Senior Business Development Manager

Enterprise Sales | Multi-Academy Trusts | UK (Remote with travel)
Are you an experienced enterprise sales professional with a strong track record selling into Multi-Academy Trusts? Do you thrive in complex, consultative sales environments where relationships, credibility, and long-term impact matter just as much as revenue?
We’re working with a leading education sector organisation that supports school and trust leaders across the UK with high-impact services, insight, and tools. This is a senior, high-autonomy role for someone who enjoys shaping strategy, opening doors at executive level, and closing complex, trust-wide deals.
 

Job description

The opportunity:

This role is focused on driving new business growth across a large portfolio of MATs, developing trust-level strategies that cut across leadership, safeguarding, professional development, and emerging priorities such as AI. You’ll work closely with senior decision-makers, navigating complex stakeholder groups and purchasing structures to secure enterprise-level adoption.

You’ll have full ownership of your portfolio, while being part of a collaborative, high-performing commercial team that values insight-sharing and long-term customer success.

What you’ll be doing:

– Owning and growing a defined portfolio of MATs, creating tailored strategies that deliver sustainable pipeline and revenue
– Building trusted relationships with CEOs, COOs, Directors of Education, safeguarding leads, and other senior stakeholders
– Generating new opportunities through targeted outbound activity, sector engagement, and trust-wide campaigns
– Leading the full sales cycle for complex, multi-stakeholder, enterprise-value deals
– Presenting compelling value propositions aligned to trust strategy and operational priorities
– Negotiating high-value commercial agreements, including creative pricing and phased adoption models
– Maintaining accurate pipeline management, forecasting, and close plans using CRM tools
– Working closely with Customer Success to expand adoption and leverage impact evidence
– Representing the organisation at MAT conferences, events, and senior networking forums

Requirements

What we’re looking for

Essential:

– Proven experience selling directly to Multi-Academy Trusts
– A strong track record of winning complex, high-value, multi-stakeholder deals
– Confidence generating business from scratch in a competitive market
– Experience managing long sales cycles involving senior decision-makers
– Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills
– Strong commercial judgement, organisation, and self-motivation

Desirable:

– Experience selling SaaS, subscription, or education support services
– Strong understanding of the English education and MAT landscape
– High proficiency with CRM and reporting tools (e.g. Salesforce or similar)
– Experience operating autonomously while contributing to team strategy

Why consider this role?

– Senior, visible role with genuine influence and autonomy
– Opportunity to work with executive leaders across the education sector
– Values-driven organisation making a real difference in schools and trusts
– Supportive culture with strong emphasis on wellbeing, development, and flexibility
– Competitive package and long-term progression opportunities