Business Development & Growth Lead | Retail

ADC Consulting; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Ownership in practice

Co-ownership eligibility

Collective Week

Craftsmanship at scale

Friday lunches

Job summary

ADC Consulting is seeking a Senior Retail Business Development leader to drive growth across Europe and the Americas. You will own the commercial agenda for the Retail practice, close high-quality deals with senior buyers, and shape offers that combine retail expertise with data-driven pricing and AI insights.

You will be a credible voice in decision science for retail, nurturing relationships with top clients and leading initiatives that uplift margins through advanced pricing and

Qualifications

• 10+ years in retail or fashion leadership or depth in retail consulting.
• Global retail network with C-level connections across Europe and the Americas.
• Track record selling consulting services and navigating long sales cycles.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage a target list of senior retail and fashion buyers across Europe and the Americas.
• Lead deals from first conversation to signed contract with the Retail team.
• Grow Retail practice revenue with a disciplined approach to opportunities and expansion.

Skills

Retail leadership

Sales

Business Development

Pricing

AI in retail

Job description

Who we are

ADC is a Boutique Data and AI consultancy with offices in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, and an award-winning data design studio (CLEVER°FRANKE) embedded in the group. We help organisations turn data and AI into real impact, leading a mission to accelerate the responsible use of Data and AI. We bring the full data value chain under one roof: from strategy and engineering to analytics, data science, and design. This way, we turn complex data into clear roadmaps, scalable foundations, AI-powered tools, and experiences people actually enjoy using.

Job Description

Who we are

ADC is a Boutique Data and AI consultancy with offices in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, and an award-winning data design studio (CLEVER°FRANKE) embedded in the group. We help organisations turn data and AI into real impact, leading a mission to accelerate the responsible use of Data and AI. We bring the full data value chain under one roof: from strategy and engineering to analytics, data science, and design. This way, we turn complex data into clear roadmaps, scalable foundations, AI-powered tools, and experiences people actually enjoy using.

We are a collective of statisticians, designers, PhDs, and agentic AI engineers with deep expertise in the industries we serve. We work in financial services, life sciences, healthcare, transport, retail, and the public sector. We do not arrive with generic tools and a slide deck. We get in, work alongside the people who know the organisation best, and build solutions that actually run.

We call ourselves Wayfinders. Our clients trust us to navigate complexity and make it real. We turn ambition into action in environments where the margin for error is small and the consequences of getting it wrong are real — for customers, employees, supply chains, and the bottom line.

Lead the Retail practice growth ADC is ready to scale

ADC's Retail practice has built something genuinely valuable. We have a proprietary approach to using decision science for pricing that's produced real, measurable margin uplift for name-brand clients like adidas, Hunkemöller, and Bergfreunde. We have a small team of PhDs who are experts in forecasting, revenue and inventory management, and experimentation. And we have a pipeline that's overflowing in ways we can't yet keep up with.

The foundations are good. The opportunity is ripe. What we're missing is the senior commercial voice to match it.

Global retail has moved decisively from AI experimentation into execution: dynamic pricing, markdown optimisation, demand forecasting, personalisation, and now agentic commerce are live conversations in the boardrooms of the brands we want to serve. The EU AI Act comes into force in August 2026, making regulated personalisation and pricing genuinely high-stakes. This is squarely ADC territory.

We're looking for a Retail Business Development leader who can walk into those conversations with credibility, own the commercial agenda of the practice, and open doors that let our team's first-class work land and shine.

What You Do

Drive growth and close sales

• Build and nurture a target list of senior retail and fashion buyers across Europe, and the Americas beyond our existing relationships.
• Lead deals from first conversation to signed contract, working with the Retail team and other experts to shape credible, high‑quality proposals.
• Deepen relationships at existing retail clients and grow them deliberately, with clear expansion goals and a shared view of the value we’re creating.
• Grow Retail practice revenue in a healthy way, with a clear share from new logos, while being disciplined about what we say yes and no to.
  
  

Strengthen the Retail practice from the commercial side

• Act as the commercial partner to the Retail technical lead and team: bring market insight, client feedback and ideas into how we shape and sell our work.
• Help embed commercial discipline in the practice, from how we qualify and price work, to how we talk about impact and margin uplift.
• Contribute a retail and commercial perspective to the wider manager community, without needing to be the formal head of the practice.
  
  

Make our retail IP travel

• Take ADC’s causal inference and pricing work (proven in fashion retail) into adjacent sectors where it can create similar value (e.g. airlines and transport, hospitality, parts of financial services).
• Work with BD leads and Practice leads in those areas to identify and qualify the right opportunities for retail born offers.
• Codesign offers that genuinely combine retail expertise with other domains, rather than simply lifting and shifting what we do in fashion.
• Bring a clear view on when to use accelerators and when a client ask is outside what ADC should build or promise.
  
  

Be a recognised voice in global retail

• Be a credible voice on decision science and AI in retail.
• Represent ADC’s Retail practice at the forums that matter, so that when leaders think about pricing, decision science and AI in retail, they think of you and ADC.
• Show up where retail leaders gather (e.g. NRF, World Retail Congress, Savant, sector roundtables, partner events...), bringing your network and building new ones with intent.
• Contribute to the conversation through speaking, writing and convening, including around topics like the EU AI Act and responsible personalisation and pricing.
  
  

What You Bring

At ADC, we're not just consultants; we're a collective of data and AI experts who break down complex challenges and change how organisations operate. You'll know this is for you if:

• You've lived in retail. 10+ years either leading inside a retail or fashion business at senior level, or consulting to retail at depth. You know the seasonal rhythms, the merchandising decisions, the supply chain pressures, and the commercial realities behind each.
• Your retail network is global. You can pick up the phone to senior people across Europe and the Americas with existing C-level relations.
• You have a track record of selling consulting work, or you've been on the buying side and recognise what good looks like. You understand long sales cycles, large buying committees, and the trust required before serious work changes hands.
• You're credible on AI and data in retail without being a hype merchant. You know enough about pricing engines, markdown optimisation, personalisation, and demand forecasting to be useful in the first conversation, even though you’re not necessarily an expert in these areas nor the one delivering the work.
• You support people well. You coach, you set a high bar, and you create environments where people do their best work.
• You collaborate naturally across boundaries. You'll spend meaningful time working with BD leads in other practices, other geographies and with Marketing. Lone wolves don't flourish at ADC.
• You're a good colleague. Clients tell us our distinctive quality is that we're people they actually enjoy working with. That has to be true of you too.
• Fluent in English, open to travel.
  
  

What We Offer

At ADC, we don't just offer jobs — we offer growth, impact, and a sense of belonging. We empower you to take ownership, build something meaningful, and thrive collectively.

• A foundation worth building on — strong anchor clients, a gold-standard approach to pricing and causal inference with proven impact, and a small team that knows what it's doing.
• Real ownership — you own the new business goals of the practice and the commercial agenda for retail across the group.
• A seat in our Practice Lead community — working directly with leaders on the most important questions facing ADC.
• Co-ownership — eligibility for the ADC co-ownership scheme in line with other Principals, with clear and transparent conditions.
• A team that takes craft seriously — our standard is craftsmanship at scale, and we notice when work is excellent.
• A collective culture — daily lunches, Friday drinks, and our annual Collective Week (this year 170+ of us spent it working on rapid prototyping with AI together).
  
  

If you believe in building with heart, thrive on collaboration, and want to work with a team that challenges and supports you, we want to meet you. If this sounds like your next exciting project, apply through the link below.

For any questions, contact [e-mail].

ADC is an equal opportunity employer. To shape a better future, we value diversity and promote equality. No characteristics are discriminated against, as indicated in Directive 2000/78/EC. We encourage and welcome all applications. Additional arrangements or adjustments to support your application can be discussed further.