Senior Business Development Manager

Palladium: Make It Possible; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Palladium: Make It Possible in London is seeking a Senior Business Development Manager to drive growth across our portfolios. You will lead strategic bids from early engagement through to contract award, coordinating capture, proposal management and commercial decision making in a hands-on role.

The role requires strong client insight, strategic thinking and collaboration with cross-functional teams. The London office operates on a hybrid basis, with three days in the office and two remote days;

Qualifications

• Significant experience in business development, including capture and bid management.
• Proven track record leading complex, high-value opportunities.
• Experience developing capture strategies and managing proposals through submission.
• Strong commercial awareness and procurement understanding.
• Excellent project and stakeholder management skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication.
• Experience with CRM, pipeline management, and BI tools.
• Ability to work with senior leaders and multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead capture planning for priority opportunities.
• Develop capture strategies, win themes and competitive positioning approaches.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement plans, partner strategies and solution development.
• Facilitate opportunity qualification and pursuit decisions.
• Support relationship development with clients, partners and key industry stakeholders.
• Lead or oversee complex proposal pursuits from qualification through submission.
• Apply APMP, Shipley or equivalent best practice methodologies to proposal development.
• Establish proposal schedules, governance, review processes and quality controls.
• Ensure proactive communications within the bid team and governance processes.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to produce high quality, compliant and compelling submissions.
• Lead proposal reviews, including Pink Team, Red Team and Gold Team reviews where appropriate.
• Collaborate with technical, operational and commercial teams to develop competitive and deliverable solutions.
• Support pricing strategies and commercial decision making.
• Assess opportunity risks and recommended mitigation approaches.
• Promote consistent business development practices within bid teams.
• Coach and support colleagues on capture and proposal best practice.
• Contribute to continuous improvement through win/loss analysis and lessons learned.

Skills

Business development

Capture management

Bid management

Stakeholder management

Proposal writing

Communication

Analytical thinking

Tools

CRM

Pipeline management

BI tools

Job description

About Palladium

Operating in over 50 countries, Palladium is a global consulting and implementation company working in partnership with governments, businesses, investors, and communities to design and deliver solutions that create lasting positive impact. We address some of the world’s most complex challenges across infrastructure, economic growth and natural capital, health, energy, climate and environment, and digital transformation—strengthening systems, institutions, and markets to support inclusive and sustainable development. Our more than 2,100 staff worldwide work as trusted advisors across diverse contexts, combining deep technical expertise, implementation techniques, and innovative technology to deliver locally informed, client-focused solutions that help organisations achieve measurable, sustainable impact.

Palladium is part of GISI’s global family of companies, which aims to create solutions for the world’s most complex challenges. With annual revenues of $14 billion, GISI’s approximately 15,000 employees are engaged in projects across 100 countries worldwide providing construction, program/project management, and engineering consulting services.

This Opportunity

Palladium is seeking an experienced and commercially minded Senior Business Development Manager to drive growth across our portfolio and sectors. The role will lead strategic bids from early market engagement and opportunity shaping through to capture, proposal development and contract award.

This is a hands‑on role requiring a combination of client insight, strategic thinking, capture leadership, proposal management and commercial awareness.

Location

The position will be based in Palladium’s London office. Please note that applicants must have the right to work in the UK, as visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Palladium follows a hybrid working model, with three days in the office and two days remote.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead capture planning for priority opportunities
• Develop capture strategies, win themes and competitive positioning approaches
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement plans, partner strategies and solution development
• Facilitate opportunity qualification and pursuit decisions
• Support relationship development with clients, partners and key industry stakeholders

Proposal and Bid Leadership

• Lead or oversee complex proposal pursuits from qualification through submission
• Apply APMP, Shipley or equivalent best practice methodologies to proposal development
• Establish proposal schedules, governance, review processes and quality controls
• Ensure proactive communications within the bid team, and as part of corporate bid governance processes
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to produce high quality, compliant and compelling submissions
• Lead proposal reviews, including Pink Team, Red Team and Gold Team reviews where appropriate

Commercial and Strategic Support

• Collaborate with technical, operational and commercial teams to develop competitive and deliverable solutions
• Support pricing strategies and commercial decision making
• Assess opportunity risks and recommended mitigation approaches

Business Development Excellence

• Promote consistent business development practices within bid teams
• Coach and support colleagues on capture and proposal best practice
• Contribute to continuous improvement through win/loss analysis and lessons learned

Essential Experience And Qualifications

• Significant experience in business development, including capture and bid management
• Proven track record leading and securing complex, high-value opportunities
• Experience developing capture strategies and managing proposals through to submission
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of procurement processes
• Excellent project management and stakeholder management skills
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking capability
• Experience working with CRM, pipeline management and business intelligence tools
• Ability to work effectively with senior leaders and multidisciplinary teams

Desirable Experience And Qualifications

• APMP Practitioner or Professional certification
• Formal Shipley training or strong working knowledge of the Shipley Business Development Lifecycle
• Experience in consulting, international development, professional services, infrastructure or government contracting
• Experience working with public sector, donor, multilateral, philanthropic or commercial clients
• Experience coaching or mentoring professionals in business development tools and practices

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Safeguarding

We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding‑focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.