Business Development Manager (Industries of interest - Energy, Transport or Built Environment)

Please note, this is a part time contract role (inside IR35) and approximately 2-3 days per week. We are flexible on how these hours could be worked and happy with full remote working.

The Challenge: The Catapult is organised into three Mission areas: Beyond Earth, Autonomous and Connected Earth, and Resilient Earth. Each Mission is tasked with developing a strategic portfolio of interventions which represent the highest opportunity for growth in the space sector. These interventions have been designed to lower the barriers to growth for UK businesses. The Catapult uses its products and services to deliver these interventions and to achieve market impact.

The Catapult’s business development team are responsible for engaging with customers, businesses, government organisations and the wider space sector to support the delivery of Mission objectives. Through our Mission strategy development, the Catapult has identified the following key market areas to support UK business growth: Utilities and Infrastructure, Transport, Telecommunications and Digital Technologies, Defence and Security, Healthcare and Financial Services. In addition, there are opportunities for the Catapult across a variety of funding agencies. These markets are the focus of our business development team.

Catapult’s business development team are responsible for engaging with customers, businesses, government organisations and the wider space sector to support the delivery of Mission objectives. 

We are looking for 3 x contractors to join our team, one for Transport, Energy and Built Environment sector for 3-6 months. The contract is inside IR35 and can be fully remote or utilising our office in Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The purpose of this engagement is to support our business development department by identifying, qualifying and progressing concrete leads with priority built environment sector organisations to create relevant opportunities, aligned to our mission strategies, that will enable the uptake of space-derived data and technology.

Business Development Manager Responsibilities:

• Market Mapping: Identify priority commercial organisations within the UK built environment sector where space technologies could bring benefit and adoption and capture these in our CRM database.

• Identification of strategic priorities, current challenges, key decision makers, procurement routes

• Stakeholder Engagement: Identify new leads through research, networking, and initial customer outreach and set up initial conversations

• Build strong relationships with stakeholders in your sector, capturing capabilities and requirements and reporting these through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

• Drive sales opportunities identified through the sales plan for your industry.

• Represent the Catapult at industry events and trade shows to promote the organisation’s core capabilities.

• Help refine the Catapult’s value propositions by gathering feedback from customers on what is and isn't working in the current market.

• Work collaboratively with technical and business growth teams to build opportunities in response to customer requirements.

• Manage internal qualification of your opportunities to ensure alignment to Mission objectives.

• Facilitate the smooth transition of opportunities from the initial bid stage through to delivery.

• Support the development of high-quality marketing collateral and engagement materials, ensuring the tone and technical language are tailored for the specific audience.

• Produce reports and updates on all business development activities and track progress against KPIs

  Requirements:

• Demonstrable experience in one of the following sectors: Transport, Build Environment or Energy and a proven track record of business development within your chosen area.

• Space/earth observation awareness: working knowledge of space derived data and technologies

• Experience of securing sales contracts and funding streams.

• A foundational understanding of the Space Sector or satellite applications, with the curiosity to stay updated on emerging industry trends.

• Experience assisting in the development of commercial opportunities and complex sales.

• Ability to build and sustain professional relationships with diverse stakeholders.

• Skilled at drafting persuasive proposals and pitches, with the ability to tailor technical content to meet specific customer needs and highlight the Catapult’s strengths.

• Confident to present to groups and participating in public speaking opportunities.

   About us & how we work: 

  We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work.  This helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this: 

  • We care - for our people, our partners, and our planet

  • We connect - and engage with people and ideas

  • We learn - and grow, as people and as an industry

  Underpinning this is our belief in great teams.  Our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual, providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us. 

  This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job.  If you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

  Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult.

  At Satellite Applications Catapult, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. We welcome candidates from all corners of the globe, but due to legal and logistical considerations, we want to be transparent about the potential visa-related challenges that could arise. Our ability to offer sponsorship will depend on the level of interest for our roles and salary level.

  If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.