Assistant Business Development Manager

Job id: 081747. Salary: £43,205 - £50,585 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 02 January 2024. Closing date: 28 January 2024.

Business unit: King's Professional & Executive Dev. Department: King's Professional & Executive Dev.

Contact details: Ben Walter. ben.1.walter@kcl.ac.uk

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

Job description

King’s Professional & Executive Development (KPED) is a specialist Business Development unit enabling King’s Faculties to deliver Professional Education to a wide international and domestic audience. We partner with all faculties to design, develop and deliver open and bespoke educational programmes in line with King’s Education Strategy. In face-to-face, blended or online modalities, our programmes include Continuing Professional Development, Executive Education and increasingly, stackable micro-credentials. We are a small, high-powered team with ambitious growth targets in an exciting area of development for King’s College London.

Due to internal promotion, KPED is now seeking to recruit a third Assistant Business Development Manager who will work closely with the Business Development Managers (Arts & Sciences and Health) and Project Officers (Arts & Sciences and Health) and be responsible for promoting, managing and delivering the university’s Professional and Executive Education portfolio. The successful candidate will liaise with external and internal clients and oversee programme-related development, including contract management and performance, marketing, budgets, and associated administrative activities.

KPED’s project portfolio is growing rapidly and expanding to include opportunities afforded through online and blended modalities. The post holder will be responsible for creating effective mechanisms to support and enable such activities to 1) run efficiently 2) run at a profit and 3) build on King’s international brand.

The role is primarily based at King’s Strand Campus; however, the post holder may be required to travel to other locations on occasion, be prepared to attend events in the evening/at weekends and may be required to undertake national and international travel. As part of King’s trial of hybrid working, all team members can work remotely for part of the week if they wish to do so.

This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract for 14 months

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Manage a portfolio of on-going projects, covering social sciences disciplines, requiring expert multi-tasking, budget and project management skills on a daily basis.

Maintain professional internal and external relationships with stakeholders that meet the university’s core values and proactively establish effective working relationships.

Seek out, critically assess and evaluate new opportunities in line with the university’s core values.

Conduct contract reviews for new programmes and clients and liaise with the Business Development Managers (Arts & Sciences and Health) as needed on any contract negotiations.

Manage a portfolio of on-going projects, across the arts, social sciences and health disciplines, requiring expert multi-tasking and project management skills.

Work with the Business Development Managers, Head of Business Development and colleagues to ensure business plans align with faculty plans and target sectors in order to develop the King’s Professional Education programme portfolio.

Support with the facilitation of academic and client exchange to develop bespoke innovative programmes.

ANALYSIS AND REPORTING

Evaluate the performance of portfolio courses and report regularly on the income and expenditure of each programme to the Head of Business Development or designated person.

Develop marketing and communications material such as articles, case studies and features to promote specific programmes and the work of KPED, both internally within the university and externally to previous clients and new prospects.

Create and manage budgets for new projects and conduct financial reporting on the current portfolio.

Develop and implement KPED’s business plan in conjunction with the Business Development Managers (Arts & Sciences and Health) and the wider KPED team. Regularly reviewing and amending this in the light of on-going research and analysis.

Using significant diplomacy, negotiation skills and sector knowledge to find creative solutions to problems.

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL LIAISON AND COMMUNICATION

Interact and cooperate with external clients, King’s staff and academics to build trust, value others, communicate effectively, drive execution, foster innovation, focus on delivery to customers, collaborate with others, solve problems creatively and demonstrate high integrity.

Maintain professional internal and external relationships that meet the university’s core values and proactively establishing and maintaining effective working team relationships with all support departments.

Feed into the process of defining and settings service standards for KPED to ensure that they are appropriate for the particular academic area, programme type or industry setting and adhering to these service standards.

Build a network of internal Subject Matter Experts across the College to advise on programme development and execution.

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

Contribute to and promote a culture of continuous development.

Be a collegiate and respectful member of the team, showing due care to colleagues.

Adopt a service culture to assess, advise and facilitate opportunities for Professional Education.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1. Degree or equivalent level of qualification and/or experience

2. Clear and concise communication skills appropriate to both internal and external audiences

3. Excellent time management and organisational skills

4. Proven project management skills

5. Knowledge of contracts, intellectual property and other commercial considerations

6. Excellent IT and presentation skills across the MS Office Suite

7. Demonstrated analytical skills and the ability to process and explain information in a clear, concise manner

8. Experience of organising events, workshops or programme delivery

9. Ability to understand and function in the different cultural environments of academia and business

10. Ability to work as part of a team

11. Strong financial acumen and financial management skills

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge, interest and understanding of Higher Education

2. Experience of Business Development

3. Experience of bid and proposal writing and public procurement processes

4. Experience of reviewing contracts

5. Project management qualification

Further information

About King’s Professional & Executive Development

King’s Professional & Executive Development (KPED) is a specialist Business Development unit enabling King’s Faculties to deliver professional education to a wide international and domestic audience. We partner with all faculties at King’s to design, develop and deliver open and bespoke educational programmes in line with King's Education Strategy. In face-to-face, blended or online modalities, our programmes include Continuing Professional Development, Executive Education and increasingly, stackable micro-credentials.

We are a dynamic team with ambitious growth targets in a priority area of development for King’s. We proudly foster a supportive culture and community, which prioritises both individual and collective wellbeing. We actively work to protect and improve the wellbeing of all staff; be it physical, mental, or social, and recognise this as central to our work and success.

King’s offers a wide variety of support to employees, including flexible working arrangements, paid maternity/shared parental leave, menopausal support, an active wellbeing programme, training and development opportunities and much more. All our staff benefit from a generous pension contribution as well.

For more information about KPED, go to King’s Professional & Executive Development.

About sustainability at King’s and opportunity to join the sustainability champion scheme At King’s we strive to deliver research, education and service to society that responds to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), supporting the worldwide effort to build a better future for our people and planet.

At KPED, we take our role in minimising the negative and maximising the positive impacts seriously and seek to embed sustainability at every level within the department. While working for us, you will have the opportunity to support sustainability through participation in the Sustainability Champions programme.