Strategic Business Development Manager

National Physical Laboratory; Tewkesbury; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom seeks a Strategic Business Development Manager to help bring a new generation of resilient timing services to the market. This role sits in our Time & Frequency department, supporting the National Timing Centre programme.

You will define how we engage priority sectors, translate complex scientific capabilities into credible commercial propositions, and drive opportunities from discovery through bids, pilots and deployment, while building senior

Responsibilities

• Set and lead the business development strategy for National Timing Centre products and services; defining priority markets, customer groups, propositions and routes to market.
• Identify and prioritise markets and customers where resilient timing could deliver significant benefits; considering customer need, dependencies, regulation, procurement routes and drivers.
• Develop sector-specific value propositions; translating complex scientific and technical capabilities into credible solutions
• Drive opportunities from customer discovery and qualification through proposition development, business cases, bids, tenders and commercial progression, whilst managing commitments, dependencies and risks.
• Collaborate with world-leading Scientists and Engineers to develop pilots and demonstrators that build customer confidence and support the transition from initial interest to operational adoption.
• Build senior relationships and strategic partnerships across government, regulators, industry and tech providers.
• Represent NPL nationally and internationally, using industry forums to strengthen market understanding, partnerships and adoption.
• Identify and address barriers to adoption; such as technical, commercial, regulatory, procurement and organisational challenges, ensuring customer insight informs product development, design and deployment.
• Oversee the opportunity pipeline, providing programme leadership with evidence-based reporting on performance, market developments, adoption barriers and risks.

Job description

Our world-leading Time & Frequency department is seeking a Strategic Business Development Manager to help bring a new generation of resilient timing services to the UK market.

This is an exceptional opportunity to join the global authority in precision timing at a defining moment for UK digital infrastructure.

Backed by a government investment of £180 million in the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme, we are developing a world-first resilient time distribution capability that will provide industry with a robust complement to satellite systems (such as GPS) – which are increasingly vulnerable to disruption from solar storms, jamming and spoofing.

This will underpin essential services, including:

• Telecommunications,
• Online banking,
• Emergency response,
• Transport networks, and
• Wider digital and data-driven operations.

Together, these services form the backbone of modern society - and your leadership will help ensure they remain secure, reliable and robust even if global navigation satellite systems fail.

Key responsibilities:

This is not a traditional sales position supporting an established portfolio. You will help create the market for a new technology, define how we engage priority sectors and convert emerging customer requirements into credible commercial and adoption opportunities.

• Set and lead the business development strategy for National Timing Centre products and services; defining priority markets, customer groups, propositions and routes to market.
• Identify and prioritise markets and customers where resilient timing could deliver significant benefits; considering customer need, dependencies, regulation, procurement routes and drivers.
• Develop sector-specific value propositions; translating complex scientific and technical capabilities into credible solutions
• Drive opportunities from customer discovery and qualification through proposition development, business cases, bids, tenders and commercial progression, whilst managing commitments, dependencies and risks.
• Collaborate with world-leading Scientists and Engineers to develop pilots and demonstrators that build customer confidence and support the transition from initial interest to operational adoption.
• Build senior relationships and strategic partnerships across government, regulators, industry and tech providers.
• Represent NPL nationally and internationally, using industry forums and to strengthen market understanding, partnerships and adoption.
• Identify and address barriers to adoption; such as technical, commercial, regulatory, procurement and organisational challenges, ensuring customer insight informs product development, design and deployment.
• Oversee the opportunity pipeline, providing programme leadership with evidence-based reporting on performance, market developments, adoption barriers and risks.