.
• Maintain consistent and accurate records of communications, registrations, and engagement history.
• Support customer feedback collection and contribute to the analysis of satisfaction and improvement opportunities.
• Champion a customer-first mindset and share insight to improve performance against our customer experience objectives.

Use data and insight to drive decisions

• Regularly review and report on programme performance, income data, and registration trends for your assigned centres and sectors.
• Use BI dashboards and management reports to inform your planning, prioritisation, and stakeholder engagement.
• Report on your own progress against KPIs and contribute to departmental performance reviews and forecasting activities.

Collaborate across teams and support innovation

• Work closely with key teams to coordinate campaigns, messaging, and respond to customer feedback.
• Feedback insight from centres to inform programme development and sector-specific improvements.
• Contribute to team planning meetings, training sessions, and department-wide initiatives.
• Support the induction of new team members and contribute to a collaborative, learning-focused team culture.

Skills, experience, and knowledge

• Previous experience in a customer supporting role, with an emphasis on relationship management and customer experience.
• An understanding of education systems in the UK.
• An understanding of initiating prospect engagement, business development strategies and meeting sales targets.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience of working on own initiative and being a self-starter.
• Confidence in presenting externally to customers and partners.
• Experience of working with sales forecasting tools and Management Information systems.
• Analytical thinking and evaluation skills, with the ability to interpret data and performance metrics to support decision making.
• Ability to present information concisely using Microsoft Office programmes.
• An ability to network, influence and build relationships with key stakeholders andcustomers.
• An ability to convert external relationships into long standing customers results.
• Previous experience in a sales environment.
• An understanding and passion for leadership skills development and the value it provides for young people and centres.
• An understanding of awarding bodies and their operating landscape.

There are numerous benefits that are available to you as a member of Leadership Skills Foundation.

In addition to working for an organisation that is forward thinking with a clear commitment to your wellbeing, we also offer an array of both contractual and non-contractual benefits as outlined below.

Contractual benefits:

• 25 days annual leave rising to 30 days per year after completion of five years’ service.
• Automatic enrolment into NEST Pension scheme after three months, with the option to join group personal pension plan with matched contributions up to five percent following successful completion of probationary period.

Non-contractual benefits:

• Discretionary extended Christmas break.
• Vitality Health Care Plan following successful completion of probationary period – with the option to add family/significant others at reduced rate.
• Meaningful and regular one-to-one system as part of a structured personal development process.
• Sight test and eyewear financial support.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Entry level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Business Development and Sales

• Industries

  Education Administration Programs

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